bucketlist60 wrote:
2) If tour buses/shuttles were made available to pick up campers from camp sites in/out of NP without advance reservations it would decrease the traffic on the roads through park and maybe less accidents/congestion, and more folks camp outside park. Obviously since never been to NP I cannot say, but I can say what is holding me back from seeing them is fear getting trampled in crowds (or caught in snow in off peak times), fear once I get there discovering once inside needed another type reservation a year advance to see sites, fear noplace to park if no reservations months/year advance (not knowing how to make a reservation nor how long it would take between stops to get there to attempt reservations). I was guided to caravan link which was awesome advice and will likely do to start with.
People would be willing to camp outside of park if they knew didn't have to start all over each day to get to same mile marker as day before due to traffic. I believe shuttles with shuttle destinations would help with that.
Welcome to the forum. Appreciate these good points that you made. Some people (I'm one of them) enjoy planning way in advance and reserving ahead, but I completely understand that not everybody can or wants to do that for many reasons.
The shuttles do help, and some of the bigger National Parks with heavy demand have what you described, either free or low-cost during the peak summer season. We don't tow a vehicle, but either way if you are on the shuttle instead of driving, you don't have to fight traffic or find a scarce parking place.
There's a free shuttle that picks up at some campgrounds outside Acadia National Park and the town of Bar Harbor, and also shuttles inside the park.
In Zion and Bryce Canyon, free shuttles also pick up from some campgrounds just outside the park, if I remember correctly. And again, inside the park, there are free shuttles.
This year I tried online to get a site in Yosemite for midweek in May but they all sold out immediately and there aren't many close to the park entrance. So we will stay at the KOA in the town of Mariposa about 45 minutes away. While reading a guidebook, I discovered that there is a low cost shuttle called YARTS (Yosemite Area Regional Transportation system) that picks up right at the KOA and takes you into numerous points in the Yosemite Valley. Senior price runs about $9 roundtrip per person.
I hope you won't be discouraged about visiting the parks, and that you feel free to ask questions on this forum whenever there's a National Park you are considering. You can get great input from people from their past trips on things like campgrounds with no-reservation sites (like some in Yellowstone), weather possibilities in months when it will be less crowded, and so on. Might put your mind at ease and convince you to go for it.
