Are you headed out to a National Park this summer? Plan to camp? If so, you’d better have a reservation by now — at least if you’ll be visiting the biggie parks — Yellowstone, Yosemite, Zion, Acadia, Grand Canyon.
But with all the new RVers out there, and all those folks who are traveling around the USA instead of Europe, camping reservations can be hard to come by. In some cases, you’ll need to reserve a couple of years ahead of when you want to visit.
So what about you? Do you have a reservation to camp in at least one National Park this summer? We’re talking about National Parks, not Monuments or other federal lands.
Remember, it can take a moment for the poll to load if you’re on a slow connection, so stand by. It will be right along.
Nope after 7 years of full time rving and dealing with the covid rvers which had 1 threats of sexual violence on my wife 2 threats of physical violence in both of us and 3 dog attacks on my wife in a 2 month span…. we sold our lovely CC magna and moved to mexico. Best thing we ever did.
No, did Yellowstone in 2019, Yosemite in 2020 and Sequoia/Kings Canyon in 2021. This May we hit the Oregon coast for 4 days then a trip across to northwest Michigan.
Some years ago wife & I motorcycled from Boise to Milwaukee for a “Great Circus Parade” event; stopped in Yellowstone on the way. We observed a Park Ranger SUV pull up in parking lot; the ranger got out, opened the rear hatch, and spent 15 minutes fastening his ballistic vest, radio, LEO leathers, weapon, taser, pepper spray, handcuffs, and other paraphernalia. We watched in amazement; decided that if visitor conditions in NP are that bad, we had no interest in staying. Too crowded, too over-regulated, too unruly. We seek remote & rural places for quiet solitude. First rule: find out where they’ve all gone and go someplace else.
I prefer to camp where the “crowds” are much smaller than at a national park. In particular, I prefer COE, state park, and BLM campgrounds over those in national parks.
National parks are just not in the plans for this year. But maybe in a few more years, when things settle down….
We generally don’t even try to get reservations at any NP. This is mostly because we’re 45 ft. and tow a trailer and we just won’t fit in most of them. State Parks are a different story. I would say that we’ve been fairly lucky fitting into them.
The Tetons in May!
So many other beautiful places to see. We’ll see those first and wait for the National Park situation to hopefully improve.
Luckily, we visited all the NP’s we wanted to see YEARS ago. Actually, decades ago. I’ll leave the crush and crowds and rules to you younger folks.
Been there, done that. Amen!
My 50+ years of camping have always been spontaneous, wandering the lower 48 stopping when ever and where ever I wanted. So having to make a reservation SIX months ahead is {bleeped} difficult to get my head around.
Yellowstone, Yellowstone, Yellowstone!!!!!
Staying in Yellowstone in June at Fishing Bridge and just outside of Grand Tetons in Jackson, WY beforehand. Later in the trip, we head to Yosemite and again we will stay outside of the park because we wanted to have FHU’s.
You can’t reserve Acadia NP campsites until two months before your arrival date, so it’s a little soon to make those reservations yet. I have my calendar marked to remind me to make a booking in May for July, and we’ve been holding a campsite reservation at Cades Cove in Great Smoky Mountains NP for a few months.
State parks yes. NP’s no. Too difficult to find a spot that will accommodate our 40 ft 5th wheel plus two vehicle in National Parks.
Don’t think I will ever camp in a national park and probably won’t even ever visit another one. Just too many rules and people for me.
With all the traffic and rules that go with the government managing high traffic areas we have lost interest in trying. We have two near us that we simply drive to.Our last park with all the managed “traffic” felt more like Disneyland than National Park.
Not yet, I can’t make my reservations until 6 Months before our planned visit in the Middle of August.
We are lucky enough to have a National Park 40 minutes from our home that is rarely full even on Holidays and we have close friends who are camp hosts and we can check availability instantly . We got our favorite spot on Memorial day !
Are you kidding? We avoid NPs like the plague between June and September. They’re crowded enough in off-season! 🙁