2017 Reservations Cheat Sheet

Thanks for your time and effort...and resourcefulness!

This will come in handy for the 2017 season, for sure. I got some of my early dates in for 2016 but got lazy and didn't for the last part of the season. End result was being shut out from some of my favourite places and having to scramble to find alternatives. This is gonna get printed and posted in a conspicuous location as my reminder to get off my duff and "get er done" for 2017!

Thank you for sharing! I saved it for future use.
Marcia

I'm just bumping this topic so it pops up again. Reservation game players, start your engines! Honest booking dates for Memorial Day 2017 open soon, 'dishonest' dates using a 2-week overlap are already open.

Man, camping spots must be in real short supply in Michigan to require that kind of planning. I love me a good spreadsheet though, good job. Fortunately we don't that issue here. I usually tend to avoid holiday weekends and campspots are plentiful here on other weekends.

Thank you nice chart

GordonThree wrote:
I made myself a little list to handle my home state's 6 month booking window for state parks. Thought I would share with the group.

I have included popular dates at the top of the list, and then every weekend through basically the end of the reservation period. Some parks take winter reservations, but not many, and it's not usually a problem getting in during the 4th season Nov-April.

allen8106 wrote:
Man, camping spots must be in real short supply in Michigan to require that kind of planning. I love me a good spreadsheet though, good job. Fortunately we don't that issue here. I usually tend to avoid holiday weekends and campspots are plentiful here on other weekends.

They are, surprisingly. With something like 100 state-run parks, and countless 100s of private and federal parks, you wouldn't think it would be a problem.

Not every spot books up six months early, but the ones with water access do, and not just holiday weekends, they book up every weekend.

Come February / March when cabin fever is fully set in, the rest of the sites book up for every weekend Memorial Day through Halloween.

That's not to say seat of the pants doesn't work. I've gotten into less popular parks on hot summer weekends without reservation, but generally there's something wrong with the site I end up getting. Muddy, loose sand, heavily treed, next to the playground / bathhouse, etc.