Shawme Crowell State Park, Sandwich MA

No problem... your suggestion that reserve America just lists all sites as "unavailable" was probably correct. That actually never occurred to me b/c I figured that a professional reservation system would have a way to state "call campground directly between these dates _____". Instead of just showing all the campground as Full.

Around the northeast it's not unheard of to have people reserve every single spot in the campground and then never show. And we have the threads on RV.net to prove it.

It's frustrating b/c I have gotten the last online reservation and had friends who weren't lucky. And they couldn't risk driving too far and then not get one of the walk-in spots. Then we get to the campground and it 70% empty for our entire stay. I know the state gets it's money, but it's so frustrating to know people really wanted to stay there and it's empty.

Sorry, misread your post - saw you were from NY so I assumed you were looking for a spot near NYC. Didn't intend to ignore the rest of the state, just thought you were already there.

NY State encompasses a much larger area than just NYC.... many, many of us live "upstate" too :)

It's a moot point anyway if these storms continue to dump snow on us. In some places in NY/MA we were down to bare spots on the ground. I'd try winter camping in that just to get out of the house.

I don't think the camp is full, I suspect the reservation outfit doesn't handle reservations for off season camping and so they just show all sites as full. The park is "open" for camping only April-Oct. While the MA energy and environmental affairs web site - http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/dcr/massparks/region-south/shawme-crowell-state-forest.html
- says off season camping is available, there is no indication on the site of how to access it. Maybe you just show up?

FYI, if you don't already know it, Sandwich is probably 4 -5 hours from NYC on a good day.