No Reservations! Just going!

[borrego linda]

We're taking a cross country trip in July. All the way to Georgia using I-40 with detour up to Kentucky. On the way heading up to I-70 ending up in Utah - Zion, Monument Valley, etc. With stops in Colorado on the way. We're taking our tent and moteling sometimes and camping others. We have no set dates when we're going to be somewhere and wonder if anybody has any experience with just finding a campground in the summer without reservations? Or are we expecting too much!

Thanks!

[renodesertfox]

Howdy Borrego Linda,
Welcome to the camping boards! We do hope you stay with us will be as long as you like and a happy one at that! There is nothing wrong with trying to find a campground without a reservation anywhere in this great country except at the more crowded places such as our national parks. Some national parks will not except reservations and are on a first come first served basis. That is great if you can get to a spot on a Monday or Tuesday and stay a week but sometimes that isn't necessarily so. Usually there are enough campgrounds in some areas that will have plenty of space and other's not. Back in the day when we first started camping we decided to reserve sites up front. But soon we learned, especially in national forrests that a certain number of sites have to kept open for walk-up campers(those without reservations). We also discovered that some of those walk-up sites were a lot better in terms of view, or closer to a restroom, or had better tables, etc... Now when we go camping we always try to arrive at a site early in the week and stay the entire time at the walk-up sites. Or we decide on primitive camping and dig our own fox-hole. Towards the weekends at any given place you might have to sacrifice and stay in a motel because more people have turned to camping as a way to see the USA and those places that you might have liked to stay filled up on Thursday. Good luck and thanks for taking the time to join these camping boards! Let us know how it goes too? The best advice I can give is exactly as you have already stated: be flexible!

[PikeHunter2]

We're taking a cross country trip in July. All the way to Georgia using I-40 with detour up to Kentucky. On the way heading up to I-70 ending up in Utah - Zion, Monument Valley, etc. With stops in Colorado on the way. We're taking our tent and moteling sometimes and camping others. Thanks!

Linda - In this current market, I don't think you'll have any problems going without reservations. I've always received better deals without them. My buddy and I often camp together without reservations from Montana all the way to Guatemala - we never made a single one. Get a copy of Woodalls or similar guide books. Try AAA too and just wing it. We know the best trips are the one's with the least amount of pre-planning. My tent is a Eureka Space 10 and we use the truck bed for cooking.