How to go with the flow but restricted by reservations?

[TX_JamesGang]

I realize summertime is a busy time, especially in Colorado. BUT, we are newly retired and just bought a TT and was (naively) thinking we could just drive, stop when we feel like it, stay couple days and move on to the next place but how do you have any type of 'freedom' in an RV if all the RV spots are booked up months in advance? Since we are new, I hate the thought of boondocking everywhere until we know what we're doing. We've gone on a couple of 2 nighters close to home but had hookups (and would PREFER to have hookups mostly).

How in the world can you be free when so much pre planning is needed to secure a spot? (Other than going to Colorado in the dead of winter). We plan on leaving Texas middle of ajuly and head toward Yellowstone and Washington State with no particular return date set.

Advice?

[TyroneandGladys]

Last year with a trip up Highway One in California and Oregon we made reservations for state parks the minute they were available and was able to get spots in five of the six parks/beaches. This year only reserving the night before. We did have to change our plans a bit because of this but we have been able to see and experience things that we had not planned on so it worked out for the best.

[Harvey51]

Forty years of camping and never a reservation! Never a hookup, not even electricity. Mostly in Canada and we stay well away from cities most of the time. Much less crowded in the north. And cool enough to take air conditioning off the necessary list. Most of those years were in a tent trailer with no toilet so we often made a point of not travelling on a weekend. No worries with the motor home.

Why not practise dry camping in your driveway?

[TX_JamesGang]

Thank you Toedtoes--I'm sure we'll be alot more comfortable with dry camping once we get the hang of it. Your suggestions of 'dry camping' on a FHU site is great to help us know how far we can push it.

Also, thanks to you all for sharing your experiences! A great help for us newbies!

[toedtoes]

Veebyes - it's not a fear of not having FHUs. It's that until you dry camp, you don't know how long your battery, water, tank space, propane, etc. will last and there's a fear of being one day into a trip and running out of something (or everything).

That's why I suggest doing a "dry run" before you go dry camping - you will know how long you and your rig can go, and can plan accordingly.

[Veebyes]

I don't understand the fear of not having FHUs. All RVs can carry water. All RVs have batterys & can be selfsufficient for a number of days, depending on tankage, available battery power & the capability to recharge.

FHUs are nice to run the A/C in extreme heat or electric heaters in the cold. Other than in those conditions all should be able to survive at least a couple of days without FHUs.

Not requiring FHUs makes traveling without reservations much easier. The FHUs always go first. W&E go next. That leaves power only or dry which are the last to be taken.

[toedtoes]

TX.JamesGang wrote:
I guess I was thinking if we always had FHUs, it'd take the guesswork out of it.

Use your next FHU site to take the guesswork out of dry camping. Rather than hooking everything up, leave your RV unhooked. Then, using common sense conservation, go about your normal behaviors. If you run out of water/power/etc., you have your hookup right there, so you aren't going to be left high and dry. And you'll then know how long you can last when dry camping without going into extreme conservation efforts.

[Veebyes]

We make reservations only for the big holidays or in known high demand CGs otherwise it is not hard to get get a spot at the first option while trying to have a second option ready to use.

Sunday to Thursday is easy most places for drive ups. If Friday, get to the CG early & stay till Sunday.

The closer you are to major towns, the more demand there is for weekend camping by locals. Most CGs seem to hold a few sites for drive ups.

[Redsky]

A great deal depends on the overall length of your RV. We spent last week going through campgrounds in California at US Forest Service and state park sites and most of them had a maximum length of 25 feet or less and as a result the campgrounds had 75% of the spaces available.

The longer the RV the fewer choices you will have and the more likely you will be paying 3-5 times as much to stay at a private RV park and will be much more limited on locations for you stays while traveling in many parts of the western USA.

For maximum flexibility a Class B or C motorhome that is 24' long or a slide-in camper on a pickup truck will provide the most options for the lifestyle you are proposing. Trailers are better suited for those who want to go to a place and stay for a week or longer and use it as a base of operations for day trips around an area.

[john_bet]

We are currently on a multi week trip and have only made one reservation because we were afraid it would be full and it was closer to where we wanted to bee for special event. We were turned away only once at a state park in Iowa because it was full on Memorial day. Will make one more for a spot at a park for 4th of July weekend in Rapid City.

[Rancher_Will]

The above comments seem to be our experience also. The only time in the past 5 years that we were unable to get a space without a reservation was about 5 years ago when there was no opening in the RV parks around Jackson Hole that night. I remember that day we were near Montpelier, Idaho when we called the Jackson Hole area parks. Under the circumstances we Just pulled into the nice RV park just outside of Montpelier, stayed the night and went on to Jackson the next morning.

Normally (almost always) we just determine where we will be in the evening while we travel and about 3PM, or so, we call the RV Park where we would like to stop. This gives us assurance that there will be a space for us within a couple of hours and, as a I mentioned, it has been about 5 years since we didn't find an opening where we called.

[bikendan]

it all comes down to when and where you want to camp.

if you do it off-season, during the week or in places that are not high demand areas, you can do it without reservations.

if you plan on camping at popular areas, on weekends or during the summer, you'll probably need to make reservations.

since we've camped in California, primarily and prefer state/national parks, we always make reservations, even though we don't camp in the summer or on weekends here.
it's that there aren't enough campsites in the state park system, for the numbers of residents and visitors to this state.
and we are setup to dry camp, since less than 1% of our SP campsites have any hookups.

[jnharley]

Just keep in mind that if you do not use hook ups, you must conserve. Water will disappear quickly if you take long showers and your tanks will be full too. A little research is advance will make dry camping a pleasant experience.

[TX_JamesGang]

Thanks for these responses! 2gypsies is right-- we don't have a large rig which is why I was concerned about boondocking. Because of our newness in all of this, I'm just not sure of how long our tanks/battery lasts. We have an evergreen Ascend 23RKB (26' total length) so getting in and out of most anywhere shouldn't be a problem. I guess I was thinking if we always had FHUs, it'd take the guesswork out of it. BUT, I'm seeing on here that that might not be the best app4oach. The main concern, really, was thinking we had to have everything planned out with reservations and not be able to be totally flexible. That seemed to kind of defeat the purpose of RVing to me. I will have to keep reading so hopefully we can learn alot more from you seasoned RVers. Again, thanks so much for all the input. Every bit of it is useful info for us. 🙂

[patperry2766]

I made a reservation in January for Ridgeway State Park Colorado in July. I wanted to be in a specific park during a specific time of the month camping close to the river. The entire Ridgeway campground complex has probably close to 300+ campsites, but about 10 that I consider prime real estate.

New Mexico & Colorado are the closest mountains to Texas where you will be able to cool off during the summer. There will always be a campsite available somewhere, though it may be less than ideal. If it were just me and my wife, we might be a little bit more carefree, but traveling with three boys, it helps to plan ahead a little.