National Park Camping

Jbrowland wrote:
It can be done in a 40 footer but at many of the more popular NP's it won't be easy in the summer. I find it hard enough to get a spot in the summer in Yosemite and we have a 25 foot RV. Most of the folks I see with long trailers stay just outside the parks (where they have full hookups) and drive the truck in. Problem solved.

Sheeze....not again....did you read my post five posts before yours?

Yes, with our 40' motorhome we've used the popular national parks - in summer - and without reservations, I might add. I will say, not Yosemite because you're right, we wouldn't fit but also we dislike that park compared to others. Some parks (such as Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Glacier) have campgrounds for us that are not even reservable. We show up early morning and easily get a site.

As to you seeing big rigs parked outside the parks it's not because they won't fit. It's because they want the RV park atmosphere with activities and hookups. We don't require that. Dry camping is just fine for us.

It can be done in a 40 footer but at many of the more popular NP's it won't be easy in the summer. I find it hard enough to get a spot in the summer in Yosemite and we have a 25 foot RV. Most of the folks I see with long trailers stay just outside the parks (where they have full hookups) and drive the truck in. Problem solved.

I mostly stay outside the big parks and drive the toad.
Bill

Well...we have found it to be easy. Sorry you did not. All I can say is that we full-timed for 16 years, traveled constantly and stayed in public parks or boondocked on national forest lands or BLM 90% of our time. That's 5,840 days.

2gypsies wrote:
Again....you can easily do it in a 40' motorhome! Those that think otherwise either don't drive a 40' or have never tried.

Well, I think otherwise and I've been fulltiming in a 40-foot motorhome for almost 13 years now.

It can be done, but it's not easy. At Yellowstone, at a CG in the south part (Madison?) they gave us two sites because we wouldn't fit in just one, and to get in we had to back in while going the wrong direction on the road. It was done, but it wasn't easy.

At Gros Ventre, we just barely fit into our site even though the place is wide open.

We tow a small 2-seater car, and there have been lots of times that we've fit into a site only because we could tuck the car in; if we'd had a bigger toad, we wouldn't have fit.

One way for a big moho to fit into a space can be to hang over the back, assuming there aren't any trees. But that doesn't always work--there was a CG at San Luis Reservoir in California with not a tree in sight, and we could have fit by hanging over the back, only they put poles there to prohibit it. They did it on every single site, so we couldn't stay there even though the CG was pretty much empty.

If national parks were a priority, I'd definitely have a smaller coach because it would just make life easier. But they're not, and I have other reasons to have this RV, so I deal with the difficulties. But I'd never say it's "easy" to stay in national parks in a 40-foot motorhome.

Jayco-noslide wrote:
Just go to each park's website for excellent information. But, with 40 ft. You're going to have some problems finding big enough sites in many national parks and will have to do some careful planing.

Yes, you have to do some research before going to national parks with a 40' RV. However.....we have done it successfully many, many times and we've never been turned away because of the 40' size.

We stayed in Yellowstone at Mammoth (no reservations accepted - get there early morning), Madison and Bridge Bay. They're all dry camping and wonderful campgrounds. Fishing Bridge in the park has full hookups.

We stayed in Grand Teton at Gros Ventre (our favorite) and Colter Bay campgrounds. Each has 300 dry camping sites and they accept no reservations. They rarely fill even during prime season and we've always gotten a lovely site. There's also a full hookup park in the Tetons called Colter Bay RV. It's right next to the campground of the same name.

We've stayed in Glacier, Zion, Rocky Mountain, Bryce and more. We've stayed in tons of state parks, national forest campgrounds, county and city parks. Again....you can easily do it in a 40' motorhome! Those that think otherwise either don't drive a 40' or have never tried.

Jayco-noslide wrote:
Just go to each park's website for excellent information. But, with 40 ft. You're going to have some problems finding big enough sites in many national parks and will have to do some careful planing. It's not just the size of the sites but the interior roads, trees in the way, etc. Or a campground might have sites but only 2 or 3 in the whole campground. Also, don't expect hook-ups. Yellowstone does have one RV park with hook-ups and it might work. Also there is Flagg Ranch between YNP and Grand Teton. If some say "no problem" don't believe it.

X2...I have been to several national parks, state parks, and forest service campgrounds. Most of them have a very limited number of sites for a 40 footer, if any at all. Sometimes we have to stay at resort rv parks, which is not our preference.

Jayco-noslide wrote:
I went back and read some of the posts and I don't get the best time to be in winter. Not for parks like YNP and Tetons. Most of YNP is at 8000 ft. or higher; very cold, lots of snow and most campgrounds closed. Perhaps OK for some in Utah and points south?

Yep, we count on that which is why we prefer to travel during the Winter. Most people don't like the cold and are afraid to travel where there might be snow. If everyone liked Winter travel the parks would all be packed during the Winter also.
When we started RVing we traveled when most everyone else did. We quickly found out that we preferred to see the parks rather than the crowds. Thank goodness it is not for everyone. :B

I went back and read some of the posts and I don't get the best time to be in winter. Not for parks like YNP and Tetons. Most of YNP is at 8000 ft. or higher; very cold, lots of snow and most campgrounds closed. Perhaps OK for some in Utah and points south?

Just go to each park's website for excellent information. But, with 40 ft. You're going to have some problems finding big enough sites in many national parks and will have to do some careful planing. It's not just the size of the sites but the interior roads, trees in the way, etc. Or a campground might have sites but only 2 or 3 in the whole campground. Also, don't expect hook-ups. Yellowstone does have one RV park with hook-ups and it might work. Also there is Flagg Ranch between YNP and Grand Teton. If some say "no problem" don't believe it.