Some questions about a trip out West

Everyone-thanks for the responses. I am thinking that I will try and get reservations for some of the "possibly more crowded parks" and will try and push the trip into the late summer/early fall as far as I can.

Thank you again for the advice.

I'm totally shocked no one mentioned Olympic National Park! Over one million acres of beauty and Hwy.'s that loop around the entire Park (Olympic Loop). Ocean Beaches RV right on the beach (Pacific Ocean) at Kalaloch Beach NPS first come first serve and nearby scenic Ruby Beach, Lakes (Quinault (President Roosevelt's favorite hide out), Crescent, Ozette and Cushmen, Mountains, Rivers, Hot Springs, Hurricane Ridge where you go from sea level to over 5,000' to almost the bottom of Mt. Olympus and look across the Straits of Juan de Fuca into Canada.The Worlds Largest Environmental Experiment the Elwha River the Federal Government gave the O.K. to tear down 2 Dams and drain two Lakes several years ago to see what can happen to a complete River system as it returns to it's natural state, very interesting and educational. Beautiful Rain Forests and the animals that roam the Park most common are Elk, Bear, Goats, Deer and on the opposite side of the Rain Forest is Sequim, WA. where the annual rainfall is less than Phoenix, AZ. due to the Mountains form a rain shadow! There is also the Black Ball Ferry in Port Angeles where you can park your RV and walk on the Ferry and take a day trip to Victoria, B.C. Canada and back. Also Cape Flatery (on the way to Lake Ozette) it's the furthest point North in the Continental United States! Way too much not to visit!

We never book any campgrounds as we don't want to be on a schedule. Nothing worse then having a great time or finding some great and then having to pack up and leave to stay on schedule.

Never had an issue getting a campground, even in National parks. People book many months in advance and cancellations are very common.

Tip: When you're a few days out from the national park, start calling for reservations. Be persistent and call them a few times a day. At some point you'll grab a cancellation. My wife does that while I'm driving.

Then of course there are plenty of campgrounds in the area of all national parks and just a short drive away. Some private campgrounds are actually closer to parts of National parks then the in park campground.

Now that being said, Normally the campgrounds in National parks are run by and outside agency and are not run well, those that have hookups. The first come, first serve dry campgrounds are FAR better as they are run by the park service.

The only exception we find to that is Army Corp of Engineer campgrounds. We've yet to find a bad one.

We've done several two month trips.

We put everything on a credit card and I then average out the cost of the trip when it's done.

I've discovered that $100 a day is what we spend on a cross country trip.

That includes fuel, RV parks, Greyline Tours, food, entry fees, entertainment,etc. Everything.

I'd be curious what others have come up with for a daily average.

We very seldom make reservations although Florida in January requires reservations as does any place on the 4th of July.

California is very crowded in the summer months when the kids are out of school so beware of that.

Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is August 7 through the 13 in South Dakota. Don't go near there then. 700,000 people are there at that time.

It sounds like your summer and fall will be iffy next year. Why not take a month of reserving sites in Michigan and Wisconsin if you haven't been there yet? Do a short trip that year.

The following year take your bigger trip. What I would do is to leave in August for the NE, come down Washington and Oregon coasts and into California and then spend the winter in a snowbirding state (southern CA, AZ,TX,AL,FL) before returning to PA late spring. You could do a big relaxing circle trip this way.

As far as reservations...we did just fine with our 40' motorhome during our full-timing years. You're correct. Some campgrounds in the national parks don't even accept reservations. If you plan it right you can get a site. Stay outside the park close by the previous night and drive to the non-reservable campgrounds early morning. That's what we did and it worked just fine. We stayed without reservations in Glacier, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, etc. and even in the state parks along the popular Oregon coast. There, too, some state parks don't even accept reservations.

Yosemite is different though. It's too close to the major cities and gets a LOT of traffic. It's our least favorite national park - just too crowded.

As noted, in the western states there are many nice state parks, county park and city parks to stay. Most even have hookups. North Dakota has great city parks.

If you feel a need for reservations for some places you could wait until you get closer and can better judge when you'd be there to make reservations.

If we had to make reservations for our 16 years of full-timing we would have never done it!

I've never heard of a RVer not having a place to stay for the night. :)

So if retired why put yourself on a schedule. We generally look for things to last at least 3 months and if we find something that we like the it stretches out.

Use RV Parks Review to find a place to stay.

North of Yellowstone we like Yellowstone Edge RV park and have at least on meal at Chico Hot Springs.

Also something that should be mentioned for California travel is although summer time you need reservations in a lot of places, during the week you can almost always find something someplace. Even along the coast private campgrounds usually have spaces during the week. So you can go week by week and on Monday if you know where you want to be by Friday, then make your reservations then. Of course that is except for the nation or state parks and the weekends will be booked up months in advance.

If you aren't taking a toad, then my advice changes. You may want to stay inside the parks. For Yosemite there is a KOA on Highway 140 just above Mariposa. If you say there, the there is a Yosemite Shuttle Bus stop right on the highway in front of the campground. I've never taken the bus so I don't know any of the details, I just know you can take the bus in from there.

Yes, two months from PA is doable. Include city/county parks too like the one I'm in now.
With a generator boondocking for several days is fairly easy BUT renting a car in those places will be impossible. If you already have a small towable car... tow it, even using a dolly if not towable.
What are the odds of finding a site on Labor Day in South Lake Tahoe without a reservation? On Monday... No problem but on Friday... Impossible. We travel and resupply on the weekends when the locals are camping.
Even in CGs that take reservations there are a few walk up sites... first come.
www.uscampgtounds.info is the best site I've found for public CGS.

Some more information.

Yes, we still have the Lazy Daze. Up to now, we have not towed. We are planning to either tow on this trip or rent a car as needed.

We were thinking that two months would be a good start to our first "big trip." We are just going to focus on the northwestern part of the United States at this time. We plan to head to the southwestern United States at another time.

The reason I haven't done tons of planning for this trip-there is a possibility that our daughter would be visiting. She and her family (meaning the best grandchildren in the world) live in Australia and are coming to visit sometime next year. Not sure when. Naturally, if they come in August/September, this trip goes out the window until another time.

Thanks for the suggestion of state and local parks. I never thought of using state campgrounds.

Does two months sound reasonable for this trip?