When did Camping Get So Hard?

[ryand]

So today I my Kids pre School sends out a note that they are extending class a full week due to the missed days....as luck would have it we had our first big trip to Table Rock Lake planned the first week he is off.

Tried to re book and no dice. Sites at the specific park we were after are booked solid through the summer...Its getting harder and harder to get a good site these days. I guess its a good thing for the industry but man you really need to plan out way ahead and stick to it to make it work.

This season has not really even started and It feels like its already over!

[Campingchick]

Honey, it's preschool. You can't get those years back with your kids and making the memories is far more important. Your child is going to get soooo much more out of your trip and family time then they ever will with an extended week of preschool. My kids are teenagers now and they STILL talk about all the adventures we've taken with our camper. You can never get back that time...NEVER!!! Think about it. It's a no brainer.

[TURBS]

Originally Posted by Campingchick

Honey, it's preschool. You can't get those years back with your kids and making the memories is far more important. Your child is going to get soooo much more out of your trip and family time then they ever will with an extended week of preschool. My kids are teenagers now and they STILL talk about all the adventures we've taken with our camper. You can never get back that time...NEVER!!! Think about it. It's a no brainer.

AGREED !

[ryand]

You all are so right....problem is I stupidly canceled the reservation before I took a look at whats avaliable. We are gong to squeeze it in a few weeks later but not at the site i was after for the last 6 months. Lucky i have a flexible job! With soccer, Swim classes, My own personal stuff and work I can see how parents pull their hair out when it comes to all this. I dont have to pull mine out.....it naturally falls out on its own. All is not lost...Taking a long weekend and heading to the lake for a few nights this week. Ill Post some pics.

By the way...it was snowing here today. Die Winter Die. Glad I Re-winterized after our trip last month!!

[slipf18]

"Pre-school" is just a fancy name for day care. It's baby sitting. Who cares. Go camping. Enjoy your children instead of leaving them with some stranger.

[WrongWayRandall]

Originally Posted by ryand

Its getting harder and harder to get a good site these days. I guess its a good thing for the industry but man you really need to plan out way ahead and stick to it to make it work.

This season has not really even started and It feels like its already over!

It can certainly feel that way at times. When you have a specific park in mind you have to book it as early as you can unless they have some sites saved out for walk-up registration (and even then you take your chances.) There has been a lot of discussion about the ability to register online on this and every other camping and RVing forum out there - some love it, some hate it, only a few seem to be undecided.

Given my druthers I prefer to avoid the crowds and stay in the lesser used parks, but sometimes it's just going to be booked solid from an early date and you have to roll the dice on the weather months in advance just to get there for the night. We know that we will have to book early for certain parks and certain holidays (we had Memorial Day and Labor Day booked in late February, both at very popular parks in the East) but other than that I use the online registration systems to find parks that won't be that crowded.

Even with all the pre-registrations, if you can get out during the week you have a far, far better chance in most locations than you have on the weekends. And like the others have stated, in the future don't worry about missing some days in school - the time spent with family and friends will be far more memorable than a couple of school days.

- Randy

[mlong]

It would be much easier to get sites if you were not allowed to book them a year in advance. PA State Parks allow booking 11 months ahead. Assateaque SP in MD allows 364 day advance booking. How many of us can book that far ahead. They should start cutting back to a few months in advance.

[RShelton]

I love the state parks here in MO. Went to Table Rock last year and had a great time. Agree that it takes careful and early planning if you want to stay at one of our state parks during the summer months. And here in MO, if you want a Saturday you also have to reserve a Friday. I like to camping at least two nights but sometimes it would be nice to have Saturday through Monday instead of Friday through Sunday, especially when floating and trying to avoid the Saturday crowds.

[Cajun Po-Boy]

Originally Posted by mlong

It would be much easier to get sites if you were not allowed to book them a year in advance. PA State Parks allow booking 11 months ahead. Assateaque SP in MD allows 364 day advance booking. How many of us can book that far ahead. They should start cutting back to a few months in advance.

I can agree to that...6mths advance booking would be a lot easier on everybody, especially when you are trying to get in the heavily popular parks

[pwrstroke2012]

I know what your going through. My "kids" are 22 and 23 now but when they were school age finding time was tough. Soccer, band, a firefighters schedule plus a part time job. We would sometimes just have one night to go but we did it just to get away. This was before the state parks allowed pre register and it was first come. It may be frustrating but it is well worth it. Our children still go with us if their schedule allows which sometimes means moving our plans around also. BTW, snowing here (central ohio) to this AM.

[mlong]

Booking a year or so in advance does not give others a chance to explore different sites in a campground they like. My wife likes Assateaque SP. There are no hook ups in most of the campground. One small loop has electric hook up available but it is impossible to get a spot there since you can reserve your site for the next year the day after you check out. There is no window of opportunity for other to take these spots. I personally don't need electric all the time but, there are certain times it's nice. Especially at the beach when it can get really hot.

[KyDan]

If you cut the advance booking time you create a race to book sites on
THE exact day (6 months from now or 3 months from now or .....)
that the booking becomes available.
You can literally log in to book on the 1st morning and find the website busy or your spots already taken.

When KY state parks first started booking sites in advance I hated it
because we had the luxury of taking a long weekend almost at a whim.
We could arrive at the park on a Thursday afternoon and stay 3 nites.
We always got a good site because most folks have to work for a
living and can't arrive till Friday afternoon.
It gave us a real advantage.

Now that I'm used to the reserve routine I can live with it.
Some folks still camp on a whim and just go and hope to find a site
somewhere when they get there.

We have traditionally taken long trips in June for the last several years.
Booking in advance really takes the stress out of my trips.
Last summer for example we had 4 stops.

Hocking Hills Ohio
Niagara Falls NY
Pinery Provincial Park ON
Holland state park Michigan
I had sites booked at all stops and knew we'd have a spot when we
arrived.

Most parks were not full during the week and we would have been fine
just driving in cold BUT they filled up on weekends.
Without reservations we would have had to leave on Friday most places....
Reservations are a curse or a blessing depending on how you look at it.

So sorry you canceled yours before you thought it through.
Bummer......

[extremebike]

I'm not going to complain about the ability to book ahead. Forty years ago there was no reservation system and I have sit in the parking lot waiting for people to leave. I have also driven from one park to the other looking for a spot, any spot.

We had the phone in reservations before the internet which was as big a disaster to book a spot. Whether the booking time is long or short makes no difference booking will always be difficult, but at least now you can plan ahead. Ontario Parks went through a learning curve getting the booking and cancellations sorted out but it works mostly OK now. They provide pictures of the site so I can see if I can get the trailer in without difficulty. I was surprised when looking at some of the state park web sites that pictures were not available.

[Firefighter969]

I say miss a little school it's not like it is High School go camping enjoy the camping with them while they are young,

[KyDan]

WAY back in the early to mid '60s my folks took a couple long "out west"
trips. We started with a rented canvass top pop up very basic camper.
It LEAKED when it rained!

My dad had a Rand McNally camping guide and he poured thru it and mapped
out our trip and schedule using free gas station maps. When it was time to move to another location
we'd have to get up and be on the road sometimes by 3 or 4 AM
The reason was we had miles to go and needed to be at the next camp
ground by mid day or at least early afternoon so we could get a site before
they filled up.

Gimme reservations any day!

[R Whitlow]

Originally Posted by Campingchick

Honey, it's preschool. You can't get those years back with your kids and making the memories is far more important. Your child is going to get soooo much more out of your trip and family time then they ever will with an extended week of preschool. My kids are teenagers now and they STILL talk about all the adventures we've taken with our camper. You can never get back that time...NEVER!!! Think about it. It's a no brainer.

Agreed
Think about it how many of us can remember our preschool but we can all remember spending time on family vacations.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Forest River Forums mobile app

[GASPEDDLER]

I run into this all the time. I'm a federal worker and get all the national holidays off but my wife who is a teacher and my kids don't always. I understand there are quite a few federal holidays but come on, at least give them Veterans Day and Memorial Day off! I end up canceling most of those long weekends trip. If my kids were still in daycare though, you bet I'd be pulling them out.

[mlhawke]

My daddy own a small aircraft and would at the drop of the hat pull all four of us kids out of school and go fly somewhere. Mom hated it as we had to buy cloths once we got there. Those are my favorite memories, not sitting in third grade English! Take the kids out on hookie, your stories will be better for it! Happy Camping!!!

[YoungKopernik]

Kids were in kinder & 2nd we took an extra week in spring to do the Grand Canyon and area
1st & 3rd we took 14 days extra in spring for Yellow Stone and area up to Mt Rushmore
2rd & 4th we did and extra ten days in spring to do the Utah Loop and some
3th & 5th we did an extra 10 days in December to do Florida: Everglades to Disney
Last year we did an extra week before spring break to do New Mexico Balloon Festival and all along the way
Our schools do a home school thing. If we give at least a month notice the school will get us the work needed to get done, the school gets paid and the kids don’t get marked as absent. The rule is it needs to be more than three days and they want to know at least a month in advanced.
I am not sure it will keep working as they get into high school but until it stops working we will do it.
My kids learn a so much while traveling from map skills(road and topographical), budget, cooking, dam hydraulics and energy, wind energy, fish ladders, many fish hatcheries, many caves, so many lava tubes, volcanic activity, swim with manatee, swim with dolphins, Indian cliff dwellings, dinosaur tracks, slot canyons, tide pools, missile silos, desserts, rainforest, volcanoes, kayaking, snorkeling, fishing for everything, more historical sites than I don’t know ……..more nature than I most know exist…constellations, meteor showers……
I know my kids pretend not to listen but I can’t help but smile when I hear them explaining to someone about places we’ve been and things they’ve learned(they do it all the time). Physics, biology, history, social studies and so much common sense; man, my kids are lucky
John

[Terier]

It can be hard to make plans 6-11 months in advance. I usually stay at a CA state park and usually just book it for my time off. One advantage is for a small fee that I can cancel the reservation or reschedule for another date, site or campground.

Times have changed since I was in kindergarten and preschool is important but not critical. Going camping can be valuable for many reasons from family time to kids using their imagination to play like we did in our childhood. Depending on the age group there are teachable lessons while camping.

PS
It doesn't hurt to keep checking for availability. More often than not I have picked up reservations after someone else cancelled.