How many make park reservations vs find as you go.

[Txsurfer]

First I'm a bit of a planner but would like take a little more relaxed approach going forward. Just curious how many here have all there parks planed/paid for in advance of a trip vs those who just roll till you need to stop and hunt for a place. I would imagine the later would be difficult in certain region during peak season. I guess you could always hit wal-mart as a back-up.

[BizmarksMom]

If I'm out for a long road trip I'll make a reservation in the middle of the trip at a full hookup site so I can service the tanks, do laundry, and have a long shower. Otherwise I wing it.

[Joyce_in_NY]

We have traveled for many years, including a two-month ocean to ocean trip back when my children were young. We very rarely reserve a site. The exceptions are Labor Day weekend, Fourth of July, and Memorial Day. For those, we start planning about two weeks early as to the area we want to be. Then we call and make reservations that will carry us through the busy time. On a travel day, we call ahead about two-three hours if we are driving late in the day. Campgrounds start to fill up around 4-4:30.

[ncrowley]

We make reservations whenever we can. Sometimes we are not sure of our plans, but as soon as they firm up, we get reservations. We have been glad we have made them in a number of parks since there were no spaces left when we got there.

[junmy3]

We are going to Manitoba and Saskatchewan in early August through early September staying at a few national parks and provincial parks. We made reservations the first day we could. Checked back three days later and there were only three shoes available that we could fit in. We tried to make reservations at a national park in Michigan on the first day but could not get in. So our theory id's that if you want a specific destination reservations are a good a idea.

[Community Alumni]

We have crisscrossed the U.S. and parts of Canada without making reservations. The only time we make reservations is if we are going to a campground or RV park near home for a few days.

[Sprink-Fitter]

Oasisbob wrote:
Here in Oregon we reserve because space may not be available or not a good spot. If we go unreserved we run the risk of someone reserving our spot online forcing us to move. Odd thing about OSP is online it may show nothing available but when we arrive we see several unoccopied spots. Have yet to figure that one out

How could someone reserve you're spot?

[Alabama_Jim]

We always make a reservation. We like to know where we are going and that there is a place for us.

[tenbear]

If I am going to a destination for a certain event I will make reservations well in advance.

If I am on a trip consisting of many overnight stops I usually don't make reservations but I may phone the campground of choice an hour or so ahead of our expected arrival. These trips are usually planned as we go and our destinations often are not known until only a day or two in advance.

Holiday weekends or mid summer trips in busy areas may be exceptions and we may make reservations a day or so in advance. It all depends.

If all else fails, there's always a Walmart.

[NYCgrrl]

Redwoodcamper wrote:
If you were making a cross country trip from mid September to mid/late October would you all consider reservations very important? Yellowstone in September. New York in the end of September. Grand canyon middle of October.
I really hate the idea of making reservations. It actually turns me off to camping with a trailer. Spent my whole life real camping away from people. Trying it this way now...

By real camping I guess you mean you backpacked from one spot to another in the past and are planning to sell your RV as soon as you can get the "filth" off your hands;):B.

Once the children return to school most popular areas become less crowded.

[Redwoodcamper]

If you were making a cross country trip from mid September to mid/late October would you all consider reservations very important? Yellowstone in September. New York in the end of September. Grand canyon middle of October.
I really hate the idea of making reservations. It actually turns me off to camping with a trailer. Spent my whole life real camping away from people. Trying it this way now...

[garmp]

We tend to make "destination" reservations and wing it from there. We definitely are not destination campers, rather just bop about as the wind blows. Example, our recent trip to St. Augustine, FL; we wanted to see the area and spend some time there. So we made reservations. Knew when we had to arrive and depart. To and fro were what ever we saw that was interesting and available.

[Jayco-noslide]

Could vary tremendously. For southern and coastal Fl. state parks reservations are a must IF you can even get them. Generally same for heavily visited national parks but there are some really big campgrounds in both Grand Teton and Yellowstone which usually don't fill. For parts of the country not coastal or heavily visited, just wing it. But, there can be unexpected fishing tournaments or big events which change everything. Only experience can answer your question but reservations remove a lot of stress for me.

[korbe]

I will go to Reserve America and snoop around at different times and see what campgrounds are getting filled up for a particular time and which ones are not. I use that as a guide whether or not to make a reservation or if it looks like there will be plenty of spots available.

I will also use Reserve America to give me an indication of where to stay away from. Full all summer? I need to go somewhere else.

[bikendan]

Since we primarily camp on the West Coast, we always made reservations.
Too few campsites for too many people.

We're currently on our first long trip since retiring. Started in March and will be back in May.
Thought we could "wing" it, without reservations, since was not even close to summer.

What we found was Spring Break now runs from March through May, due to schools staggering the times.
So everything coastal was totally booked up.

Even some private parks were somewhat upset that we wanted a site without reservations. One had a guard that wouldn't let us in since we hadn't reserved anything. Another told us that we could only choose from a pool of 5 campsites, since we didn't reserve.

So we had to piece together places to stay, with us having to pick up and move numerous times.
Just to stay for 10 days in the San Diego area, in April, we have to move to 3 different campgrounds. And at one we have to move twice.

So next year we'll definitely make reservations.
We naively thought we could travel this time of the year, without reservations.
Boy, we're we wrong.

Of course, if we went more inland, away from popular areas, reservations wouldn't be necessary.
We're currently in Palm Springs and had no issues getting a site without reservations.
But we're 150 miles inland.

[DrewE]

I generally make reservations, though often it's not very long in advance. I don't like the idea of arriving in the evening and not having a place available to camp in. Sometimes I could have done just fine without a reservation, and other times it is very good that I have had one. Whatever the case, I don't at all like the idea of arriving and finding no room at the inn, so to speak.

A fair few of the public campgrounds in this area have pretty small or otherwise constrained sites, and there are a good many in some parks that I would not fit in comfortably if at all (with a 32' class C motorhome).

Needless to say, the necessity of having reservations depends a great deal on where you are going, on what season it is, on what time of day and day of the week you'll be arriving, and on how picky you are about what sites you can use. There are advantages and disadvantages either way.