Like to RV with spontaneity? Shun making campground reservations in favor of letting it ride while in your ride? Then you probably already know that finding an overnight spot is getting harder. Campsite-locating app The Dyrt has the numbers to confirm your experience. Twice as many full campgrounds were the rule for users in 2023 compared to 2020.
Twice as many full campgrounds, says The Dyrt
This unhappy encounter is most likely at non-reservation, first-come, first-served campgrounds, according to The Dyrt’s 2024 Camping Report. What makes it all the more difficult for some RVers—most FCFS campgrounds are the less-expensive public campgrounds. So if you need a spot for the night and the public ones are gone, you’ll likely add insult to injury by paying more for a private RV park space.
The Dyrt says this is how the numbers shake out. In 2021, at the start of the survey, only 11.1% of respondents said they encountered full non-reservation campgrounds. But the numbers have steadily increased ever since. In 2021, 15.8%; in 2022, 21.4%. Finally, last year rolled around, and 23.4% said they’d run into the “no room at the inn” situation.
Grist for the mill
With twice as many full campgrounds, it’s a matter of grist for The Dyrt’s mill. “I actually experienced this trend firsthand so it was reassuring that the results in the Camping Report confirmed it,” says The Dyrt founder Sarah Smith. “For years we would go to our favorite first-come, first-served campground in Oregon. Recently we arrived to find it completely full, which had never happened before. Happy ending though—we used The Dyrt to find another awesome campground down the road and the weekend was saved.”
Are reservation campgrounds any better?
What’s the situation like in campgrounds that take reservations? “45.5% of campers reported difficulty booking a site because a campground was sold out in 2023,” reports The Dyrt. While that report is four times higher than 2019, it’s still down from 2022, where 58.4% couldn’t get a reservation at their desired time because of full bookings.
At campgrounds that accept reservations, 45.5% of campers reported difficulty booking a site because a campground was sold out in 2023. While that number is four times higher than it was in 2019, it marks a decrease from 58.4% in 2022. FCFS campgrounds have not seen a similar easing, with campers finding them more likely to be full every year since 2020.
Privately owned campgrounds in many areas are responding to the demand by adding more campsites. Pubic campgrounds, the typical first-come, first-served operators, are generally stuck with what they have. It all leads to the advice RVtravel.com writers have given: Have a backup plan. For this writing team, it sometimes means a night—not in the museum—but in the Walmart parking lot.
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This sure has NOT been our experience. We host at Oregon State Parks a few months each year but the remaining time we spend about 90% dispersed camping on public lands (BLM, USFS and some state and county lands, those latter mainly in Montana and Utah). That 10% in fhu county and state Parks has never been a problem. And there are usually quite a few empty spots. All our travels have been west of the Mississippi..when we travel to Nova Scotia this summer we may find things a little different.
We returned from snowbirding a month ago. We stayed in a FC-FS NPS NRA on the Colorado River in January that was about 60% full. And on a trip last September, we pulled into a USFS FC-FS dry campsite at 1:00 pm located 3 miles from the West Entrance to Yellowstone NP. It was a beautiful, tree-shaded, gravel site with a view of the Madison River . . . . for $12/night with our pass!
Thank you, Russ and Tina! 🙂 I think that the only FCFS campground we have stayed at is a BLM campground in Alaska (https://www.blm.gov/visit/cripple-creek-campground). It was a great campground, but had no utilities at the campsites. Otherwise, I have needed to “know” what our landing spot at the end of each driving day is. Thanks again for the information, safe travels, and may you always find “room at the inn.” 🙂