Visiting camgrounds

jarata1 wrote:
Is it ok to visit campgrounds your intrested in staying in for the future. If so what do you tell the people at the main office?

Not more than eight hours ago, we had planned to fish Belle Fourche Reservoir for the afternoon. On our way, we decided the weather felt too hot for fishing, but would be perfect for site seeing. Upon our arrival at the entrance gate, we discovered the place also has electric hookups - rather than exclusive 'dry camping' as we had previously believed. With a backseat full of tackle boxes, fishing rods, bait buckets and a cooler, we approached the gatekeeper and told our story.

We explained how we really did plan on fishing when we left the house, but now that we see you have electric hookups, we'd really like to scope out a spot for next month.

The woman asked how long we thought the process might take.

"Twenty, Thirty minutes tops!"

She asked that we stop back at the gate as we exited to let her know we had left the facility, and allowed us to enter without paying the $4.00 per person day use fee.

Twenty-five minutes later, we exited the park - complete with a plan to stay for two weeks in August. We never exited the vehicle (except to inform the gatekeeper of our plans to depart).

Governmental Campgrounds can be tricky - depending on who sits at the front door (and how much traffic the facility sees in a year). In our experience, we have never once had to pay. However, we've never asked to 'tour Yellowstone' in order to 'see' if we liked the camp sites either.

Private parks always say, "Yes! Come right on in, and here is a map!" One (highly secure campground) location did request we exit our vehicle and hop into a golf cart while they drove us around.

Of course, we've always been in the toad when requesting access.

Good travels to you all.

Todd