Camping unavailable to locals

[azdryheat]

I'm sure this will draw a lot of flake but here goes. We had friends over last night and were talking how we locals in living in Arizona have a hard time camping this time of year due to the overcrowding of campsites by snowbirds. Seems when we have some free time to camp the campsites are full. Is it just us or do snowbirds get in the way of your camping plans, too?

[Retired_JSO]

Bird Freak said

“If that was true I could stay in a Fla state park for the same price as a resident. Fla gives a break to their seniors. I wish Ga did better.”

I not only get the discount here in FL but also around 25% in GA State Parks.

[ppine]

then locals need to change their habits and look in different places and different times of the year.

[mikestock]

Can't blame the snowbirds here. I blame the State of Alabama for this. Many Spring breakers in Alabama would like to take the kids to the beach, but Gulf State Park sites are pretty much filled
with snowbirds, paying the monthly rate and staying put.

I'm sure the thinking is that snowbirds bring more to the economy than Spring breakers. I don't think this idea has much credence, since local states have Spring breaks, pretty much, back to back to back during the month of March. The park would likely stay full at the standard rate instead of the reduced monthly rate.

[cross21114]

We just finished a month in AZ, NM, CA and UT. Never had a problem finding a place, without reservations. In most places we were the only ones there.

Mojave National Preserve
Gouldings in Monument Valley
Gooseneck State Park
Dead Horse State Park (awesome)

Great time to visit this part of the country. We did beat the snow which hit earlier this week.

[Edd505]

Can't speak to FL the OP was in Az and it has lots and lots of camping. I found one near Tombstone $87 a week full hook ups. I live in NM and winter in AZ for the warmer weather, most of the time! 41" of snow in Flagstaff, 2" in Scottsdale, 1.5" Tucson.

[2012Coleman]

Thanks agesilaus!

[agesilaus]

2012Coleman wrote:

agesilaus wrote:
Yeah it's worse during the winter but the summer is bad too. At least Florida is adding many new parks, I think they are up to 125+ now. And they don't charge a fortune to camp either like California.

They are? do you have any more info on this? We tried to get a reservation for last Friday through Monday - looked at any available FL State park within 3 hours of us, but couldn't find one. Ended up going to Hilton Head.

Would love to know about more state parks in FL.

Florida Park Map

Looks like we are up to 177 parks

Camping Parks

But the snowbirds still make it hard to find a spot during the season, you should have better luck going north and away from beaches.

[2012Coleman]

Roy&Lynne wrote:
I don't know. We have no snowbirds up our way but often find campgrounds are filled when we want to go out. Easy to blame snowbirds but seems to me its just bad planning on your part.

So you must suffer from bad planning as well - huh?

It sucks to have to plan out months to years in advance just to get away for 3 - 4 days.

[2012Coleman]

agesilaus wrote:
Yeah it's worse during the winter but the summer is bad too. At least Florida is adding many new parks, I think they are up to 125+ now. And they don't charge a fortune to camp either like California.

They are? do you have any more info on this? We tried to get a reservation for last Friday through Monday - looked at any available FL State park within 3 hours of us, but couldn't find one. Ended up going to Hilton Head.

Would love to know about more state parks in FL.

[Edd505]

State & federal CG's, Private CG'S & lots of BLM and you can't find a spot?? You can't get your favorite site the issue? There are far too many CG's in AZ not to be able to find a spot. Your state parks are pricing people out for partial hookups, I can get full hook ups in private parks.

[agesilaus]

If that was true I could stay in a Fla state park for the same price as a resident. Fla gives a break to their seniors. I wish Ga did better.
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That's news to me, I'll have to check up on it. I do have a disabled veterans pass which gives me free entry to any Florida park but not to camping so far as I know.

Huh, learn something new:

"A 50% discount on the base camping fee is available to Florida citizens who are at least 65 years of age; or Florida citizens possessing a current Social Security disability award certificate or a 100% disability award certificate from the federal government.

Recipients must show PROOF OF DISABILITY by showing one of the following:

Social Security Administration disability award certificate;
Any federal government issued document that states 100% disability (e.g. V.A. Summary of Benefits Letter);
Florida Department of Veterans Affairs Disabled Veteran's Identification Card;
FWC Persons with Disabilities Resident Hunting/Fishing License; or Physician's Certification of Total and Permanent Disability, Department of Revenue Form 416."


There must be some way around the law since many states have price breaks for special groups like the disabled and seniors. So my VA disablity pass will not work for a camping discount since I am not 100% disabled but the 65 year old will do it.

[Lantley]

Veebyes wrote:
We often see on here people complaining that that they cannot get a site.

What they often don't say is what kind of site that they want. They are very specific in what they want quite often. They want a FHU pullthrough waterside with a sunset view in a CG that only has 2 sites that meet the criteria.

The flexible person who does not care if it is FHU or dry, pull through or back in, water view or not has no problem with any of the other 99 sites the CGs has. Not even fussy about which CG.

Good Point. Being flexible will always result in a doable site.

[Bird_Freak]

agesilaus wrote:

Ralph Cramden wrote:

agesilaus wrote:
Yeah it's worse during the winter but the summer is bad too. At least Florida is adding many new parks, I think they are up to 125+ now. And they don't charge a fortune to camp either like California.

After having witnessed it first hand in your state when I was there for 8 months for a job a few years back, what the snowbirds do at most of your state parks from Dec until April is beyond ridiculous. Those Geezers have invented every way possible to game the system when it comes to max stay limits etc. If anywhere needs a regulation that state residents get first shot at campsites, Florida is it.

I believe that giving residents a break would be illegal, the Constitution bans treating residents of other states differently. They get around it slightly by making resident annual passes available but that doesn't fix the reservation problem.

If that was true I could stay in a Fla state park for the same price as a resident. Fla gives a break to their seniors. I wish Ga did better.

[Dutch_12078]

We prefer and use Florida state and national parks for the winter, but in my walks around the parks we've been in for the past few years, the most common license plate I see is Florida. The closest I've seen to an out of state dominated state park was in St Mary's, GA, where the GA and FL plates made up at least 80% of the guests with about an even split. We book our GA and FL state park sites eleven months out, just to make sure we can get a site. We don't "game" the system, staying only for the maximum 14 days or less. The state and national parks make a very enjoyable winter for us, with large sites and very affordable rates. The National Forest Service park we're in right now is just $22/night with our Senior Pass, and that's for full hookups and park wide WiFi. And yes, about 75% of the plates I see here are Florida plates.