1. Lack of site availability. From posts on here and doing my own research it appears sites are hard to come by. Don't want to purchase a unit then not be able to use it.
OK in 10,000 miles last summer and 2500 miles this spring we have failed to get our first choice cg twice, once outside YNP and the second time this spring we got caught by the snowbird northern migration in the Florida panhandle. And we got second choice both of those times.
Our usual tactic is to call a couple of hours ahead when we want to to stop for the night. Otherwise no problem.
My theory is that this over-crowding situation is occurring in:
1) National Parks which have closed campgrounds. Most cg were closed in YNP last fall for example. And NP are always hard to get into
2) The locked down states: NE, Atlantic, and left coast plus NM. Where the government has forced cg to close or greatly reduce the number of sites.
As for dogs, you can rarely take dogs on a NP trail and then it is usually a trail around a cg or visitor center.
Some state parks allow dogs on their trails, NM seems to for example. BLM and NF trails are no problem generally. Get AllTrails and that will tell you the dog status of the trail.
I don't know anything about seasonal cg.
