We spent June-September escaping the Texas heat, going to Alaska and back, made reservations in the first few weeks, when we were ferry-hopping between Vancouver Island and Skagway, sometimes arriving late at night. In the following ten weeks we had no reservations and no trouble finding room.
-- At one private campground in Canada, on an event weekend (miniature horse chuckwagon races!) we were sent to an overflow area: a huge grassy area on the river.
-- At Jasper NP, Canada, the overflow area was many acres of lightly forested, mostly level mostly empty open space - pick your spot, wonderful.
-- In Alaska and Canada, I was struck by the number of commercial campgrounds (expensive, crowded together, full hookups) that were near full, while NFS and BLM sites nearby (forest, quiet, sites 100' apart, no hookups) were empty or nearly so. Even the night after the eclipse, southbound from the full dark zone in heavy traffic, we found a NFS site easily. Dry camping, of course.
--- There are still opportunities out there for the road less traveled.
