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Tuquala · 07-20-2019, 05:33 PM

Recently returned from a 3 week trip into Idaho and Montana in the "boonies". Trip included a planned stop at Two Medicine CG in Glacier NP. We left our Sun night stopover aboot 7 am and arrived at Two Medicine around 8:30 am. Started driving around looking for an open or shortly to be open "first come, first served" site. On our 2nd pass through the campground, there was a congregation of NP employees at the host site. At same time we found a reasonable site that would take our 34' trailer, BUT, a rangerette came over and slapped a "reserved" tag on the site, and no amount of discussion helped to have us occupy the site, even if we had arrived before they "reserved" it just as we tried to pull in!!

There had been a bear incident at Many Glacier CG and they were reserving any open site and any that were being exited for tenters and soft sided rvs from Many Glacier. AND, the reserved tags weren't just sudden items, they were professionally printed tags stating site reserved for Many Glacier campers. Obviously a common happening!! Sunday a black bear had gotten into a bear box that had not been closed properly, and had a "free meal"!! Prior to that in May, a Grizzly had forced 2 guys cleaning fish to abandon their catch to him!!! So down to Two Medicine for any tents and soft rvs. So much for first come, first serve!!!

Moral of the story is don't believe everything that you read about getting to a NP campground and trying to find an open campsite when the rangers and rangerettes may suddenly make it a "reservation" campground whenever "neccessarly"!!!!

rk911 · 07-20-2019, 05:42 PM

were they closing Many Glacier CG or is that not for hard sided RVs?

gatorb8 · 07-20-2019, 05:44 PM

now, if you offered a nice fresh filet of salmon to the rangerette, that may have turned out differently.....

Old-Biscuit · 07-20-2019, 05:57 PM

"There had been a bear incident at Many Glacier CG and they were reserving any open site and any that were being exited for tenters and soft sided rvs from Many Glacier..."

Sounds like Rangers were doing what was necessary to accommodate tenters/soft sided RVs that ALREADY had reservations......so in reality they WERE '1st come/1st served'

Good for the Park Rangers accommodating those they were run out of other campground

twogypsies · 07-20-2019, 10:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Old-Biscuit

"There had been a bear incident at Many Glacier CG and they were reserving any open site and any that were being exited for tenters and soft sided rvs from Many Glacier..."

Sounds like Rangers were doing what was necessary to accommodate tenters/soft sided RVs that ALREADY had reservations......so in reality they WERE '1st come/1st served'

Good for the Park Rangers accommodating those they were run out of other campground

I agree. This isn't a normal thing done. It's an exception because of bear activity in the other campground. I would think that if you were tenting in the other campground you'd really appreciate it that they found another place for you since you've paid the added reservation cost for a site you couldn't use.

We used first come sites all the time and we also volunteered in national parks. We've never seen this happen so it's definitely not a normal occurrence.

UTTransplant · 07-21-2019, 06:22 AM

I agree with TwoGypsies that this was an extraordinary situation, and the rangers were doing all they could to accommodate people who had made reservations at the other campground but who had to move. I have camped in national parks for 45 plus years, and I have never had this happen.

Also I really dislike the term “rangerette”. It always seems to be to be derogatory toward a female ranger that has the same training, skills, and authority as the male rangers do. Maybe you just meant seasons campground staff that were not really rangers, but using the term damages your complaint. Do you call a female medical doctor “doctorette”? Sorry, rant over.

Trapper2022 · 07-21-2019, 07:15 AM

Grow up. They are all RANGERS

Should have made a reservation. Since you did not don’t complain about them taking care of the ones that did. I also have been going to the national parks for 45 years and have never run into this. I’m sure it doesn’t happen very often.

Enjoy the journey

Tuquala · 07-21-2019, 11:09 AM

Yeah, I guess we should have made a "reservation" at a 1st come park!!! That makes a lot of sense!! As to the terminology, I guess I'm not a pc person, and don't feel it is derogatory as you others feel!!!

As to Many Glacier, if you do some research, it is a res (oops!!) cg, and has been having bear activity since mid May, so why do they take reservations for soft sides and tents when such activity is happening????? Also, there are other cgs nearer to Many Glacier, but then they would have to kick out other "reservists".

My guess is that youse guys would feel the same after many weeks of planning and prep. But such is life!!!

TXTiger · 07-21-2019, 11:33 AM

You say that you made many weeks of planning and prep but you were going to a first come first serve campground. You had no way of knowing if a site was even available before you got there. The people that were being moved there did have reservations and probably did just as much planning and prep as you did and based on their planning and prep had a reservation. Their vacation was altered by having to move, for safety reasons I may add. It’s not all about you.