No Reservations?

We have found that Mon-Thurs is easier...but it depends on where you are planning to camp.

Oregon - Washington coast state parks are pretty tough in the summer.

I suspect it depends on where you are camping.

East coast it would be wise to make a reservation particularly if you want to include a weekend.
West way, beach coastal and popular parks life would be easier with reservations as well.

Still leaves you most of the MidWest and boondocking areas to have fun in this summer.

In this part of northern Colorado, in USFS CGs, you'd have the pick of the litter for Sunday through Thursday. Before I retired, my days off were frequently Sunday/Monday/Tuesday, and I would have just about any CG I went to pretty much to myself, and could take whatever spot I wanted. I would leave around 11am on Sundays, when everyone else is coming back, and set up before 2pm.

For CO State Parks in this area, it's somewhat similar, but there can be a bit more competition for spots. Again, if one leaves on a Sunday when everyone else is going home, it makes it easier to find a first come/first served spot where someone may have a reservation for the weekend...just not for the first of the week.

Just stay away from anywhere that is popular, like the coast or mountains.

downtheroad wrote:
We have found that Mon-Thurs is easier...but it depends on where you are planning to camp.

Oregon - Washington coast state parks are pretty tough in the summer.

You need to add Calif. and Ariz. Old chinese proverb "man who travels without reservations has everything to loose and nothing to gain"

Because of the reservation systems. It is almost impossible to get reservations for state parks for weekends anymore. Many are completely booked for every weekend within walking day after the reservation period opens. And then many sites sit open and unused because reservations are cancelled at the last minute. And campsites sit empty and unpaid for all week because only two days are booked and many travelers want a place to stay all week. It is no wonder that many state and COE campgrounds sit empty ty and losing money.

Do state and national parks keep some sites not reservable?

Summer is not the only time that RV parks can be booked solid. Popular snowbird areas can be booked solid well in advance. Big events like Bike Week in Sturgis or Daytona, the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, etc. can result in RV parks over a pretty wide area being booked solid.

We usually don't make reservations very far in advance if at all. We do call ahead about mid-day. This winter in Florida, we have had more difficulty getting sites than any time in the past ten years. For the first time, we had to change our route and skip some areas we wanted to visit because the RV parks were full. With information readily available on the internet, once a park or campground starts getting mentioned regularly on this or other websites, it can become much more difficult to get a site. We have experienced this with Corps of Engineers parks, Forest Service campgrounds, State Parks, County parks and private RV parks/campgrounds.

Everyone's experiences and their perceptions and thus their reality based on those experiences will be different. We have traveled from the mid-Atlantic states South to Florida and back and West to at least the mountain states and back every year for the past ten years. I have been RVing since the mid-1960s. My perception is that more campgrounds both public and private have closed than new have opened. For example, the 400+ site Fishing Bridge campground (not the RV Park) closed in the 1970s while park visitation has set new highs almost every year. Some Forest Service campgrounds that were open all year are now closed in the off season. Rules for RV/vehicle camping along Forest and BLM roads have gotten more restrictive. If one can believe the RV manufacturers, RV ownership is increasing.
In my experience, finding a spot for a single night along a major highway is different than finding a spot that we want to stay for several days to a week. It only took a couple of times wasting time and miles driving on local roads only to find the campground full or closed for me to start doing a little more research and planning and calling ahead. What type of site you want can also make a big difference. We have been to a number of Corps of Engineers Parks, State Parks, County Parks and Forest Service campgrounds where all the sites with electric are booked and the first come first serve sites fill before noon while the non-electric sites are nearly all vacant.

When looking for more than an overnight, I will call or check online a day or two in advance so that we can change our route if nothing is available in an area. With the online reservation systems like Reserve America of Recreation.gov , you will often notice that there may be a site available for one day, another for the next, etc. If you are willing to change sites, you may be able to stay for a longer period of time. We do not like to change sites preferring to move on or just skip the area altogether.

Last week in Memphis a popular park on the Mississippi River was full every night (in past years there have always been empty spaces). We got one of the last spots available when I called a couple of days in advance of our planned arrival. It took calling five parks in Nashville before finding a spot at one of the most expensive places we have ever stayed. The Walmart parking lot is full of "No Overnight Parking" signs so I couldn't count on that as an option. In Taos, a park we have stayed in a number of times has been booked solid for September and October weeks in advance the past two years. The Cochiti Lake and Rhiana Corps of Engineers campgrounds in New Mexico, often recommended on this forum. have become very difficult to get an electric site.

I think that social media like this and other RV forums, park rating systems, etc. have contributed to some campgrounds/parks becoming more popular and thus very hard to get into without a reservation well in advance. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, the Cochiti Lake and Rhiana Corps of Engineers campgrounds in New Mexico, often recommended on this forum, have become very difficult to get an electric site. Our two preferred campgrounds in the Brunswick/St. Marys, GA area have been booked solid after numerous mentions in forums. Our favorite park in Taos has seen the same affect.
Another factor is campgrounds/parks closing. On the 190 mile drive from Nashville to Knoxville, TN there were five blue services signs that said camping, but the campground plaque had been removed. While it is possible the campground decided it was no longer necessary to advertise on the highway, I think it more likely that they closed. In our travels, we have encountered more campgrounds that have closed than new ones just opened. We have also encountered more public and private campgrounds that use to be open all year closing in the off season.

folivier wrote:
Do state and national parks keep some sites not reservable?

Some do, some do not.

If you know where you want to go why not just make a reservation?

If you just want to wander then.....

Lake Michigan shoreline, you need reservations. Same with MN north of Duluth along Superior. Same with Yellowstone, Yosemite Valley, and other extremely popular places. But there are scads of other locations where one can get by pretty well without reservations.

I hardly ever travel with reservations; it's a loss of freedom IMO. I want to travel 'foot-loose and fancy-free'. But when I went to Yosemite, I did manage to reserve sites in the Pines CGs for a Friday and Sat. in July, by watching for cancellations; then on Sunday a.m. I drove to Bridalveil CG where it's first-come-first-served, picked out a site from among several empty spots, and stayed for 5 nights. Similarly, I showed up at McLain SP on a Sunday mid-afternoon in late July and they had 3 open campsites, one of which had a great view of the lake and became mine. I had to move to a different site for the next night, though. My point is, even in the popular places reservations aren't always absolutely necessary... but it's good to have an alternate CG or two in the vicinity as potential backups.