Campsite mixup - new one for us

[tonyandkaren]

Has this ever happened to anyone else? We've been in western Colorado for about a month, staying cool in the mountains, camping in forest campgrounds or boondocking.

We crossed over the Continental Divide yesterday and we knew it would be busier. Our plan was to stay at Halfmoon Creek Campground or boondock in the forest but we took a wrong turn and ended up at Turquoise Lake so we decided to see if there were any opened sites. Most had reserved signs even though no one had shown up yet but we got lucky and found a beautiful site with a lake view and no reservations until July 8th. Most likely someone had canceled. So we paid for a few days at the self pay station and put the tag on the post. A little while later the hosts came around, gave us a hang tag for our RV and marked it in their book.

We went into town today for about four hours and when we came back there was a popup in our site and our tag had been replaced. We went to the host and they told us they thought that we had left so they gave the site to new people. We don't know is if the new people removed our tag but even so we had paid for the site and never told the hosts that we weren't planning on coming back.

The new people have gone back to their house to get their boat. The hosts are going to tell them that they have to leave.

We're flabbergasted. The hosts told us that we should have left something to mark the site as occupied. Isn't that what the post tag does? They also said that one time somebody left two chairs and when they came back to their site the chairs where gone and another person was camping in their site.

[2012Coleman]

shakyjay wrote:

Cummins12V98 wrote:
People leave their tags on the post all the time when they leave. Date or not does not mean they are coming back.

If you leave your site and don't leave a chair or something then you need to see the Ranger/Camp Host to have them put a "Site Occupied" sign on the post. That is the only real way to keep your site.

I disagree. If there is a tag on the post that clearly shows the dates which were paid for then the site is occupied. That is why they give you a tag. You should not have to leave anything. A "site occupied" sign on the post does no more than the tag. A person that does not look at the tag or simply disregards it is more than likely not going to respect any other indication that the site is occupied.

In the case being discussed here the host was clearly wrong. Fortunately there was a supervisor who was able to resolve the issue to everyone's satisfaction. I doubt that the host will make this mistake again.

X2 - but the comment about leaving a cheap tent set up isn't a bad idea - in my case, it would be my screen room.

[phenrichs]

This is one reason why I have still not warmed up to the idea of the "first-come-first-serve" CG. There are a few that our friends like to frequent but I don't like the idea of having to take time off on Wednesday to move my TT down there just to make sure I have a spot for the weekend. They say you can leave your chairs or tent on the site in the bag and that is good enough. Yeah, good enough to be stolen. I like reserving ahead.

[Bobbo]

I like the idea of a cheapo 2 man tent.

[Cummins12V98]

shakyjay wrote:

Cummins12V98 wrote:
People leave their tags on the post all the time when they leave. Date or not does not mean they are coming back.

If you leave your site and don't leave a chair or something then you need to see the Ranger/Camp Host to have them put a "Site Occupied" sign on the post. That is the only real way to keep your site.

I disagree. If there is a tag on the post that clearly shows the dates which were paid for then the site is occupied. That is why they give you a tag. You should not have to leave anything. A "site occupied" sign on the post does no more than the tag. A person that does not look at the tag or simply disregards it is more than likely not going to respect any other indication that the site is occupied.

In the case being discussed here the host was clearly wrong. Fortunately there was a supervisor who was able to resolve the issue to everyone's satisfaction. I doubt that the host will make this mistake again.

If you want to take a chance by leaving your site with nothing there besides your tag that is up to you. I would never do that, I prefer to cover the bases by talking to the Ranger or Camp host to have them bag the post with site occupied.

Most places you go and find your own site and tell the Ranger later what site you chose.

People leave early all the time and never remove their tag.

[shakyjay]

Cummins12V98 wrote:
People leave their tags on the post all the time when they leave. Date or not does not mean they are coming back.

If you leave your site and don't leave a chair or something then you need to see the Ranger/Camp Host to have them put a "Site Occupied" sign on the post. That is the only real way to keep your site.

I disagree. If there is a tag on the post that clearly shows the dates which were paid for then the site is occupied. That is why they give you a tag. You should not have to leave anything. A "site occupied" sign on the post does no more than the tag. A person that does not look at the tag or simply disregards it is more than likely not going to respect any other indication that the site is occupied.

In the case being discussed here the host was clearly wrong. Fortunately there was a supervisor who was able to resolve the issue to everyone's satisfaction. I doubt that the host will make this mistake again.

[Cummins12V98]

People leave their tags on the post all the time when they leave. Date or not does not mean they are coming back.

If you leave your site and don't leave a chair or something then you need to see the Ranger/Camp Host to have them put a "Site Occupied" sign on the post. That is the only real way to keep your site.

[Bobbo]

.

[I_am_still_wayn]

The best thing to establish your campsite is taken is to put up a cheapo tent. They are available for $20 or less and give the well defined visual the site is taken. Leaving chairs, leveling blocks, or even a sign often doesn't work as an offender just steals them or rightfully believes someone forgot them as they broke camp.

[tonyandkaren]

I am still wayne_tw wrote:

tonyandkaren wrote:
After some arguing where we were threatened with eviction by the sheriff their supervisor showed up and it's all straightened out.

It seems to me you are taking this to an extreme if you allowed the conversation to escalate to the point law enforcement were called.

It is just a campsite for a few days...it is not your retirement homesite or wallpaper on the living room walls!

Law enforcement was never called -lol! The hosts were flustered about what to do. We thought that we shouldn't have to leave and they thought we should so their solution was to threaten eviction by force which was shocking to us. It never got to the point because their supervisor intervened.

[I_am_still_wayn]

tonyandkaren wrote:
After some arguing where we were threatened with eviction by the sheriff their supervisor showed up and it's all straightened out.

It seems to me you are taking this to an extreme if you allowed the conversation to escalate to the point law enforcement were called.

It is just a campsite for a few days...it is not your retirement homesite or wallpaper on the living room walls!

[tonyandkaren]

The popup owner finally arrived about 7:00 last night, a very nice young guy in his twenties. Something about problems with the boat delayed his trip back. Anyway the host apparently gave him the site even though he protested saying that the site was obviously taken and maybe we had just left for awhile.

The supervisor somehow found the popup owner and his friends another site in a completely filled campground for the rest of their stay. She gets a good star for the way she handled the whole situation.

[noe-place]

Give the hosts one of Bill Engval's; "Here's Your Sign" for not knowing what they're doing.

[mgirardo]

We had the opposite happen to use this past March. We had made reservations at Paris Mountain State Park in Greenville, SC for a Wednesday - Sunday weeks in advanced. The board was marked that the site we reserved was indeed reserved. As we pulled up to the site, I noticed there was Coleman camp stove at our site next to the fire ring. I assumed the previous camper left it for trash and the Rangers didn't pick it up. I was stoked too because it looked like it was in much better shape than ours 🙂

While parking, this tent camper comes up and claims the stove. He told us the Ranger told him to just pick a site anywhere in the back. Unfortunately for him, he choose our site. He told us about 15 minutes after he finished setting up camp, the Ranger came through and told him that site had been reserved and he'd have to move.

I felt really bad because the site next to ours was open the entire time we were there and we would have gladly taken that site, but the tent camper had already broken camp, except for his stove.

-Michael

[popeyemth]

If unethical (buttheads) throw away chairs to grab a site , I wouldn't spend much on a sign that might meet the same fate 🙂