State of State Campgrounds

[Lindan n Jim]

Relative newbie here and want to take a few minutes of your valuable time to RANT!!!!!!

DW and I bought a really nice used motorhome last week. We are very excited about our acquisition and have been spending a lot of time updating it, buying it little gifts, finding out where all the buttons, knobs and switches are, you know how it goes..........

Our goal was to have everything ready to go, and head out on the first long weekend coming up. Memorial Day! Next step was to figure out where. We consulted a few websites and selected a local State Park. We've been there before, just enjoying the area. Perfect for our first destination, right?

I attempted to make a reservation for the weekend, and thought this would be a snap. Wrong again! I ultimately searched EVERY State campground and found ONE (count 'em ONE) campsite in the entire state on Memorial Day weekend that would not involve a tent. I did some further research and found that every park has full reservations 90 days out. Walk up sites are generally taken over by people pitching tents on the preceding Monday or Tuesday to make sure they have a spot for the weekend.

I was curious to know if the same situation exists in every state. I was told that the industry has experienced a huge amount of growth over the last 5 years, but no one has built more campgrounds. Are we going to find this all across the country? Are we just going to have to dry camp at Wally World on our first big trip? Pay outrageous fees in private campgrounds?

Need some advice here, kids.

Rant mode: OFF

[Matfam1]

In Oregon holidays are typically booked 9 months in advance

[krivanj]

We have found that private campgrounds and state campgrounds are generally about the same price, if you stay out of well known national chains...

[MTK46]

Not sure what state your in but if your talking major three day weekends yes they are booked! Not sure what you think are outrageous fees in private campgrounds? I just stayed at a Passport America park in the Tucson area at $27.00 per nite. That was full connections & 50 amp service. Also check out www.freecampsites.net

[Superslif]

Well, the Baby Boomers are retiring. Normal years when I was still working (pre-2016) I would start making all my years vacation reservations between Jan and March 1st for the whole summer. Mostly state or national parks.

In the shoulder seasons (spring or fall) I'll make a reservation maybe early in the week for the following weekend. Yes, some locate state parks fill up faster than others, so I just search a number of local state parks and make a reservation.

The holiday weekends we try to avoid.

[Lifemember]

We avoid weekends and holidays, camp during the week when everyone else is working. May 28th we will be driveway surfing at the daughters in O'Fallon MO. ALL parks are full that weekend.

[Dupdyke]

ok here is what we use

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - Corps Parks

[Lindan n Jim]

Thank you all for the information and the updates.

While talking with one of the state park Rangers, he told me what his small Iowa hometown does......the City has created a campground just outside of town that is used almost exclusively by returning snowbirds, It gives them a chance to come back home for the summer and not have the expense of maintaining their house. Most likely they sold their house to be able to go south for the winter anyway. I thought that was a great idea.

What do I consider outrageous at private campgrounds? Since I really have very little recent experience, I have seen some at $40 to $50 per night not very far from here and they really don't have much to offer other than a name and a place to park with utilities. Our state parks around here range from $10 to $27, with a Senior discount of up to 50% for 60 years and older.

Our state allows making a reservation no more that 90 days in advance, and the same Ranger I spoke with earlier told me that people most likely are logged on and making those reservations 30 seconds after midnight.

Oh well, back to long term planning.

[John Boy]

Originally Posted by MTK46

Not sure what state your in but if your talking major three day weekends yes they are booked! Not sure what you think are outrageous fees in private campgrounds? I just stayed at a Passport America park in the Tucson area at $27.00 per nite. That was full connections & 50 amp service. Also check out www.freecampsites.net

How long and where did you stay?
We spend 3 months at Wagons West on Limberlost (801 W) near Oracle Rd.
Great place and reasonable. Nice facilities.

[JMonroe]

The days of the spontaneous camping outing are long gone.

Even 35 years ago reservable sites at our wonderful Wisconsin state parks would be booked up well in advance, the only difference was the method for making the reservations. The DNR started accepting mailed in reservation requests early in the year and to get sites we wanted in parks we wanted to visit we would be dropping a stack of reservation requests in the mailbox as soon as they would allow. They did have a good percentage of sites that were not reservable but you'd better get to the park Friday morning, or better yet, sometime Thursday to have any hope (seems no one in Illinois works Fridays ).

That said, I can't imagine expecting to find a reservable site for the Memorial day weekend less than two months out. Same goes for popular tourist areas. More than a month ago, for example, I was trying to make reservations for stays near Bryce and Zion in June. We got them, but ended up at our second or third choices, in one case an hour away. (We're not used to travelling to these types of destinations during peak seasons. Our vacation trips were always timed for good weather, but when school was in session).

As I said, spontaneous trips will take a LOT of luck to pull off. Start planning now for next years outings.

[KT4Wextra]

It normally isn't hard to find a camp site at a state park beginning on Sunday going until Friday. After that local people fill the park for the weekend, and holiday weekends are usually booked the maximum advance time, like in Florida I believe it is 11 months in advance and the good parks fill the day they become available. It won't make any difference what state you want to go to they are all the same.

If you are 62 years old or older get an America the Beautiful lifetime pass and that will give your free admission to most national parks (Zion is $35, Bryce Canyon is $25) and will also give you 50% discount for camp sites at US government owned properties which will most times be less than $20 (usually less than $15). Corp of Engineer campgrounds are in most states as well as BLM grounds, national parks, etc. Cost for the America the Beautiful lifetime pass is currently $10, they are considering raising that in the near future. You can apply online. I prefer COE campgrounds and state parks rather than commercial RV parks. I don't need a swimming pool. I like to have room to relax not being 10' from another RV. Also get a Passport America discount card, you will pay back the cost in about 2 nights. Gives you 50% discount at many RV parks, usually have stay limits and date restrictions.

I've noticed a lot of growth in the number of RV's, just going past the storage rental lots, they are filled with RV's and it seem to be in just the past 2 years. So, at some point in time these RV will leave the storage lot and be at a camp site during the year. I normally try to make advance reservations every where we travel.

You are in Iowa and state parks don't have the amenities that state parks a little further south offer. Iowa and Missouri I know usually are electric only in state parks because of a longer freezing climate (I grew up on a farm in Iowa) . Get to a warmer climate and you get electric and water and many are now improving to full hook ups with cable TV and WIFI available at a reasonable cost (usually less than $30). We like to stay at a COE campground just west of Montgomery AL that has all that for $15/night. Another COE campground we like just west of Jasper TX is only $9 (electric and water though).

[Sweetbriar]

We started our RV adventure in the Spring of 2011. Wasn't too difficult getting reservations for the big three summer weekends back then. Each year since the parks fill up earlier and earlier. This year I started making reservations as soon as the reservation window opened for the camp ground I wanted to visit.

Basic weekend trips used to be a decision made on Thursday to head out after work Friday. Not so easy to make a reservation the day before anymore. As such I plan at least a month in advance now and hope for good weather for the weekends I've planned. I guess it's a good barometer that the economy is picking up and people are starting to venture out more.

[MisterT]

we arrived here at FDR State Park in Pine Mountain, GA on Wednesday....
the sign at the office reads: "Campground FULL"

we expected to have a hard time finding a site since most GA state parks are a 'first come first site' even with reservations.... we actually found hardly anyone here, at least as compared to the 140 sites available - maybe 25-30 total, with a few tents... but certainly NOT full, at least by normal 'assumptions' of what 'Full' really means.

The state parks that we've been to, too many to mention in almost every state, are notorious about not really 'caring' how people perceive them and their 'business'... it's a government job, it's funded by the government(not really by camping fees as you might assume), and it's controlled by government boards, not a single person or entity. They make some general assumptions about what 'camping' means, some more tent oriented, some more small rv trailer oriented, and a few more for large motorcoaches and fifth wheels. But, in general, it's all over the map when it comes to what to 'expect' at state parks. Some are very well controlled by local state employees, some of which actually LIVE full time in the park, and some seem to be just a 'come and go as you will' scenario. Some just want you to leave money in an envelope at a small station/sign, and some require rigorous 'check in' procedures, sometimes at an office a far distance from the actually campground, as here in FDR.

It's beautiful, though, on Lake Delanor(after FDR's wife, of course), and it's why so many are willing to book in advance, pay sometimes a higher fee, to be here, versus the run-of-the-mill campground or rv park. Some state have great reservation systems, most do not. They are not easily navigated, and sometimes are hard to understand even what to do next, but many use them to get that special 'holiday' weekend booked in advance.

What I find interesting, though, is that this park, while mostly a reservations campground, has many NON RESERVABLE drive up sites, probably 40 or more. It's truly a first come first service choice if you're willing to take a gamble.

As far as our current reservation goes, I remember putting in the 3 nights here a month ago, which does not reserve a site, but just that you will have a site available for your SIZE(Length) rig - our YELLOW tag provides our choice of site for those that are tagged in Yellow at the post, even though we saw MANY that could certainly accommodate our rig length, but where of a color for shorter rigs(?)... I can see that if the park has 40 sites for 45' rigs, but few 45' rigs make reservations, they might show the park as full for shorter rigs, but have many sites sitting vacant.

[oakcreekeric]

Originally Posted by JMonroe

The days of the spontaneous camping outing are long gone.

While most of what you said is true... I think spontaneous camping in WI can, and does, happen...

So far, knock on wood, we've been very lucky getting into campgrounds.. Yeah, we may not get the pick-of-the-litter for sites.. but I've been pretty lucky trolling the www.reserveamerica.com reservation system and have been able to snag some prime spots... just a little patience and persistence works..

To the OP... What state are you from ? If they use a system like www.reserveamerica.com, just keep looking, almost daily/hourly, and something is likely to pop open.. you'll just need to be ready to jump on it when it does.

Good Luck !!