National Park "First Come, First Served" - EXCEPT!!!!

[TUCQUALA]

Recently returned from a 3 week trip into Idaho and Montana in the "boonies". Trip included a planned stop at Two Medicine CG in Glacier NP. We left our Sun night stopover aboot 7 am and arrived at Two Medicine around 8:30 am. Started driving around looking for an open or shortly to be open "first come, first served" site. On our 2nd pass through the campground, there was a congregation of NP employees at the host site. At same time we found a reasonable site that would take our 34' trailer, BUT, a rangerette came over and slapped a "reserved" tag on the site, and no amount of discussion helped to have us occupy the site, even if we had arrived before they "reserved" it just as we tried to pull in!!

There had been a bear incident at Many Glacier CG and they were reserving any open site and any that were being exited for tenters and soft sided rvs from Many Glacier. AND, the reserved tags weren't just sudden items, they were professionally printed tags stating site reserved for Many Glacier campers. Obviously a common happening!! Sunday a black bear had gotten into a bear box that had not been closed properly, and had a "free meal"!! Prior to that in May, a Grizzly had forced 2 guys cleaning fish to abandon their catch to him!!! So down to Two Medicine for any tents and soft rvs. So much for first come, first serve!!!

Moral of the story is don't believe everything that you read about getting to a NP campground and trying to find an open campsite when the rangers and rangerettes may suddenly make it a "reservation" campground whenever "neccessarly"!!!! :M

[TUCQUALA]

Yep, I'm wrong to be a bit upset because a planned trip was screwed up by others!!!! Many Glacier had been having bear trouble since mid May, and was still taking tents and soft sides into July!! If it was so bad, WHY?? Are people not being accurate (lying!!) about their equipment when making a reservation?? Sorry to have my own opinion on here!!!!

And to OB, Many Glacier is NOT "1st come" for tents etc!!!

[kohldad]

angers told us once we were lucky to be boating on THEIR lake

I've had rangers talk like that before and have never taken it to mean they own it but that they take extra pride in having a wonderful place to work and are happy that you are there to enjoy a wonderful place. Guess it's all a matter of content, how else you day was going, and your mental attitude.

[Bird_Freak]

Old-Biscuit wrote:
Tenters & soft sided folks were 1st come/1st served.....

Good for the Rangers handling the situation and accommodating those that were displaced due to bear activity

X2

[azdryheat]

Not NP rangers but AZ park state rangers told us once we were lucky to be boating on THEIR lake (Roosevelt outside of Phoenix). Left me a bad taste about these park rangers who seem to forget who owns what and who pays who.

[toedtoes]

I agree with the others. They didn't arbitrarily decide to take the site from you. They were making sure their current tent and soft-sided campers were safe.

As mentioned, you could have likely gotten one of the recently emptied sites at the other campground since you have a hard-sided TT.

[Old-Biscuit]

Tenters & soft sided folks were 1st come/1st served.....

Good for the Rangers handling the situation and accommodating those that were displaced due to bear activity

[ReneeG]

Perhaps they should have put up a "Site Closed due to Bear Activity" sign.

[CA_Traveler]

Safety should always have priority, no exceptions! I would have thanked them and moved on.

[kohldad]

I think it is very understandable given the situation since they were forcing the other campers from another campground. I would be upset for a few minutes but then try to work with the rangers on other options, probably like Many Glaciers since they probably didn't have a problem with hard sides being there.

And that is why when I travel without reservations which is most of the time, I always have a plan B and C.