Are your campgrounds full?

John303

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 11, 2016
Messages
232
Location
Crossville, TN
We are planning to retire next year to the Crossville TN area. I called a campground near there, Deer Run, and asked about monthly rates and availability. She told me that ever since COVID their monthly spots have been full with a large waiting list that is not going down. So my question to the forum is how full are the campgrounds where you are staying? I am hoping that by next March/April things will be more open.
 
While not in the south, the campground in Michigan I work for was also sold out for monthly camping and were sold out every weekend from May 15 to October 10 for nightly spots.
 
We are staying at a military FamCamp in Maryland over the winter and until at least the end of February (pending what happens with the pandemic). There are two parks on this installation and I don't keep up much with the park at the other end (it was pretty full last time we drove through). Our park has 12 spaces and 11 are occupied. The 12th was supposed to be, but that guest was invited to leave (Army style... long story). The park where we spent the first three months of the pandemic in Augusta, GA, filled up pretty quickly when things shut down the first week of March and stayed that way until we left the first week of June - don't know what's happened there since.

Rob
 
We just got back from cross country. No issues with reservations and we made several last minute changes without issue.

I think specifics are important. If there is one or two monthly rate full-time campground options, stuff is going to be tight during high season, probably all season. You might have to wait for someone to leave or die because that is just how it is. X number of spaces with Y number of people wanting sites where Y > X.

Where we are, it gets really busy in winter. Stupid busy. This is why after a couple of years of renting spots we just bought an ownership lot and didn't want to bother with it anymore.

Good luck. Everything is local and will vary a ton from area to area. There is room but when you get in a high season or are looking for a permanent spot things get more difficult due to demand, zoning and owners having a love hate relationship with permanente residents.
 
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We just booked an 8-week trip to Asheville, Savannah, and up the coast then back to the Pittsburgh area. Things were pretty easy for the period prior to Memorial Day weekend, then they got tough. We had one campground (a state park) that we had selected, but it was full for early May. I had to reconfigure that part of the trip. We had to pick several KOAs (we usually don’t because of the cost), in order to fill out the rest of the trip. All together, we are probably having to spend about 1/2 of the trip in KOAs, when we had planned to mostly hit state parks.

Some of the parks had spots available with only water/electricity, and some with electricity only, but the DW likes full hookups, as we stay up to a week at a location and she doesn’t want to worry about tank capacities.
 
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This is why after a couple of years of renting spots we just bought an ownership lot and didn't want to bother with it anymore.

Our 10th season of fulltiming. We have noticed a trend in the last couple of years of increased campground usage, particularly on the weekends, Sun-Thur, no problem, FRI-SAT booked for months. Even booking 6 months in advance is getting difficult. So we are looking at a couple of ownership lots also. We hate the idea of being tied down like that, might as well just buy a house, but we are struggling to retain our freedom.
 
I'm interested in feedback from the forum's full timers as well. My wife and I are making preparations to go full time in the future. We are in the planning stages now - we don't have an RV yet but are planning on getting the 375RES. As you know, this is a huge life-change. Selling your home and 95% of all your possessions, buying an RV and truck, etc. It's a big deal emotionally and mentally to plan. We're excited and nervous all at the same time. Once we hit the road, I want to know there will be places we can stay! For us, we are interested in a pace were we would stay at an RV park/campground for a month or so. We don't want to move around every week or two. A month would be perfect for us to be able to explore the area & sites as well as help our budget given monthly RV park/campground rates are generally cheaper than daily/weekly. Thus the question - if you have a similar travel pace where you want to stay a month, are you finding it difficult to secure locations with openings for a month's stay, especially during the peak season? If so, what have you done that works for you?
 
Out here on the west coast, campgrounds are VERY full. It's really tough to find a nice place to stay these days. We were going to go to San Diego Mission Beach area for the Thanksgiving week, and there's nothing in the area available.

If I were to do this all over again, I'd get the smallest trailer I could stand, and get something with an off-road capable suspension. Then I'd set it up with a full solar and generator package, along with a water purification system. That way you can be totally off-grid on National Forest or BLM lands and not worry about reservations and full campgrounds.
 
We didn’t travel this past summer. We finally went to a local county park a month ago but could only get weekday reservations; weekends were impossible to get. There were many more people staying a long time according to the campground.

Now we’re close to the end of a 2 week trip and have found campgrounds to be much more busy than in the past (all places we’ve stayed at before). One place that said reservations not needed - full when we arrived, next one up the road busy but spaces available. Next up was a popular spot in Pine Mtn, GA - full (we have a reservation) but most were weekenders for Halloween; it seemed to clear out for the weekdays.

Usual spot in Chattanooga - busy but lots of overnighters; still could spot the full timers though which were a lot more than in the past.

Next up - Wears Valley, TN (visiting friends not seen in years). Busy, busy, busy..... Haven’t been in that area in decades - remembered why on the drive in and out. Campgrounds FULL. But hey.... it’s a popular area so we expected that.

Bluff City, TN (yea - I know - where???)..... LOTS of full timers in a place mostly empty in the past when no activities at Bristol Motor Speedway. Mostly all Full time / semi-permanent (or maybe permanent based on all the ‘stuff’ outside their camper).

Bottom line for me - make reservations; expect to see fuller CGs with more semi-permanent’ers; deal with it.
 
I live in Idaho and our campgrounds have been overflowing. One of the main reasons (my opinion) is that Oregon and Washington have shut down their campgrounds. Last time we camped in hells canyon we noticed a lot or OR and WA plates on vehicles. I can't blame them, we all need to get out. I plan on doing a little boon docking as my 351M is pretty much set up for it. No solar, but generator and 155gal water tank. I won't be able to take it down any 4-wheel drive trails, but there's lots of BLM and national forest here with roads we can maneuver. When traveling cross-country, I've stayed in truck stops, Walmart parking lots and rest areas. Just for one night, but it was very doable with the Genny.
 
I just returned home last week after a 5 week trip down the Shenandoah Valley to Eastern Tennessee, across the Carolina's to north east Georgia and then down to Jekyll Island. I came back home up the coast stopping at Emerald Isle, Virginia Beach then Pocomoke State park. I never before planned more than 5 days out but learned a lesson when I went to Florida last February before Covid became the center of our lives. Reservations were tough, I had to skip a few places I wanted to go and found a few places I'll keep in the log book. I was lucky in route and hit on four nights at Roan Mountain with a primo campsite. I usually stay over at Pocomoke / Shad landing when traveling the Eastern Shore as it's a nice quiet clean campground that is a convenient midway to the Outer Banks. Anytime before I doubt there there were more than a dozen others in the loop I stay, especially early November. There are 30 campsites on the loop and there were 3 unoccupied sites but marked reserved.
I think it's going to be a rough couple of years.
 
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We are planning to retire next year to the Crossville TN area. I called a campground near there, Deer Run, and asked about monthly rates and availability. She told me that ever since COVID their monthly spots have been full with a large waiting list that is not going down. So my question to the forum is how full are the campgrounds where you are staying? I am hoping that by next March/April things will be more open.
Try Spring Lake Resort in Crossville.
 
Hi first time post I stay at a campground year around not a resort by no means around Soddy-Daisy Tn. and they do have open spots. I enjoy it, river 30 Ft from front door. I have a reflection 230 RL tucked up in the woods. You may have to look for campgrounds not well known. Good luck
 
We are planning to retire next year to the Crossville TN area. I called a campground near there, Deer Run, and asked about monthly rates and availability. She told me that ever since COVID their monthly spots have been full with a large waiting list that is not going down. So my question to the forum is how full are the campgrounds where you are staying? I am hoping that by next March/April things will be more open.

Hello

We live on Vancouver Island in British Columbia and we are experiencing the same issue.
Our snowbirds who are full timers are stuck in Canada until this pandemic gets under control!

Jacqui
 
Last week we finally decided on Florida for the winter rather than Arizona. Had two friends that recommended RV parks that they're staying in. We had no problem making reservations for one in January and the other in February. This will be our first time for one month stays. I have itchy feet. While we like to stay at state parks and such, in Florida, you're lucky if you can make a reservation a year in advance for winter months. Sometimes you can get lucky and find a canceled reservation. I think with Covid, there are many who are not leaving their wintery north.
:smow::smow:
 
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For the winter season in Florida, there probably are more spaces available this year since the Canadians are "stuck north of the border". RV sales have been "off the charts" with the COVID situation, and undoubtedly there will be increased business for the campgrounds and state parks, etc. until things settle down. Then, you'll probably be able to get a great deal on a 1 or 2 year old used RV!
 
The campground in Florida is seeing dollar signs. Without bunch of luck the "new" management has realized that the demand for full-time campsites is so great that most of the snow birds were told that the ONLY to guarantee a space is to pay for one all year.

The only reasons we were able to get our same spot as last winter are because, 1. No one wanted a full sun lot in the summer, and, 2. Due to an upcoming hand surgery we took the RV down there last weekend, with the attendant calling twice to make sure we were still coming on time as people were screaming to get our lot.

One of our friends was able to get a different lot after being told in July that his "reserved lot" was given to a full-timer, after he had already spent at lease four winters there! Another friend who had been grandfathered in for 15 years that he could leave his unit on-site for the summer months at 1/2 rate. Not any more...They have to pay full rate as if they were actually there.

The monthly rate at our park in northern Florida is in the low $300's + electric. When doing the math, if one has any type of RV (they're not particular about size or year), that is much cheaper than renting an apartment. After we come back home at Easter we have no guarantee that we will have a place to go next year or not. Money Rules!
 
We have several local campgrounds in the Pensacola area. They have a large volumn of monthly renters. What I was told by a owner/friend is that the snowbirds arrived in 2019 and are not leaving.
They are more comfortable staying in this area than traveling back to their home states.
As you mention the waiting list continues to grow.
 
Yes full around Pigeon Forge area.

Finding in Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, Douglas Lake, and Townsend that you will need to make reservations several months in advance. We live in Kodak and camp primarily in a 50 mile radius. Since the virus hit it's gotten crazy if you want a good spot.
 

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