Please note: This Campground Crowding column will be moving to every other week to make room for more great articles. Please continue to send in your comments.
RV sales have slowed and fewer people are buying RVs. Has that changed campground crowding? Is it easier to find a campsite now, particularly in state and national parks?
Campgrounds are changing and evolving, some for the better and some for the worse. RV Travel readers discuss their experiences and offer tips to help other campers find that perfect spot.
Here are a few observations from our readers. These do not necessarily represent the views of RVtravel.com.
Do you have your Labor Day reservation?
Nanci D. Yes, me, the one who writes and knows Crowded Campgrounds from experience and all our readers’ comments. Here are my thoughts: This year I don’t know where we are going to camp on Labor Day. It kind of snuck up on me. We usually are hosts on most of the big, can’t-reserve-a-campsite holidays. We ended our host job on August 25th and were able to get a site for five days, but not the weekend (sound familiar?) over the holiday weekend. We finally found one site at a state park 150 miles southwest. Good to go.
“Then my husband’s aunt died, the one he grew up with in Mississippi. We have had more funerals to attend than we ever thought we would have, so always we have funeral clothes with us, hoping not to have to pull them out. The clothes are not the issue. It is us having to find a campsite on the last hurrah of summer in the Midwest on the way to Mississippi. Even Harvest Hosts are full! Minnesota does not allow overnights at Walmart or Cabela’s anymore, either.
“Thankfully I have not made any more reservations after Labor Day. I know that when schools open up, most of the crowds disperse to their work and school world. Weekends can still be difficult, but not as much once we leave the areas that only have a good three months to camp.
“Yes, I know we will find something. It is not an emergency; it just will take diligence and time to find a place.”
By the time we pay for the camper and truck, nothing is left to camp
Ann C. sees campground costs getting too high. She wrote, “The cost is getting to be too high to spend more time camping. We’re retired and by the time we pay for the camper and truck, there’s nothing left for spending a couple weeks at a campground. We’d love a permanent site somewhere but sadly not many campgrounds in Wisconsin have sites available and/or they cost more than $3,500 or $4,000+ for a season that is only May 1 to October 1. That’s five months and you pay your own electric. And, what’s more difficult is finding campgrounds with WiFi at your site. Makes it difficult to find part-time remote working to help pay for traveling.”
Full-time in large RV and travel Texas in smaller one
Suzanne P. writes about how they travel in the spring and fall in Texas. “We travel during spring and fall in Texas and live full-time in a larger RV (than our travel one). We camp mainly at Corps of Engineer Parks; we like that they are always on water, making for pleasant views and natural landscapes. We also use city and county parks when available on our routes.
“The state parks in Texas tend to cost a bit more, and they also charge daily per person entry fees on top of the daily site cost, as well as charge per vehicle for over two vehicles (they count our truck as one and our 5th wheel as a second, so we have to pay extra for our car if we bring it! That makes the state parks more pricey than they seem. The first time it happened it was a surprise upon entry that we had no choice but to pay the extra cost.
“We find that it is often quite difficult to find a camping spot in these places on our trips on the weekends, as they fill with campers and camper/boaters. (Boaters often are impolite campers since they often don’t park their boats in designated spots and park on grassy areas instead, where they are not allowed.)”
Recovering Californians
Richard C. returned for a visit to California and found campsites, but says they were expensive! He wrote, “We label ourselves as ‘recovering Californians’. After five years, we made a return visit to the state and spent a few days camping with old friends at Bonelli Bluffs in San Dimas. (Whoa, shades of Bill and Ted!) In mid-August, we had no problem last minute booking a spot overlooking Puddingstone Lake. In fact, this beautiful campground was only about half full! Why? I’m guessing the nightly rate of over $90 and $28 for two bundles of firewood. When you add the massive traffic and infamous California road hogs, we are grateful we get to full-time in the rest of the country.”
Californians taking up the sites in Oregon
Ron N. is an Oregonian and hasn’t had luck finding sites in his home state. He writes, “Forty-four year Oregonian and long time RVer. Hate making reservations because for me takes the fun and flexibility out of the trip. Recently tried to find available sites in many Oregon Coast State Parks but had no luck. Californians that have made reservations months in advance have made getting a site in my own state nearly impossible.”
Now, some questions for you:
- Are you finding campgrounds booked up? Or is finding a place to stay not a problem?
- Are campgrounds changing for the better or for the worse?
- Are you seeing more permanent and seasonal RV parks?
- Are rising costs affecting your camping style?
- If campgrounds continue to be crowded and RVing continues to become more popular, will it affect how or when you RV?
- Do you have any tips or secrets you’d like to share about finding campgrounds that aren’t as crowded?
Please use the form below to answer one or more of these questions, or tell us what you’ve experienced with campground crowding in general.
Read last week’s Crowded Campgrounds column: Is RVing today just for the wealthy? Plus, how to stay at truck stops
In mid-Sept., we are heading to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, southern NV, and northern AZ for a month. This week, we have had no trouble finding reservations in a combination of USFS and state park camprounds and Passport America RV parks for most nights. We also have a few nights of dry camping and boondocking at Navajo NM, Lake Powell, Canyon de Chelly NM, and a state wildlife area between those reservations. I guess finding affordable camping reservations is like real estate: location, location, location. But being fully equipped (and comfortable with) dry camping and boondocking certainly helps!
I spent a week at San Angelo state park, in San Angelo Tx. In my section, I was the only one all week, yet their website showed the whole section sold out.
We encounter this so often, it’s no longer a surprise.
We’ll concede to a mediocre first come first serve site and stare at a “sold out” campground sitting empty and unoccupied.
It’s hard to process.
On one hand, we pretty much have the place to ourselves but in return we’re paying the same price as those reserved empty sites for a sloped FCFS spot on top of a mosquito breeding pond with no fire pit.
Imagine if the dentist”s office allowed patients to reserve multiple time slots and cancel accordingly at their convenience. Would they wring their hands at the empty waiting room and facility and say it’s beyond their control like most camp hosts do or try to fix it?
The difference is the campground got their money for the empty sites. Where the dentist don’t, because he didn’t have anyone to work on.
Glad to see the complaint article is moving to every other week. Once a quarter would be better. We already have enough negativity in America, do not need or want more.
People have the money to do what is important to them
“Californians taking up the sites in Oregon” in Eastern Oregon it’s infested by Idahoans..so pick your poison.
And how does he know it’s Californians? Does he go around each site of each campground inspecting license plates. Come on, just another anti-californian of a certain political persuasion.
Not too hard to see license plates while walking through any RV park.
I think facebook and internet has made coastal states a worse mess of tourists, of course. It will never happen, but would be helpful maybe if campgrounds only had a certain number of spaces for out of state folks. One thing would help is to stop letting people reserve for two weeks, then have a spouse reserve another two weeks. And do something about leaving spaces empty because someone is too selfish to cancel.
The article title caught my eye. We’re in the same boat. But I don’t understand the state visitor bashing (California, Oregon, Idaho, etc). Everywhere we travel we see plates from all over the U.S. and Canada. We live in Southern California and like to camp locally, and find that we have to book 3-6 months out to find an available site. No big deal. But we also love to boondock and have lots of options there, all year. We’re not fulltimers and just love to be able to get out, get away and enjoy the open road, views & vistas, meeting new like-minded people. We’re the campers that smile and wave when you drive/walk past. And we don’t care where you’re from.
Oregon has been California’s playground for decades, get a life and quit your whining.
We’re not from Oregon (or California) and have found it very easy to get Oregon state park reservations this summer without booking months in advance. A couple of times, we were able to reserve a site within a week of arriving.
We just finished a 4350 mile trip encompassing portions of MN, ND, MT, ID, WA, OR, WY, NE, and IA. The focus was MT and OR, but we stayed in each state except WA. While I made all my reservations by March, I would not have had to. Only two campgrounds were full (Jamestown Campground in ND & Harbor Vista in Florence, OR) and most were not even half full. We stayed at both public & privately owned parks and had full hookup 50 amp sites in all but one where it was 50 amp E/W only. We seek out nice parks that have the basics (no resorts) with long sites since we’re 65′ total length. Our average cost was under $50/day. Highest $63 lowest $30 and several in the $30’s and $40’s.
Thank you, Nanci! 🙂 Condolences to DH 😟🙏 and good luck finding a site en-route to Mississippi. 🤔😯 Sadly, Davis Farm does not lie on your likely travel path. 🙁 Best wishes, safe travels, and safe stsys! 🙂
Interesting. I love my state, have always lived and camped there, so it is nice to find a place to camp. One guy seems not to like his state. It is frustrating not to be able to camp where one can afford to go due to people from other states. Some areas have space, others do not. And no, I don’t think all people can afford what they want. As a widow, I don’t have money for expensive campgrounds, so try to use National Forest. My trailer is very small and costs nothing extra to tow it–I have made it as inexpensive as possible. Most National Forest campgrounds are closed in winter due to snow, lack of camp hosts, etc., so choices are fewer. I never attemp to camp on weekends.