Less People Camping. Options

[DXSMac]

but since then I try not to worry about fuel prices and just look at it as investing in my families memories.

I like the attitude of this comment...... but as an ex-Auditor, I'm getting a little tired of the commercialization and overuse of the word "investment." This word appears to be used by the advertising industry to justify high prices. "It's an INVESTMENT...... [in whatever it is....]." "Investments" are..... SUPPOSED..... to give one financial returns, not intangible returns........

But WHATEVER...... With these gas prices, I guess I'm "investing" in my happiness!

JJ

[John Blue]

Here in Topsail Hill State Park FL this park is close to full now and has been over the past couple days. First time to see most all the tent sites and cabins have people as well. Lots of RV units on Hwy 98 as well.

[edcornflake]

Even with Diesel at ~ $4.00 a gallong it'll still be cheaper for me to drive to Disney and stay in Ft. Wilderness than it would be to fly down and stay in the Contemporary or Coronado Springs (Mid tier properties). I've got weekends planned out through the Spring and Summer as well. Reservations are in and deposits (mostly only partially or non refundable) are paid - We're going camping, even if it means I have to sell the dog, and possibly the kids.

[ds4006]

Just starting out and the COE that were at is only half full. Great choices too pick from

[Wink]

This winter the south state and COE parks were full in Florida.But I was told by some of the host that this summers reservations were way down so far this year. I know some of the parks we like that were full when I tried to get in now have open spots.Time will tell.

[B. Kidd]

Being full-timers, we put alot of mileage under us last year from April to October doing an east coast turnaround from Vegas to NYC and back. Was planning to do a Calgary trip this summer, but have opted out to spend the summer on the Oregon coast. A case of driving less, staying longer, and playing harder.
Friends of ours manage a resort up there and we called them at the beginning of April to make reservations. At that time, they only had 4 spaces remaining with very few cancellations. Glad I called when I did! Even with higher gas prices (tho' they've begun to minimally come down), availability at a particular place seems to take in other factors as to the quality of the park and area of destination, etc, etc..
Fortunately those $5/gal. predictions a few months ago haven't come to fruition, as our economy can hardly be sustainable at $4 plus per gallon, as economic stagnation slouches forwards.
I drive a gasser and will embrace the days when reg. unleaded comes back down to around $3.50/gal. (can't believe I'm even saying this!). Believe it will by mid to late summer.
Funny how that works when oil drops in price per barrel, prices at the pump drop dreadfully slow. Given the opposite, pump prices can rise a dime overnite!

[Dutch_12078]

Fortunately those $5/gal. predictions a few months ago haven't come to fruition, as our economy can hardly be sustainable at $4 plus per gallon, as economic stagnation slouches forwards.
I drive a gasser and will embrace the days when reg. unleaded comes back down to around $3.50/gal. (can't believe I'm even saying this!). Believe it will by mid to late summer.
Funny how that works when oil drops in price per barrel, prices at the pump drop dreadfully slow. Given the opposite, pump prices can rise a dime overnite!

We paid $3.24 a few days ago near Tulsa, OK for unleaded regular, and $3.66 near Indianapolis, IN today. I like the Tulsa price better...

We're on the last 1,000 miles of a 5,000 mile trip, and we have not needed a reservation anywhere we wanted to stop so far. I expect that may change after Memorial Day weekend.

[jamarynn1]

- We're going camping, even if it means I have to sell the dog, and possibly the kids.

Keep the dog, sell the kids. The dog doesn't need to go to college and wouldn't think of asking for $200 sneakers or expensive video games. You won't even have to buy him a car when he turns 16......he's happy chasing the neighbor's car.

[vincee]

count me in as jamarynn1, sell kids, dog shows love and appreciation, kids just want more, and besides, they won't lick your face.
Heading out today for the first of hopefully many nights of camping this seaseon. State park we are going to, Evangola State Park near Buffalo, NY is about half booked. Really suprised us so many of the choice sites with view of Lake Erie are taken not even taking into account the amount of walk-ins I'm sure they'll have.
Though motorized Rv sales are tanking (Again!), I've read that towables are doing a brisk business regardless of gas prices.

[Wink]

count me in as jamarynn1, sell kids, dog shows love and appreciation, kids just want more, and besides, they won't lick your face.

But then the kids don`t lick there bu## then lick you in the face to see which taste the best.

[Jerry S.]

Getting back to the original, year old topic of "less people camping". I thought last year (when this thread started), the only people who would "camp" less are those for whom costlier gas really does significantly increase the travel cost. For example, the weekender who "camps" once a month 100 miles from home or the 1-2 week vacationer who goes to one campground 200-500 miles from home won't camp less over an extra $50 in gas costs. It's the RVer who goes 10,000 miles every year for whom an extra $1,000 in gas cost is a lot of money. This year (2012), this increase is a similar increase to the difference between 2010 and 2011. I don't think you will necessarily see emptier campgrounds/RVparks in places that have a lot of local folks who use the parks. A New York RVer, for example, may stay in the northeast rather than go out to the Black Hills. Parks in the eastern half of the country really have a large potential customer base within 500 miles. While some parks may or may not have less customers, they will likely have less customers from more distant (1,000+ miles away) states.

When I first wrote the above last night, I completely forgot one of the other points I wanted to make. I am one of those "hooked" folks who checks this site on an almost daily basis - especially since I have been semi-home bound/immobilized since early April. Back then and through most of the winter, you could look at the "Home" page of this site and it might take 2 or 3 days for the recently reviewed parks listed on that page to "turnover". Now the list is turning over a daily, if not faster. Even if fewer people are camping, there has been an explosion of reviews on this site in recent weeks. All those areas that were mostly devoid of RV traveler for the past 5-6 months are suddenly starting to get the begining of these season business. I've seen a number of reviews by people evidently on their way to Alaska in early May.

[Fitzjohnfan]

Last week we stayed at Lake Powell, and I thought we would be hard-pressed to find a site since it was part of the Memorial Day week, but I was pleasantly suprized to find almost a whole loop nearly empty at the Wahheep Campground. What I did see however, was quite surpising. I woud guess that close to 1/2 of the units there were small RENTAL class C motor homes. The rest were taken up with the usual fivers, class A's, trailers, etc., but the majority were rentals, and many of the occupants were from other countries.
A rough conclusion was that the weak Euro was making travel to the US more appealing, but I'm not exactly sure how that works, and maybe this traffic is usual for this time of year in that area.

[Wink]

Last week we stayed at Lake Powell, and I thought we would be hard-pressed to find a site since it was part of the Memorial Day week, but I was pleasantly suprized to find almost a whole loop nearly empty at the Wahheep Campground. What I did see however, was quite surpising. I woud guess that close to 1/2 of the units there were small RENTAL class C motor homes. The rest were taken up with the usual fivers, class A's, trailers, etc., but the majority were rentals, and many of the occupants were from other countries.
A rough conclusion was that the weak Euro was making travel to the US more appealing, but I'm not exactly sure how that works, and maybe this traffic is usual for this time of year in that area.

I am also seeing a lot of rentals in the camp grounds.Some are not from the US but a lot are.

[edcornflake]

We stayed at a place near Cape May, NJ for Memorial day. The joint was PACKED. We wanted to change to a more accessible site (I had to flip the rig around and come in from the other side, cutting across the site, unhook the 5er at 90 degrees, then re-hitch just to get in the site) but they didn't have ANYTHING available for us. I had made my reservation months in advance, they were booked solid. That has not been my experience for the other 3 weekends we've gone out this year, but at least on a holiday weekend near the shore, it's busy, busy, busy.

[jamarynn1]

This is our fourth rv park since we left Florida on June 1st and all but one have been almost deserted, and that one only had five transient spots anyway. Right now, we're in a 160-site beautiful park in Virginia and there are only eight other rigs in the park. We're all alone in one area of the park and I LOVE IT!!! We're out for four months this year and it will be interesting to see how crowded the parks are going to be.