Need RV trip recommendations
We're a family of 5 from NYC, and would like to go on our first ever RV trip, for 10-14 days this coming June (2nd or 3rd week). We'd like to see as much wildlife as possible. Would really apprecia...
Forum Discussion
What kind of wildlife? Great Plains has the greatest wildlife diversity, but all of it is small and most of it hides well in the few natural environments left. Your eastern mountains, from Maine to the Smokies, are a close second, but you have to get out of the populated areas and hike into the wilderness. Forests and parks in upstate New York, and most of Maine, would be your best bet.
If what you want to see are the larger mammals, then Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Alaska offer some chance of the animals getting close to where humans might get to with minimal effort. In Alaska, the moose are in your face.
If I was flying into Yellowstone, I would not rent a RV. I would stay at one of the lodges in the park, using a smaller car to get around. For me, it is sometimes better to separate the RVing experience from a particular tourist goal, although it costs me to have the RV sitting at home unused.
That being said, some of my most interesting wildlife experiences have been in the RV, in low density places where animals (deer, raccoons, birds) come into the campgrounds: Davis Mountains State Park in Texas, Black Canyon NP in Colorado. Also at our local reservoirs when water birds are migrating through we go to watch pelicans, cranes, herons, geese. These were off season, with campgrounds at low occupancy, not having hundreds of thousands of visitors scaring the wildlife into hiding.
When I wanted to take my children, and now my grandchildren, to see wildlife I would take them to a wildlife park or preserve, where sightings are highly probable, rather than into a wilderness park where sightings are random and often scarce because the animals are free to hide.
If what you want to see are the larger mammals, then Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Alaska offer some chance of the animals getting close to where humans might get to with minimal effort. In Alaska, the moose are in your face.
If I was flying into Yellowstone, I would not rent a RV. I would stay at one of the lodges in the park, using a smaller car to get around. For me, it is sometimes better to separate the RVing experience from a particular tourist goal, although it costs me to have the RV sitting at home unused.
That being said, some of my most interesting wildlife experiences have been in the RV, in low density places where animals (deer, raccoons, birds) come into the campgrounds: Davis Mountains State Park in Texas, Black Canyon NP in Colorado. Also at our local reservoirs when water birds are migrating through we go to watch pelicans, cranes, herons, geese. These were off season, with campgrounds at low occupancy, not having hundreds of thousands of visitors scaring the wildlife into hiding.
When I wanted to take my children, and now my grandchildren, to see wildlife I would take them to a wildlife park or preserve, where sightings are highly probable, rather than into a wilderness park where sightings are random and often scarce because the animals are free to hide.
