Why bother with National Parks?

Trails And Tails wrote:
Sincerely, thanks everyone for the great feedback.

In reflection I can see your frustration, in my case I look at it as a challenge, and over the years our solution has been to schedule our trips in the shoulder seasons. So we arrive when the parks are relatively empty where we can find places to stay, and because the weather is not perfect, every day, we are able to adjust our schedule to make it fun. Keeping an eye on the forecast we can travel and restock in the rain and drive in and about these special places when the traffic is low and the sights are beautiful.

I said new to RV’ing, but we have camped for years.

So you understand the drill

This is a bucket list trip and it's not likely we'll have another opportunity to do this again together.

So the most important thing is to get the mechanical parts of the RV so they are reliable. If you are going to do this for a few years it will be less stressful if we can limit the breakdowns and issues/shortcoming on the RV.

Let me explain some of what I'm finding and my interpretation of it so maybe my position will be clearer.

Roads: As an example we would like to go to see the Sequoia's in Sequoia NP, BUT there doesn't seem to be a road that we can tour with a 27' foot rig (180 and SOME of General's Highway seems to be all that's available to us).

In the Main street of most towns they have an Enterprise rental – so for those times your RV will not work just work in the mode of transportation that does, we have met many people who use this service often when they need it as they travel without a Toad.

Campgrounds: It's NOT that we want (or need) full hookups, but rather it's the fact that you have to make reservations up to a year in advance and we don't want to be tied to a "schedule".

As I have said our solution to this dilemma has been to travel to the locations that require “Scheduling” in the off season. Then because you are in say Zion, around Christmas, you will find few people, no tram, and many opportunities to drive at your leisure around the park.

Lots of walking: We both are semi-handicapped and have trouble walking long distances.

Use that Blue Sticker to get you Camp Sites and Parking close to the areas you need to see, some, might require, a short walk but will likely be worth the effort.

Large crowds: Means long waits and no parking so we may not see/experience anything (we're hoping for) without walking and/or standing in line or maybe even skipping it entirely.


Park Site Number of Visitors
1. Great Smoky Mountains National Park 10,099,276
2. Grand Canyon National Park 4,756,771
3. Yosemite National Park 3,882,642
4. Yellowstone National Park 3,513,484
5. Rocky Mountain National Park 3,434,751
6. Olympic National Park 3,243,872
7. Zion National Park 3,189,696
8. Grand Teton National Park 2,791,392
9. Acadia National Park 2,563,129
10. Glacier National Park 2,338,528


Just plan your trip well – you can see the most visited parks and plan accordingly.

So you see, we're not sissy's that want the lap of luxury, but rather a couple of beat up old folks that want to have something special to share together while we can.

There are a lot of us out there – be creative and you may not see it all but you can enjoy and see a lot.

The anguish that I'm dealing with is because I want to give this trip to my wife(of 43 years) and I'm so afraid it will be a bust.

So back to one of my early suggestions – Get the RV in good shape, then most of the rest can fall into place. Many of the great sites are not even in the National Park system yet, So much of SouthWestern Colorado and so much of the areas surrounding Yellowstone NP are while not the same as the NP pretty spectacular. I have driven for days in the Southwest without ever entering a NP and enjoyed every day.