Powertour, I'm with ya. We used to just "go" and had no issues...state parks, Nat. forests, etc, as you mention. But I stress w/o a reservation. Regardless, we always had a reservation for Memorial / Labor wknds.
Recently, we had a reservation at a campground on Rend Lake in southern IL. Beautiful lake, and we were staying 9 days and wanted a FU site ... so we reserved. Apparently, the check out time at that park is 4pm, and it's common that folks stay until 4pm. Yes, I know that's the rule...but we arrived at 1pm thinking we would get in (Sunday reservation). Nope. Between 3:50pm and 4:30pm, the place was nuts with people leaving. Never seen that before in 23+ years of camping as an "adult".
