Cross Country Trip

There might be spots available, but the prime sites will probably be reserved well in advance. I had to make reservations for Ridgeway Park in Colorado in January if I wanted a spot by the river...and my trip is still a month away.

We leave this week for out west. We have reservations for 30 of 42 nights. Wanted to be in prime spots and got them for a fair amount of the trip.

bluie5 wrote:
We reserve sites at our destination just to make sure we have a place to stay when we get there. Never know how far I'm going to drive from day to day or if we want to stop and see something. Take our time getting there and on the way home.

Same here , last June left for Washington DC from Sac Ca. only reservation was at College Park MD ... 26 days, 21 states. Never had a problem getting a campsite. Only one that was near full was College Park. Everywhere else not even half full ...

In a week or so we are headed out to Utah and do the 5 NP tour along with a few other stops. Think we're going to do the seat of the pants thing again. No reservations and see what happens...

Congratulations! We took our kids then 12 & 14, on a cross-country trip in 2007. It was the absolute smartest thing we ever did. We're from Georgia and had never been any farther west than New Orleans, so we were in for a real treat.

We did not make many reservations. I did not feel comfortable overnighting at truck stops or Walmarts with the kids, so we stayed in a lot of state parks, RV resorts, and KOAs. Every day around 3pm I figured out about where we'd be at 5p, called a nearby campground and made reservations for that night. We tried to find places with a pool or lake, so the kids could work off some energy after being trapped in the SUV all day.

My only exception to the no-reservations rule was when we went to Yellowstone. We were having a family reunion, so we wanted to make sure we got the campgrounds and hotels that we wanted. We were there in July and it was pretty packed, so I was glad we didn't take a chance on finding a walk-up site.

DH is disabled with heart/lung disease and needs a lot of rest on the road, so we were never quite sure how far we would get every day. We usually drove about 2 or 2-1/2 eight hour days, then rested for 2 days. Obviously, we didn't get anywhere fast but we thoroughly enjoyed the drive.

We are heading out to Washingtons Olympic penninsula the last week of August. Ihave been planning things out and find it near impossible to be certain that I can be where I make a reservation when I am supposed to be there. I have decieded to not make any, except at out destination, so that we are not under any pressure to just put road behind us. I do not want to lose any deposits because we found a neat place we may want to explore and have the freedom to stop where and when we want to. My deadline is only at our destination and if I miss arriving there by a day or two so be it. Freedom is good.

We reserve sites at our destination just to make sure we have a place to stay when we get there. Never know how far I'm going to drive from day to day or if we want to stop and see something. Take our time getting there and on the way home.

Some good points made so far. Reservations may be wise on weekends, especially near cities (a lot of folks like to "escape" for the weekend!), and I would advise them in/near national parks and other tourist attractions, and on holidays. Having a bigger rig can make a difference too, as jamanatee pointed out. The bigger, the more you'd need to make sure a site is available that you'll fit into - and the way to make sure is make a reservation. Traveling during peak summer camping season can also affect you; CGs may be 1/2 empty now, but it's not Memorial Day yet.

DW and I are on our 6th cross country trip right now. Left NJ on Monday and the campgrounds we have stopped at so far have been way less than 1/2 full. A little concerned about the holiday weekend, so I may call ahead for tomorrow night's stop. There are always a number of campground options. We never reserve more than a day or two ahead. We also travel Spring and Fall to avoid the peak seasons.

We went during the summer of 2011, Because we have a pretty big rig, we felt better booking our entire trip as far in advance (up to 1 year) as possible.

Mid week walk-ins in normal campgrounds would have been is pretty easy without reservations, but national parks (Yosemite, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, etc.) would have been all but impossible.

Even trying as best we could to book Yosemite 1 year to the minute in advance it still sold out and we had to camp just outside the park.

See our cross country trip link in my signature.

There are quite a few posts on making reservations on the forum and you could do a search and find a lot of discussion about it. But in the west there’s a lot of public land and you’ll have a lot of opportunities to camp without them. Realize it will be dry camping, if you want hu’s you’ll be far more restricted.

If you’re just overnighting, a lot of people use Walmarts and truck stops. There’s also a lot of national forest land where you can boondock and, of course, national forest campgrounds. You can also go on the net and search free campgrounds and you’ll find some lesser know sites like city and county campgrounds. The size of you rig is a factor, the smaller the rig the more options you’ll have. But even with a big one you should have quite a few opportunities.

I never make reservations, pull a 16’ TT and almost exclusively stay on public land. But even I get caught on rare occasions and when we know where we’ll be by evening we just call ahead and find an opening in a commercial campground. And we’ve never failed to get a site. You’ll also find many other posters on the forum who travel without reservations and they do fine.

I think it mainly depends on how you like to travel. If you want the freedom to wander and can deal with having to wing it for a campsite you can travel clear across the county without reservations. If not having the security of a confirmed site would bother you, you’re probably best off to make reservations. Have a great trip either way.