Reserve or not reserve

On the road traveling we will usually locate a potential and then call ahead to see if they have room. we have never been rejected yet. They will usually find room.

For me it really depends.  National Parks, at least the ones I've camped at, have largely turned over reservations management to Reserve.gov, which, also in my experience, seems to mean that more and more campgrounds and campsites require a reservation and/or walk-in sites are more scarce.

We get around all that by camping off-season as much as possible, which we prefer anyway.  But if we, or you, want to stay at a popular National Park, or other campground, at anything close to peak times, you'd do well to at least check out the reservations situation as far in advance as you can.

On the other hand, if you're just touring around and don't care where you end up at night, and you're open to commercial campgrounds, truck stops or Walmarts, but would prefer any old campground, you can probably get by calling ahead a couple hours before you want to stop.  We use the paid phone app Allstays Camp & RV.  It gives you just about all the alternatives on your route and their phone numbers.

I do a lot of what I call "destination" camping, where I want to end up at a certain spot for a week.  I make reservations for the destination whenever I can, but because I don't care where or even what time I stop along the way, I don't make reservations on the road.  The one time I did, I got to the campground late (20 miles off route), in a pouring rain, and the gate was locked.  They didn't tell me they were one of those campgrounds that you have to check in by 7 and they give you the combination to the gate lock....  I had to back out a narrow road for about a quarter of a mile, lost my paid deposit, and ended up at a Walmart for the first time about 2 hours later.  Wished I'd gone straight to Walmart.

TT

Thanks TT

We will definitely get that app.

Take care

Dave

In my experience, I have to agree with Techntrek.  Safe Travels.

Lynn

TT suggested http://www.allstays.com/apps/camprv.htm, We have returned from our five week trip, did not use the app.  We were going to buy a smart phone but decided not to on this trip. Our GPS has a search feature that gives Point of Interests, we sorted by RV parks.  We had no problem finding somewhere to stay at the last minute.  We made reservations in advance to stops we wanted to make sure there was a space for us (Grand Canyon etc.).

Hope this helps

Dave