Strict schedule or flexible travel out west

[nails]

We are somewhat new to longer term travel and have a couple of questions.
We want to visit the southwest next early fall (aug. - oct.), and see National Parks plus general sights in the area. My wife and I have opposite ideas on how to plan. Her thoughts are that we should make early reservations and a somewhat strict schedule for each leg of the trip. My plan is to be much more flexible and to take the trip as a journey without having to plan each night months in advance. I understand that the National Parks are busy and we may have to call several private campgrounds at times to find a site.

We have a 30'TT and will be able to short term boondock occasionally if needed. Seems like making a strict reservation schedule will not allow for unplanned extended stays if we see something interesting, and I'm sure each campground will want deposits to lock in reservations. Although if we do it my way, and have problems finding a campground with vacancy, I'll never hear the end of it.

Can this type of trip be done without a strict reservation for each stop, or will it be a nightmare trying to find a place to stay each night.

[monkey44]

We've spent years and years camping all over the west -- never once had reservations. Long as you plan well, arrive early at busy and popular areas, you'll find a spot ... might have to boon-dock occasionally.

We never make reservations because we never know what might keep us an extra few days in an area, or we might not enjoy an area we plan on staying -- so we leave.

[john_bet]

Our trips west consist of going to Great Falls,MT. to see family usually 2 weeks plus. Last year we had lots of time so we spent 50 days and 7,000 miles by time we got home. Only made 4 reservations. 3 were at military post(holiday weekend) and one in Portland,OR. because we were attending a special function and figured there would be a lot of folks in RV's there. On the rest of our trips we do not make reservations and have no problems finding places to stay.

[C-Bears]

Maybe we have been "burned" by too many sub-par campgrounds, but we generally make reservations in advance. Prior to making those reservations we do a little research on-line to see if the CG is okay. There are many CG's out there that may charge $40.00 a night and are only worth about $2.00 a night!

We also like to be off the road and set up before 4pm. There are numerous places out west where if you start looking for a decent CG at 4pm you may still be looking at 8pm.

Since we do generally make reservations in advance we also stay in some CG's for more than one day. We like to target areas for a 2 days stay that has something to see or visit off the beatin path. This also allows us time to make up in case we have a break down or flat tire of something. If we have 3 weeks of reservations made and the truck end up in the shop for 2 days we would only have to change a couple reservations, not the entire trips worth.

By planning ahead and making reservations I just feel we get the best CG's at the cheapest rates. If I wanted to be more "free and wild" I would grow my pony tail and beard out again.....but still make CG reservations and plan my trip out.

[Itching2go]

tpi wrote:
For some national park sites reservations are good idea. Even in fall I needed them in Zion Watchman campground. Mid winter not so much at Zion. I'd recommend them for popular campgrounds in Yosemite, Grand Teton, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon during busier times. There may be other campgrounds in these parks available.

Enroute through the big country, I usually don't have reservations and have not needed them. I usually plan my stop around lunchtime and try to stop in mid afternoon.

X2 on the above. This has been our experience in the past, and our approach as we travel. One of the wonderful things about traveling when retired is that usually the commodity you have the most of is time. So, unless we're talking about a destination like Yellowstone, Tetons, etc, we make it a practice to look ahead over lunch, see what is coming up, decide how far we feel like driving that day, find a campground or two that matches up, and then call ahead to make sure they have a spot for us. It's kind of a half-way, day-at-a-time approach to reservations that works for us.

[rollingslow]

We only make them on holidays. Seems like the only time we need them.

[tpi]

For some national park sites reservations are good idea. Even in fall I needed them in Zion Watchman campground. Mid winter not so much at Zion. I'd recommend them for popular campgrounds in Yosemite, Grand Teton, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon during busier times. There may be other campgrounds in these parks available.

I did the Oregon Coast last summer without reservations. It worked because I stopped early in the afternoon, and that I have a small class C which fit into leftover spots. Umpqua Lighthouse an example (last site available just fit my 24'). Other times I stayed at well located but not first tier RV parks. Oceanside RV park Gold Beach OR. comes to mind-and had plenty of spots on summer afternoon-and a fine stay.

Enroute through the big country, I usually don't have reservations and have not needed them. I usually plan my stop around lunchtime and try to stop in mid afternoon.

[Dave_and_Sue]

I really think it will be self correcting too.Wife likes the reservation making.Me not so much.Several times we had to for go seeing something along the way because of her reservations.We don't make them now unless it's for a long stay close to where we are site seeing.now we are both happy campers.I drive and she points.

[tatest]

A strict schedule is going to drive you nuts, turn something that should be enjoyable into a high-stress job. But it sounds like not having a schedule is going to be a problem for your wife, at first.

My wife was the same way about this, so for her needs I planned our long trips hour by hour, travel time, and times and locations for eating, camping, gas station and rest stops and for sightseeing. It would not take long, often the first day, when something came up as a tourist stop that would break the schedule. Within three days, we could be four days off, and it was all stuff she wanted to do "we have to see this on this trip, we won't be coming this way again."

Humor her to start with, I think you'll find the real experience self correcting.

Once you get a few years of travel under your belt, you'll learn that all travel has to be flexible. Even on escorted travel, the most prized ability in a tour manager, program director, cruise director (whatever they call the guy) is the ability to be flexible, adjust the schedule to deal with the problems that arise, roll with the punches. Travel halted by erupting volcano. Destination closed by bad weather. Highway closed by civil disturbance. They are shooting a movie at one of the places you were supposed to visit. As the flexible part of your travel team, you will be the one to handle these.

[Lauren]

Yup, a happy wife makes a happy life. (Been married 52 years - in our house the dog gets 3 votes, the wife gets 2 and I get 1)....and I just smile and nod.

[TyroneandGladys]

A man can be right or he can be happy. IMHO if your DW wants reservations better make reservations.

[nails]

I want to thank all of you for the quick and experienced replies. We will probably wait until we get started on the trip and make some reservation calls as we get closer to the nightly destinations. Like you've said, you never know how much you'll feel like staying in one spot, or how many miles you'll drive on a particular day.

Living in Michigan, as I was growing up, I always thought that if you were south of Tenn., the winters would be mild and somewhat warm. Boy, was I wrong on that. We've spent the last two winters ( Jan-Feb ) in the Ft. Myers area and it even had cool weather at times. Nights going into the 30's 40's. Doesn't look like you can even rely on Texas for guaranteed warm weather. Now it doesn't seem like such a stretch for Jamaica to have a Bobsled team. Probably see an Aruba ice hockey team in the near future.

[sdianel_-acct_c]

We did a combination of the 2 options on our two trips out west. We made some reservations on weekends, holidays or in popular areas and otherwise just arrived Sun-Thurs and early in the afternoon. We would decide where we would stop the next day the night before, and on the way there we would call to make sure they have available sites. Worked out well.

[tenbear]

After years of RVing, including 3 trips to the west coast from Vermont, we have rarely reserved sites in advanced. The exceptions are holiday weekends and campgrounds where we wanted to stay for a specific event. Even then, a few days ahead of time works well. We have only had to go to a second choice campground a couple of times.

We usually start looking for a CG about 3:00PM and stop before 4:00PM. There is usually plenty of space.

[et2]

We did that trip about 5 years ago. Only reservations were for places we planned to staying at for a while - like Yellowstone & Mount Rushmore area. I planned the hours I wanted to drive each day and looked to see if there were campgrounds just off the freeway. Never made reservations for those and always got a spot. We did it in just over 2 weeks.

Absolutely the best trip we ever took and plan to do this again when longer time away is available. If you get closer to the end of Sept or October it could be pretty cold and snow.