Are your campgrounds full?

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.

Oregon shuts down most their CG every year at this time. Many are in the mtns where snow, freezing temps and lousy weather occur a lot.
St parks are open in most areas. County parks are iffy. RV parks are always open.
Most of Oregons FS type CG's are in the mtns and no usable after Nov 1st until May ish.
 
We just spent the week at Gulf Shores State Park in Alabama. The place was pretty empty. It started to fill up on Thursday/Friday (we came home Saturday), but we were shocked at how open it was after reading about all of the horror stories.

We are looking to upgrade our trailer, and I am aspiring to be a Snowbird. Just have to figure out how to retire sooner, or find a way to work remotely...
 
Pioneer Beach RV Park with roughly 400 units just steps from the Gulf is about 75% capacity this winter. It was nearly full last winter.
I suppose the virus is keeping people home.
 
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

Second Chance,

Are you finding it difficult to book space thruout the US at the Military Facilities ? I am retired Federal Civilian from Department of Defense with a Federal Retiree Badge and have the benefit of staying at most if not all Military RV facilities depending on availability of course. It certainly is a big savings compared to paying for non Military sites.
Joe
 
Second Chance,

Are you finding it difficult to book space thruout the US at the Military Facilities ? I am retired Federal Civilian from Department of Defense with a Federal Retiree Badge and have the benefit of staying at most if not all Military RV facilities depending on availability of course. It certainly is a big savings compared to paying for non Military sites.
Joe

We already have a week in June booked at Naval Station Oceana on /near the beach at a Great Price. Going to Keywest on ''thousand trailes'' discount in Feb for a week. I see there are two Military facilities in the Lower Keys. Even the monthly fees are very attractive on these facilities...
 
Well good news for us. The KOA in Crossville had some monthlies open and we got a reservation starting in April. This actually worked out very nice for us since Crossville is where we are building. We have never stayed at a KOA before thinking they were exorbitantly expensive, but the price was within what we had budgeted. And the monthly rate includes utilities, so it is not as bad as it first sounds. It was $750-780/month depending on when you crossed over into peak season. And the pad should be long enough for our truck and Jeep, so no need to figure out what to do with a second vehicle.

The office lady I spoke to was really quite helpful and pleasant, could not ask for a better customer experience.
 
Second Chance,

Are you finding it difficult to book space thruout the US at the Military Facilities ? I am retired Federal Civilian from Department of Defense with a Federal Retiree Badge and have the benefit of staying at most if not all Military RV facilities depending on availability of course. It certainly is a big savings compared to paying for non Military sites.
Joe

It depends entirely on the installation and local commander. Since we are not moving right now, we haven't tried any other installations and I don't have an answer for you on that one. We had reservations for APG starting in early April, but they were cancelled because the installation closed down for the pandemic. MWR put everyone who had cancelled reservations on a call-back list and we got a call the first of June asking if we still wanted to come. (We had been sheltering in place in Augusta, GA). Since we have grandkids in the area, we said, "Yes!"

As for being economical, that is also highly variable. While Pointes West, near FT Gordon, GA, and others we have utilized in 2019 and early 2020 are still very reasonable, APG has increased their rates several times over the past few years. We are now paying $250/month more than we were in a commercial park in Augusta - but we're not paying metered electric separately and we've been cleared to stay "until..." It's a good trade-off for us.

Rob
 
We were in Chula Vista RV park in San Diego, CA first week of December and it was completely full!
 
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We have been in Arizona since before Thanksgiving.

Arizona normally has lots of Canadians that are not here and it looks like a lot of the normal crowd is staying away.

The park in Bouse AZ had lots of spaces open and had a lot of cancelations. They were talking about 50% of normal occupancy for the season.

Quartzite at Thanksgiving was about normal for the BLM Roadrunner and maybe a few more rigs in the LTVA.

We have been in Yuma for the last three weeks and the park we are in is like a ghost town. Once again the Canadians are not here. There are several hundred Park Models with maybe 20% occupancy and about 60 RV spots with about six rigs per night. This park has also told us they have lots of cancelations.
 
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Depends on which campgrounds and when you go. Last couple of months in Washington state we were able to get into several campgrounds with only a reservation a few weeks in advance. Smaller and more popular campgrounds had few if any vacancies, at least in the hookup loops. But less popular campgrounds, and dry camping, lots of space in WA, OR and CA. Except for federal parks, National Parks/Forests, COE. Some of those have been impossible for us to get into until March or April of next year.

Recently found a KOA in Central Calif that was only about 5% occupied. We are currently at Perris Lake State Campground and while they were 80% over the weekend, they are 1% during the week right now.
 

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