National Parks - ReserveAmerica shows full - accurate?

One 'trick' of Reserve America is to not only try to reserve for a specific data, but look at the Date Range Availability Tab. There you can see such things as that at the Amphitheater Campground in Ouray - that 5 of the 17 'RV accessible' sites are Walk-in - no reservations taken for those sites.

Looking at the general area map and moving in shows the Thistledown Campground does not take reservations. Nor do South Mineral, Sunshine, Priest Lake, Alta Lake, etc.

Also my research shows seven campgrounds with electricity at some sites in the triangle - Ouray, Durango, Cortez.

Having hosted at a NFS campground and travelled to a number of verry popular NPS campgrounds over the years, I can tell you what I've seen. All of them have last minute vacancies. In some cases, people leave early for one reason or another, in some cases they just never show up, in still others, they call or message online at the last minute. If you show up in the morning and are willing to wait you can often get one of those sites. But no guarantees. If you want to be sure, you need to reserve when possible. And for popular campgrounds, if they have first-come sites, you want to move in mid week. Show up friday afternoon and you have no chance whatsoever.

OP, national forest campgrounds typically don't have reservations on all the sites. When you look at the reservation site you should see a N/A (not available) symbol on some of the site. This means they are first come sites. It doesn't mean they are taken.

What park are you looking at? Perhaps I can look it up for you to double check the symbols.

However, there could indeed be instances that everything is reserved. It's still summer travel.

drsteve wrote:
National Forest campgrounds are primitive, i.e. no hookups, which makes it more likely to find a spot.

We have stayed in many National Forest campgrounds. All of the ones we have stayed in had electric hookups.

This was a find...We loved this one.

Cayton Campground is 6 miles northeast of Rico on Colorado Highway 145 (part of the San Juan Skyway) 43 miles from Dolores. The entrance is 1/2 mile east of the highway on the Barlow Creek Road (Forest Rd. 578). The campground has 27 campsites, many along the river. Eighteen sites offer 50 amp RV electric plug ins. There are 16 reservable sites, 11 with electricity, and 11 non-reservable sites, 5 with electricity. Fishing is popular on summer weekends. At 9,400 feet, expect cool evenings. A dry dump station is in place.
The Barlow Creek Road continues past the campground and crosses Bolam Pass with spectacular views. Road conditions near the pass limit travel to 4WD vehicles. The route eventually connects with the Hermosa Park Road behind Durango Mountain Resort and leads to U.S. Highway 550. The Colorado Trail follows the ridge across Bolam Pass.

dewey02 wrote:

Txsurfer wrote:
Sorry meant National Forest Parks

National Forest Parks? There's an malopropism/oxymoron if I ever heard one! :)
There are National Parks and there are National Forests and never the twain shall meet. They are even in different federal government departments: NPS is in Dept. of Interior and USFS is in Dept. of Agriculture.

Perhaps you are referring to National Forest campgrounds?
And yes, calling the specific Ranger District is a good idea, although they will be accessing the same data (Reserve America) as you are, but they might have on-the-ground info as well. Just because a site is empty doesn't mean it hasn't been reserved. Some people have lots of money and never cancel, they just don't show up.

Also, most National Forests have about 35 to 40% of their campsites that are non-reservable and available on a first come/first served basis.

REALLY ? :S Is it all that hard for you to understand what the OP is talking about? I think the other 99.9% of us got the drift,no wonder folks are reluctant to post a question.

And check often; 3-4 times a day. People cancel and the vacancy posts real time.

National Forest campgrounds are primitive, i.e. no hookups, which makes it more likely to find a spot.

Txsurfer wrote:
Sorry meant National Forest Parks

National Forest Parks? There's an malopropism/oxymoron if I ever heard one! :)
There are National Parks and there are National Forests and never the twain shall meet. They are even in different federal government departments: NPS is in Dept. of Interior and USFS is in Dept. of Agriculture.

Perhaps you are referring to National Forest campgrounds?
And yes, calling the specific Ranger District is a good idea, although they will be accessing the same data (Reserve America) as you are, but they might have on-the-ground info as well. Just because a site is empty doesn't mean it hasn't been reserved. Some people have lots of money and never cancel, they just don't show up.

Also, most National Forests have about 35 to 40% of their campsites that are non-reservable and available on a first come/first served basis.

As a general rule not all sites can be reserved so there may be some first come first served. There are a few exceptions though Catalochee in the Smokey Mtns comes to mind.