36' Motorhome at National and State Parks?

[reubenray]

I currently have a 33' 5" motorhome and we are thinking about getting one that is bigger for full-timing. It is 36' 9" long. The bulk of our stops are in national and state parks.

Will the 36' 9" still be able to get into these parks?

[bikendan]

reubenray wrote:
So now the question is will I be able to get sites in state and national parks for a 40' motorhome?

no many in California state and national parks. very limited numbers of site that big and there's a lot of competition for them.

[Finally]

We have always had a 40 foot, and have never had any problem. We have never gone into very remote areas to Boondock though.

[Thom02099]

In Colorado, in the State Parks, nearly all of them have sites that can accommodate a 36-40 ft motorhome, usually long pull thrus. I don't have one, but I've seen plenty of them in the State Parks. That said, the sites are limited in some of the parks and reservations are always recommended on weekends, not so much during the week.

For USFS CG in Colorado, it's going to be hit or miss. Some can accommodate, some cannot. I know that, in northern Colorado around Red Feather Lakes or in the Poudre Canyon for example, there are USFS CG that could fit. But not all of them. Some are better than others. In the USFS CG west of Denver and down into South Park, you'll encounter the same thing. It can be hit or miss, depending on the CG and what time and day you arrive.

In RMNP, Morraine Park should be able to accommodate a rig that large; I've seen some there. Aspenglen? Not so much. It can get pretty tight in there. This is on the east side of RMNP. On the west side, there's Timber Creek CG, and since the beetle kill resulted in all the trees being cut down, it's much easier for big rigs to access.

[2gypsies1]

Reubenray: I'm not understanding your last comment...you did some checking and there are 40' sites...now you're asking if you can get 40' sites???

[reubenray]

I checked the price list for the Tiffin Phaeton and the 40' models are only a little over $3,000 more than the 36 model. This would give me 47 more cubic feet of outside storage plus the extra inside storage. I did some random checking at some state and national parks and they have spots for the 40' models.

So now the question is will I be able to get sites in state and national parks for a 40' motorhome?

[Eurocamper]

There are lots of Forest Service and National Park campsites that I can't get get my tent trailer into.

The larger the RV, the fewer campsites you will fit into - there's no way around it. This can be a real problem in older Forest Service, State Park and Nation Park campgrounds that were not designed to accommodate modern RVs and trailers. Lewis Lake, Tower, Slough Creek and Pebble Creek campgrounds in Yellowstone come to mind immediately as examples.

This is not to say that you won't find plenty of 40+ foot spots somewhere to stay in, but every extra foot in length reduces the number of campsites available to you. In some campgrounds and at some times this could mean that you won't get a spot.

[2gypsies1]

Ivylog wrote:

wintersun wrote:
In the west you definitely will have to go into private RV parks and not the majority of state parks, national parks, USFS and BLM campgrounds. With the public campgrounds there may be a few spaces in a campground that have a pull through that is long enough but if someone with another small Class B MH decides to take that space you may not have something left into which you can squeeze.

If you avoid the western USA or don't mind staying in private campgrounds cheek to jowl then length does not matter.

If Winter Sun (owns a TC) had said in the East and California I could let it ride without commenting BUT it's in the majority of the West where it's the EASIEST to find sites without reservations for a big rig. Do not show up Friday as the locals will have taken many of the sites. We boondock in all of the above public CGs during the week and then travel and resupply on the weekends. Now if it's a holiday weekend then we'll find a site by Thursday morning and stay put until after the crowds go home on Tuesday. CGs that are full on the weekends are often nearly empty during the week out West.

Ivylog: Good 'accurate' comments.

Wintersun: I don't know where you get your information such as "in the west you definitely will have to go to private parks..."to have a pull-through that's long enough".

First, the west is where we hang out nowdays although we have also stayed in the east. Again...we have absolutely no problems. Also, why would you assume that big rigs need a pull-through? In fact, we never request one unless we're pulling in late afternoon and leaving the next morning. Then we wouldn't have to unhook the Jeep. Backins give more space and privacy and we prefer backins. Read again, the parks we've gone to WITHOUT reservations. I can't remember a time when we left a park because of not finding a site.

These "no you can't" comments seem to come from those without a big rig.

[reubenray]

kohldad wrote:
Been to a lot of NPs with a 30' TT and 35' FW. Never had a problem finding a site I could squeeze into though I had a slim selection in a lot of parks. However, I have skipped going to a few parks because I was too big to get down the road to the park or exceeded their limits.

As we traveled, my wife and I always talked about how big of a MH we could go and still enjoy the back roads. We determined that about a 32' MH would be as large as we would want to go. However, while she use to laugh when I pointed out TCs, she has fallen in love with ours and the ability to fit into any site and down just about any road. She has found out that we don't need all the junk with us and actually have space left over for current 1 week trips. We shall go slightly larger when full timing, but will still fit in a TC.

Question I would ask is why do you all of a sudden think you need to go larger? If what you have has been working, why do you all of a sudden need more? With your current rig, did you find you didn't have room for something you really needed with you?

What we currently have does work, but if was to live in this all the time some more space would be preferred. The extra space would be good for us to do some type of exercise when the weather is bad. Our current MH has two slides where the one I am looking at has four. This will give us more space in the living and bedroom areas. Also having a washer and dryer with us would be nice. Having an extra lavatory would be nice also.

[jnharley]

Virginia has lots of nice state parks that will accommodate big rigs. Do not forget COE campgrounds. The last state park we stayed at was in WI. The site was large and wide open. The issue was the poor tree trimming. That is the main problem we encounter in public parks.

[Ivylog]

wintersun wrote:
In the west you definitely will have to go into private RV parks and not the majority of state parks, national parks, USFS and BLM campgrounds. With the public campgrounds there may be a few spaces in a campground that have a pull through that is long enough but if someone with another small Class B MH decides to take that space you may not have something left into which you can squeeze.

If you avoid the western USA or don't mind staying in private campgrounds cheek to jowl then length does not matter.

If Winter Sun (owns a TC) had said in the East and California I could let it ride without commenting BUT it's in the majority of the West where it's the EASIEST to find sites without reservations for a big rig. Do not show up Friday as the locals will have taken many of the sites. We boondock in all of the above public CGs during the week and then travel and resupply on the weekends. Now if it's a holiday weekend then we'll find a site by Thursday morning and stay put until after the crowds go home on Tuesday. CGs that are full on the weekends are often nearly empty during the week out West.

[2gypsies1]

Sorry, have to disagree with some of you. We have full-timed for 16 years and public parks are always our first choice. We have absolutely no problems with our 40' motorhome getting into national, state, national forests, COE, county and city parks, plus many scenic boondocking spots. Also, we don't have to settle for a site next the the bathroom or playgrounds, as someone above mentioned. Quite often we have the best site in the park. We pull in early morning and easily secure a site. We've stayed in Rocky Mountain, Glacier, Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Zion, Bryce, Grand Canyon and Denali in Alaska among many others. We have also volunteered in public parks and know that there are big rig sites available. However.....this excludes 'some' but not all in California and 'some' of the parks in the east, but we have used many others in the east. We will be staying in national forests and state parks this summer. You just have to do your homework. Easy.

[wintersun]

In the west you definitely will have to go into private RV parks and not the majority of state parks, national parks, USFS and BLM campgrounds. With the public campgrounds there may be a few spaces in a campground that have a pull through that is long enough but if someone with another small Class B MH decides to take that space you may not have something left into which you can squeeze.

If you avoid the western USA or don't mind staying in private campgrounds cheek to jowl then length does not matter.

[zb39]

Ivylog wrote:
OP, you are on track to make the same mistakes I made. I made the expensive mistake of listening to the BS on here about 36' being the max so I bought a used 36'DP. Did not take long to realize this was not true so went with a 40' single slide. Once we could use 6 months/year decided more slides would be nice so traded again. I now say BUY MORE MH THAN YOU THINK YOU NEED... ONE TIME as you are about to learn that trading is expensive. We usually do three months out West without reservations and as long as we do not show up Friday expecting to find a site big enough it's not a problem. My 42' tag axle MH has a better turning radius than our 40' and yes I have some scratch's on the upper sides of it but do you really think a 36' would not. Granted you have not seen some of the places I've put mine.
Is bigger harder... SURE, but for FT DO NOT make an expensive mistake listening to those that have never owned anything bigger than 36'. Skip the 36 and go to 40 or bigger.

X2 I have no issues with mine. I will be in yellowstone in July

[rr2254545]

Of the 152 parks we have stayed in the past 5 years 39 were state and federal. Always had a 36 foot motor home

Never had a problem coast to coast