Forum Discussion

StarkNaked's avatar
StarkNaked
Explorer II
Sep 05, 2021

Two part ??? - Has your camping reservation been cancelled?

Two part Question - Has your camping reservation been cancelled?

And part two - Will you choose to cancel your reservation even if the campground is open?

Both questions are about the fires burning in many places right now.
And all of the smoke that goes along with the fires.

My answer: Two of the campgrounds on our upcoming three week trip have already been cancelled. Another one is currently closed, but is scheduled to reopen a couple of days before we get there.

As of right now, we will go for it.

Quote from news article in today's paper:
More than 24,000 camping reservations out of 3.2 million so far this year have been canceled due to wildfires, according to data kept by Recreation.gov, which books campsites on most federal lands.
  • Well, another campground is canceled. Now we are up to three cancelations on this trip.

    We were supposed to be on Big Sur starting today. At least I found someone else's cancelation in Santa Cruz. So we have a campsite, but we will be listening to the freeway all night.

    Highway 1 on Big Sur would be much more peaceful!
  • Yes and Yes.

    We left Arizona for a 4-week trip to Oregon on Labor Day. About a week before departure, we got a message that our planned 3 night stay at Fallen Leaf CG in South Lake Tahoe was cancelled. We scrambled and found 3 nights at a Forest Service CG in Mammoth Lakes. One day later we got cancellation notice for that as all the forests in California were closing due to extreme fire danger.

    Ok then, we will just bomb it up through Nevada, avoiding California altogether, and extend our stay at Crater Lake.

    After a couple of overnights in NV, We arrived to smoke, low visibility and AQI approaching 200 at Crater Lake. As we planned to hike and bike, not to mention you could barely see the lake from the rim, we stayed one night then bailed. On to the Eugene area. We also cancelled our stay near Bend due to the high AQI.

    So yes, and yes.
  • jdc1's avatar
    jdc1
    Explorer II
    Some campgrounds and RV parks cancelled reservations just so they could house the fire evacuees. I believe they are awesome for doing this. One even waved it's fees completely, as did a major gambling resort.
  • We've cancelled in the past and this year didn't camp at all in August except for the 1st couple days because of smoke. Smoke is definitely playing a part in choosing where to go. We did cancel two trips last month from smoke.
    We're in Oregon.
  • No cancelations due to fires, but I got a email from Texas State Parks canceling my November reservation because of a hunt. No problem with refunds...
  • Had that problem last year, with the massive fires in northern Colorado from the Cameron Peak and East Troublesome fires. Several of my reservations at USFS campgrounds were cancelled and refunded. Also had one State Park cancellation and 1 RMNP cancellation. And in September 2020, when the Cameron Peak fire was producing massive amounts of smoke, I camped at a state park about 90 minutes EAST of where I live and the smoke was so bad we hardly left the trailer. Cleared out some on the Sunday we were returning home.
  • I was facing that this year with Lassen NP. I decided that if the campground didn't cancel my reservation and the majority of sights I wanted to see hadn't been burned then I would go.

    This past week, the campground decided to close for the rest of the season and cancelled my reservation.

    For me, it really was dependent on what I wanted to do in the area and how much the fire affected that.
  • I would think that call should be based on where you are going, and if it will be pleasant in the area, or so smoke filled that you lose any chance of enjoying the trip.

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