Not so full

[agesilaus]

We are sitting in a campground in South Fork CO and as of now we are the only RV in the place, and driving thru town, which has an extraordinary number of campgrounds, most seem to be darn near empty. I guess there must be a camping season here that is just starting up tho there is no snow in sight.

Plenty up Wolf Creek Pass. Speaking of which I diod not see one 'grade sign' all the way up and down. You know 8% grade ahead. So I assume they engineered it to be 4% or less. Quite a mild pass compared to lots of others.

We spent 2 weeks here last June and the place was anything but empty. Just overnight now.

Edited May 16, 2021 by agesilaus

[sandsys]

57 minutes ago, agesilaus said:

We are sitting in a campground in South Fork CO and as of now we are the only RV in the place, and driving thru town, which has an extraordinary number of campgrounds, most seem to be darn near empty. I guess there must be a camping season here that is just starting up tho there is no snow in sight.

Plenty up Wolf Creek Pass. Speaking of which I diod not see one 'grade sign' all the way up and down. You know 8% grade ahead. So I assume they engineered it to be 4% or less. Quite a mild pass compared to lots of others.

We spent 2 weeks here last June and the place was anything but empty. Just overnight now.

One of the bloggers I read spends his summers in Denver but he says it is too early to go home yet. When my mother lived in Denver she said the weather changes several times a week. We were there one New Year's Day when we didn't need a coat.

Linda

[Will B.]

Glad to hear.  Reading the RVTravel newsletter this morning, the editor addressed that he talks about campground crowding a lot, but many readers are writing in to say the opposite.  I'm sitting in the CMA Iron Mountain campground, and there are PLENTY of spaces.  Across the street at Shadow Mountain, too.  (Mena, Arkansas.)

I think the "campground crowding" must be Yellowstone and the like.  I'm either working at the computer or on the motorcycles or in the truck seeing things.  We don't stay at "resort" campgrounds.  I'm not retired, so... not gonna spend the kids' inheritance completely on a $125/night park.   If I can get to $400/mo with electric included, I'm absolutely ecstatic!

[mptjelgin]

1 hour ago, agesilaus said:

Plenty up Wolf Creek Pass. Speaking of which I diod not see one 'grade sign' all the way up and down. You know 8% grade ahead. So I assume they engineered it to be 4% or less. Quite a mild pass compared to lots of others.

The west side of Wolf Creek Pass has grades as steep as 6.8%, so plenty steep. 

[agesilaus]

Well I must have missed them on the way up, did not see one grade sign. I didn't notice their lack until later than.

@will There are scads of Boondockers, went thru Valley of the Gods a couple days ago, I lost track at 25. And never saw more than one or two before. I wonder if we are partially the cause, I know me and others have been mentioning VOG as a camp here. So have we lured them in? Most other boondocking sites have been semi mobbed this year.

But we have had no problems getting a spot so far this trip. CG are full but the often are. But then we have spent more time outside big NP this trip. But I have become much less willing to share sites unless they are well known already.

We are off to "Whittington Center" in the morning for two days. Reviews are glowing. On our way back east for birthdays and appointments for two or three weeks. Then off to the Escapade.

[NamMedevac 70]

I spend most of May, Sept, Oct, Nov, etc camping and fishing before start of vacation time in June and most of time I have the FS and State park campgrounds all to myself during the week and some weekends.  I also avoid destination "resorts" and this is good for my health and longevity.  Capt. Happy Camper here.

[2gypsies]

4 hours ago, agesilaus said:

Plenty up Wolf Creek Pass. Speaking of which I diod not see one 'grade sign' all the way up and down. You know 8% grade ahead. So I assume they engineered it to be 4% or less. Quite a mild pass compared to lots of others.

 

Eastbound - there's are signs warning of 6% grade for 8 miles and then 2 miles of 5%.

Westbound - signs warning of 7% grade for 9 miles. Signs of "trucks stay in lower gear" & vehicles over 55,000 lbs must use right lane and 25 mph".  There are 2 runaway truck ramps.

[Kirk W]

We just spent the night in an RV park in Eufaula, OK and while we did make advance reservations, there are 6 open sites that I can see from my window and on a beautiful spring weekend. 

[Jinx & Wayne]

We are in a campground in Vicksburg, MS.  There are plenty of open sites.  I'm pretty sure we are still early for the camping season.  School is still in session.  Most of the increase in RV sales last year was from families. When we outside of Mobile last week the folks in the site next to us were ther for a job for three months.  They told us they had to leave for three days over Memorial Day weekend because the park was already booked full.

Wayne & Jinx
2017 F-350 diesel, dually
2006 Carriage Carri-Lite 36KSQ

[Danandfreda]

We are in junction city Kansas again at Smokey hill rv park and they are 100% capacity last night and only a few spots open for this week for a few overnights but I’m sure will fill up. We spent the winter in Mississippi,Alabama,Florida,Georgia,and Tennessee and never saw a park full. Tennessee was the closest to full and that was in April. A lot of new to camping people out there😳

[agesilaus]

3 hours ago, Jinx & Wayne said:

School is still in session.  Most of the increase in RV sales last year was from families.

I think that is a major factor, in some states school is not in session and has not been for months. And we see a lot of school age kids camping in some areas. Hopefully the return to normal with put them back in school and out of the campgrounds.

Quote

Mississippi,Alabama,Florida,Georgia,and Tennessee and never saw a park full.

We saw one full in the FL Panhandle when we set out in mid March but I thought it might be the snowbird migration going back north, found a spot a mile down the road.

 

Quote

A lot of new to camping people out there

Yeah going thru Valley Of The Gods in UT we saw all sorts of car campers, newbies in tents, I assume. But they are finding out prime camping areas somewhere. We had several show up every night at the top of the Moki Dugway. They aren't well educated in camping protocol.

Edited May 16, 2021 by agesilaus

[Chalkie]

16 hours ago, 2gypsies said:

Eastbound - there's are signs warning of 6% grade for 8 miles and then 2 miles of 5%.

Westbound - signs warning of 7% grade for 9 miles. Signs of "trucks stay in lower gear" & vehicles over 55,000 lbs must use right lane and 25 mph".  There are 2 runaway truck ramps.

Exactly! Wolf Creek Pass ranks up in the top 10 or 15 of Colorado's most dangerous roads and it is the west side that is the "bad" part. 

[hemsteadc]

I'm at Mesa Verde.  Plenty of room in dry camp, but FH are booked up solid the entire season.  Cloudy, cool and a smattering of rain today.  

They have wifi internet but it's spotty at best.  My CCrane antenna takes care of that problem.  Best $300 I've ever spent.

[fpmtngal]

I just got back from spending a couple of days boondocking in the Coconino National Forest a little south of the Grand Canyon.  I stayed at a well-known dispersed camping area (FR688) that had sites pretty well spread out.  I wasn’t the only one there, but also didn’t have a problem finding a spot on Tuesday.  I would have said it was well occupied but not over-run.  I left on Friday - figured it would be jammed over the weekend.  Traffic going north to the park as I was heading out was south was heavy, and the Grand Canyon itself felt crowded to me when I went in one day.

[agesilaus]

1 hour ago, fpmtngal said:

well occupied but not over-run

We spent a week back there and there were maybe 20 campers in the first mile or so. We stopped there and had a large area off the road with us and two others. Not overcrowded.