10/16 TIPS: How to Make a Camping Reservation

All of my tips, obviously, are based on my personal experience in making literally hundreds and thousands of reservations over 15 years.  I started out relying on commercial campgrounds, but I soon learned those places were not what I wanted, and it took me a few months of travel to decide what I really preferred in a campground.  Mostly, I switched to federal, state, and county facilities because they were almost always less expensive, less crowded, and located in much more scenic locations.  However, as I soon found out, they were a LOT harder to get reservations at, especially during busy seasons such as high tourist areas.  

Also, know that I have never been a person who prefers to go to an RV "resort" and spend several months in one place to enjoy the pools and activities.  I prefer scenery and things to do like visiting museums, historical places, and wildlife.  That means places where there are woods, deserts, mountains, lake, and other places where wildlife live, namely federal, state, and county facilities.  Therefore, I am going to be giving you advice mostly for getting reservations for those places.  The rules are different for long-term commercial RV resorts. 

Getting Ready 

However, before you do anything, if you are 62 or over and a US citizen, make sure you have a senior America the Beautiful Senior pass that gives you and everyone in your car free access to any national parks and up to 50% discounts at most federal parks and campgrounds.  Cost is $80 for a lifetime pass, or $20 for an annual pass.  (Not sure of current rules, but you used to be able to turn in 3 annual passes plus $20 and get a lifetime pass.)  

So, first of all, here is my process for making reservations:

1.  Most importantly, you have to plan very early.  And by very early, I mean several months in advance, at least 7 or 8 months for most places, but even longer for a few places. For example, it is now October, so do you want to go to a popular campground in Florida for a couple of weeks in January or February?  Forget it.  You needed to have made reservations for state parks in Florida last January, and in the few Corps of Engineering campgrounds with water and electric hookups, this past August. Even nearly all commercial campgrounds are already full for the entire winter. 
2. So, you need to start doing some research.  Federal campgrounds nearly all open reservations on a rolling basis 6 months ahead of time.  State parks all have different rules, but most follow the 6 month schedule, except for some notable exceptions.  Florida is a big exception because it opens sites to non-residents 9 months in advance, but you need to check the states where you want to visit to determine how far in advance their state park reservations open. 
3. Then, do some preliminary research on places you want to visit, especially national parks.  You will want to find out if they are fully open when you want to go or if some roads or hiking trails are closed.  Also see if you need to get permits to visit as some places are limiting visitors and requiring reservations to hike or even visit some areas.  
4. Another big consideration is weather.  It is not completely true that if one place is farther south than another, it must be warmer!  In addition, places that you think must be warm in the winter are not necessarily warm.  For example, other than a couple weeks in Ohio in November, the two coldest places i have stayed in my RV are Las Vegas and Death Valley in January!  Be prepared with winter coats in both places, and make sure you have enough propane to keep your furnace going.  I have a photo of ice on Furnace Creek one year, and another year when I decided to leave my Lake Mead campground near Las Vegas, ice fell off my slide toppers, and they were skiing on a nearby mountain!  This is an excellent place to get an estimate of likely rainfall and high and low temperatures, but remember that it is only an estimate:  https://usclimatedata.com/climate/united-states/us  
5. Once you decide where you want to visit, and have time to make reservations, you need to plot out a tentative route.  You probably want a route with the least driving but that gives you attractions between campgrounds.  For most of us, that means no more than 225 miles per day, and less if there is something you know you will want to stop at.  Plus, if you have plenty of time, you may want to leave some time for surprises.  For example, I once noticed a giant teepee visitor center along I-90 in Wyoming and found out it was a buffalo jump, which is where groups of ancient peoples drove bison over a cliff to kill enough for winter meat.  In any case, you may not enjoy just race to get to a destination, so assume a reasonable number of miles you want to drive each day.   
6. Take a map and break your trip into chunks with estimated miles, length of time needed, and places to visit each day.  I use online maps and also put things on a draft Excel spreadsheet to get an overall picture of my trip.     
7. My highest priority is to make reservations at national parks first because they fill the fastest.  Federal sites at available at recreation.gov online.  You need to go online several weeks ahead of time to find out when sites open for reservations and also to determine which campgrounds you want to stay at.  Note that some national parks have turned their RV sites over to commercial companies, and those companies sometimes start making reservations long before many places open their sites.  For example, full hookup Trailer Village in the South Rim area is one of my favorite place to stay because it is so close to everything, including the shuttles and wandering elk, but they make reservations up to 13 months in advance and may fill up quickly!!  You can stay a few miles away from the national park, but the experience is just not the same.  
8. If I am not near a national park, I will next be looking for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers campgrounds.  The COE is the federal organization that  is responsible for building and maintaining locks and dams in the United States.  Wherever they build a lock and/or dam, they also are required to build recreational facilities.  These tend to be very affordable and are very well maintained.  Most include RV sites with water and electric hookups, along with nature centers and other activities.  I have paid as little as $8 for a discounted COE campground up to $15 per night with my senior America the Beautiful pass, which is important when you are paying for a site 365 days a year. They are usually in lovely locations with other recreation activities.  Make reservations at recreation.gov.  

 Making the Reservation Online

It is true that if you are traveling off season or in a place that is not popular, you can just go online anytime and find great sites.  However, since COVID and as the baby boomers have aged and retired, a lot more people are traveling in RVs.  The result is that it is a lot harder to make a reservation where and when you want to travel.  It is now a serious competition for popular places and times, and there are a few things you can do to make it more successful.  

Here are some tips for actually going online and making a reservation at a highly competitive campground:

1. There are options for making a reservation by phone, but this is usually too slow and enables other people who are online to snap up available spaces while you wait for an operator.  So, the first thing is to make sure you have a good internet connection.  If it is too slow, you may need to find a place to go that has a faster connection.
2. Next, make sure you have researched and know exactly what date and time the site that you want will be available.  Don't forget to adjust the time for the time zone you are currently in, and get up at least 30 minutes early so you are ready and online, with your finger poised over the Submit button a couple of minutes early.  (I spent many mornings getting up at 4:30 am because I was on the west coast and the opening time was in the Eastern time zone. 
3. Also, have a list of potential sites that you want to reserve.  I list them in order, with the best one first.  I make sure these sites have the hookups I need and are in locations that will enable to possibly have a view.  Plus, since I have satellite TV, I prefer sites with an open view to the southwest that my satellite requires.   
4. Make sure you have everything you need handy--senior pass, credit card, list of dates, etc.  Then log into the site at least 15-20 minutes early.  
5. I live alone, but a lot of people I know who have been successful at getting good sites because they have had a spouse or partner online with them on a second computer and are going to try for a section of your list of sites that you prepared.  This doubles your chances.
6. Before you proceed, you should update your computer's clock so it is extremely accurate.  Believe it or not, two seconds slow will mean you will miss out on a site.  Right click on lower right clock and select Sync.  
7. A slight pause here--It is a good idea to practice logging in and selecting sites for a time when there are a lot of them available.  You don't have to actually reserve anything, but you should go online and make sure you have all the information you need when the time comes.  Another important thing is to time how many seconds it takes between the time you click on Submit and you actually get the site.  Yes, imagine how those little electrons are zipping through the invisible internet, and you may be surprised that it takes 3-4 seconds!   You need to know this for your next step!!!
8. After all this prep, you are ready to select a site, so you will be watching the clock and have the reservation site open and your finger on Submit.  A big secret is that you practice will tell you if you need to click it 2 or 3 seconds before the site opens!  Really. Be prepared to miss a site or two and have to come back the next morning, but you should eventually get a site.

One last tip, it is important to be flexible, so consider making your reservation for a couple of days longer than you originally planned.  The big problem is that a lot of state parks now won't let you cancel them for 17 or more days and won't let you schedule something else on top of your current reservation, so this can be dangerous.  However, especially in Florida, I fill in empty days with COE or county campgrounds   Also know that if you check in, and then at the end of your stay you decide to leave a few days early, you can check out and they will refund your money without penalty.  Ask at the ranger office for details if you decide to do this.   

IN A PINCH . . . 

If you really want to go somewhere, there are alternate campgrounds you can try.  One trick is to look for county or even city campgrounds that few people are aware of.  You might ask locals or even call the local Chamber of Commerce.   

One of my favorite places in Florida, for example, is a $15 per night COE campground on Tamiami Trail, halfway between Miami and Naples. It is called Midway, and is so far away from anything that it almost never fills up.  It is truly in the middle of nowhere, but it has electrical connections at each asphalt site, a water fill faucet and dump station at the entrance.  Flush toilets but no showers, but the place is 1 mile from a photographic art gallery, 3 miles from a visitor center with more alligators and birds than you will see anywhere else, 11 miles from a scenic boardwalk, and 14 miles from the Shark Valley Visitor Center and tram rides on an 18 mile paved bike road to a viewing tower!  However, a lot of people don't go to Midway because there is nothing to do!   It is a dark sky place, so no outdoor lights, which means you can see the Milky Way at night and "billions and billions of stars."  Just be aware of thieving ravens and don't go for a walk at night without a flashlight because you might trip over an alligator! 

Anyway, hope this all helps!  

10/29 Geneva on the Lake State Park. Geneva, OH

This is a terrific state park that I discovered about a year ago.  What is really nice about it is that it has a new, full-hookup area that is directly on Lake Erie, so you get some wonderful breezes and a great view.  The negative is that there is no beach at this campground because it is a sheer cliff down to rocks, but you can walk a few feet to the east and find a small beach, or you can drive about half a mile and find a big parking lot and a much larger beach.  

Here is a photo I took of the state park, and as you can see, it is quite spread out.  The full-hookup campground is over to the far left, along the lake. 

The first photo below shows a small nature center which was not open either time I stayed here, but you can see Lake Erie just beyond it.     

 

 

The lakeside full-hookup area has only about 20 campsites, and it is very hard to get a reservation, but it is worth it to make reservations here as soon as they open.  One problem is that sites here cost $75 per night, but if you are a senior and an Ohio resident with a special Buckeye Card, you get sites for half price on Sunday through Thursday nights.  Weekends give seniors only a 10% discount.   

 

 

This photo shows the very small beach just east of this campground.   

 

 

And this shows the rocky shore directly in front of the campground:

  

There is a much larger campground and a camp store across the roadway, but it is older and has no direct view of the lake.  

I came here for three days because I wanted to give my kitten some more camping experience and make sure I had filled the motorhome with everything I would need for a longer trip I plan to take to Florida in November.  

I outfitted the motorhome with a soft dog crate to give my kitten Maggie more space for long trips than the little carrier has.  I tucked it under my small dinette, as shown here.  I had to put the table leg inside because otherwise the crate would not fit, but at least it holds the crate in place.  

Maggie is only 6 months old and weighs not quite 7 pounds.  She is a thin kitten with a very long tail, and has found several favorite people-watching places in my rig.  

 

 

She got a lot of attention from people walking by.  Several stopped and said hello to her through the windshield.  
 

 

 

I was not able to get a site directly on the lake, but it was very close.  

 

 

Unfortunately, I had two big scares with Maggie.  The first was when she managed to get her little body down this hole that gave her access to the area behind the couch.  She popped her head up a couple of times, but would not let me grab her.  Luckily, she made it out finally on her own:

 

 

 

And here is the space stuffed with a pillow:

 

Unfortunately, she likes to explore every little nook and cranny, and late Saturday night, she also managed to get behind a large drawer that is underneath my refrigerator.  I tried but was not able to remove the drawer, so went out to find help, but everyone was asleep.  When I got back to my rig, she was running around wondering where I was!!  Bad cat!   

One thing I found interesting about this campground was a bicycle repair stand near the nature center.  It has a place to hang a bike, tools on chains to use to repair your bike, and a pump to add air to your tires!  Very clever!

 

 

 

  

 

I am definitely driving to Florida in November and returning just before Christmas, but I have not yet 100% decided if I am going to leave my rig there or drive it back.  We shall see how the drive down goes.