Empty parks with no open sites.
An article on a study done in Colorado concerning booked sites and no shows, as well as some potential issues with park personnel saving sites. rvtravel If the story is true, Colorado is changing s...
Forum Discussion
Regarding Colorado specifically, here's a different example.
CO State Parks are all reservation only. There no longer is walk up/first come first served sites. A favourite place of mine is the State Forest State Park, with 3 different campgrounds available. Most of the time, all 3 of them are full, there's rarely any empty sites.
That said, there's "overflow" camping at the Moose Vistor's Center in Gould. Folks that are waiting to see if something opens up in one of the 3 campgrounds. Problem is, since it's reservation only, you have to either go on line or call the reservation number. But there's no cell phone service there. Closest place for cell phone service is in Walden, 26 miles away. I don't know first hand if the Visitor's Center staff will allow folks to use a landline phone there at the center to call for a reservation. There is no cell service there.
There is one entry station for 2 of the campgrounds that is staffed, but with limited hours. The 3rd campground has an entry station but for the past 3 years it has not been staffed at all. The staffed entry station will tell folks that they have to make a reservation either on line or by phone call. So there's a Catch-22 here. I heard that conversation with someone ahead of me during a check in at one of the campgrounds.
A possible solution to this would be to go back to allowing some walk ins, after the passage of the check in time for the next day. Not perfect, but a solution.
My experience, however, at least with the Colorado State Parks is that there are rarely no show or empty sites. That cannot be said for Rocky Mountain National Park campgrounds and USFS campgrounds. I frequently see empty sites at both, particularly USFS where they still use the cards attached to a post at the campsite. Lots of reservations and no shows with some popular USFS campgrounds. One solution there is that all sites are first come/first served. No reservations at all. This is true for several campgrounds in the Poudre Canyon, as well as campgrounds in Wyoming between Centennial and Saratoga. To my knowledge, in that area, there's only one that allows reservations, all the others are first come.
CO State Parks are all reservation only. There no longer is walk up/first come first served sites. A favourite place of mine is the State Forest State Park, with 3 different campgrounds available. Most of the time, all 3 of them are full, there's rarely any empty sites.
That said, there's "overflow" camping at the Moose Vistor's Center in Gould. Folks that are waiting to see if something opens up in one of the 3 campgrounds. Problem is, since it's reservation only, you have to either go on line or call the reservation number. But there's no cell phone service there. Closest place for cell phone service is in Walden, 26 miles away. I don't know first hand if the Visitor's Center staff will allow folks to use a landline phone there at the center to call for a reservation. There is no cell service there.
There is one entry station for 2 of the campgrounds that is staffed, but with limited hours. The 3rd campground has an entry station but for the past 3 years it has not been staffed at all. The staffed entry station will tell folks that they have to make a reservation either on line or by phone call. So there's a Catch-22 here. I heard that conversation with someone ahead of me during a check in at one of the campgrounds.
A possible solution to this would be to go back to allowing some walk ins, after the passage of the check in time for the next day. Not perfect, but a solution.
My experience, however, at least with the Colorado State Parks is that there are rarely no show or empty sites. That cannot be said for Rocky Mountain National Park campgrounds and USFS campgrounds. I frequently see empty sites at both, particularly USFS where they still use the cards attached to a post at the campsite. Lots of reservations and no shows with some popular USFS campgrounds. One solution there is that all sites are first come/first served. No reservations at all. This is true for several campgrounds in the Poudre Canyon, as well as campgrounds in Wyoming between Centennial and Saratoga. To my knowledge, in that area, there's only one that allows reservations, all the others are first come.
