How do you, or do you?

[carlkeigley]

Do you plan each trip in total? Or do you just set out and follow the stars?

How do you determine one camp from the one you are leaving? Camp books?

I don't know how one could plan in the beginning as many places require reservations, or are sold out before the season even starts. How does one make the experience stress free? If there is any such animal.

[Pam Garlow]

The beauty about pulling your own 'bed' behind you is that you can always find a place to sleep in a pinch while you are travelling. (Flying J reststops, Walmarts among a few) Check out the campgrounds in your state, and make a few calls or check the internet. Many take reservations online. There are many state parks and private parks, and unless you are trying to get into the 'most popular' one on a holiday weekend, you can usually get a campsite. Some people prefer to camp 'off grid' in the National Forests also. I usually have a campground already reserved for my weekends. And I don't try to camp on holiday weekends because that's when they're the most crowded. I camp to get away from stress, so I don't sweat anything when I'm camping. Its not suppose to be perfect, just fun

[carlkeigley]

That was one of the bigger reasons to purchase a camper this year.
Never really had a real vacation. Usually worked around the place those times of the year. What few trips we made I hated trying to find a decent motel for the nights. Like you say, I was thinking that with a mobile motel a person could just pull over somewhere and go to bed. Hopefully I can learn to unwind and who knows, stay unwound.

[Steve Hammel]

I always have a destination but I'm very flexible on how I get there. I might think I'm going to spend X amount of time somewhere but it usually changes because I like another place I found along the way or I heard about something from another traveler.

[Shirley LaMoine]

Carl, I joined Camping Singles of Colorado. We camp mostly on weekends at national and state campgrounds in Colorado and also boondock. Every year there is a "big" trip; this year we're touring Zions and Bryce in Southern Utah. Someone from the club sends email reminders telling us when to sign up for campground sites. The club offers the safety of camping in a group or you can be alone as much as you'd like. Club members plan events like dining, fishing, hiking, boating, music festivals, 4-wheeling, etc. Every campout there is at least one pot luck. Many of the club members have been camping together for years and their system is well-honed. This takes all the guess work out of camping for me. Although there have been a few marriages, for the most part it is a camping club, not a dating club. Just an option!

Shirley

[Mike Magee]

I don't make reservations, as a rule. But I do plan things out quite a bit, in a flexible sort of way. All spring I'm looking at the area I want to visit and the route to and back, along with the potential camping locations along the route and in the destination area. So before I leave in summer I have a good idea where I can stop each night.

But it's still very flexible and loose. Like last summer, I planned on night 1 at a place I like in Iowa, and night 2 north of Duluth. But on day 2 I decided I didn't feel like going that far, so I pulled out the big camping directory I carry along and refreshed my memory about a state park along the route, N of Minneapolis... got there about 4:30 and just relaxed for the evening. Then a few days later I thought, hmm instead of staying in MN I think I'll head to Michigan's U.P. for a few days; I'd already looked at CGs there and had a strong idea of where I could go. After a night at Porcupine Mountains SP I wound my way to McLain SP, showed up at 4 pm on a Sunday and lucked into a rare waterside campsite (that I probably could never have planned to get without reservations 4 months in advance).

So if one spends the time in preparation, looking up CGs and becoming familiar with the options in an area, it becomes easy to shift on the fly and pick whatever option suits you on the spur of the moment. It feels non-rigid and liberating to vacation this way. (Wish my father could have learned to relax like that with our family trips back in the day!)

[hotfishtacos]

Originally Posted by carlkeigley

That was one of the bigger reasons to purchase a camper this year.
Never really had a real vacation. Usually worked around the place those times of the year. What few trips we made I hated trying to find a decent motel for the nights. Like you say, I was thinking that with a mobile motel a person could just pull over somewhere and go to bed. Hopefully I can learn to unwind and who knows, stay unwound.

Agreed! We were on a 6000 mile motorcycle trip last July with every stop planned and paid in advance and we decided there had to be a better more flexible approach to traveling. While we were traveling into Yellowstone for the second time from the Northeast, we were driving along the Yellowstone river wishing we could just stop and call that beautiful spot over there next to the river (BTW, we love to fish) ours for the next whatever days....It was then we decided to buy a trailer so we could take our motel room with us and stop whenever we wanted to and stay as long as we wanted to when we wanted to. We also liked the idea of doing our own meals since we don't like about 90% of restaurant prepared food. Within 3 months we had our egg...Problem solved! We are now trying to learn how to become really good at remote camping. Here are some pictures.

This is our remote campsite...



Here is a closeup...



Indian "morteros" we saw hiking...



A "Pictograph we saw hiking....



We were away from everyone for miles and had a really dark sky at night....learning to camp off the grid!

Steve & Margarita

[Hazel in Sk]

What fascinating pictures hotfish. I can 'see' them so clearly in my mind's eye!! ;-)

Most of the Parks in Saskatchewan have banned any sort of camping outside of the approved sites. We have found though that it is still possible to do it providing you set up where the "Inspector" folk rarely go!

[Jim Bennett]

For the most part, our trips right now are somewhat planned. This is because due to still working, I can only get away from my business for just over two weeks tops.

However, I yearn for the day I am retired, and will kinda set a couple goals to achieve on a trip, but figure out the route and timing, while stopping lots along the way.

[Francesca Knowles]

I'll answer by posting both plan and outcome from a trip we took in 2011...

The BLUE line is "the plan" and the RED line is the actual outcome!



We did actually manage to stay in the State of Washington...

Francesca

[Jim Bennett]

I see no BLUE or RED lines, Francesca.

[Roy in TO]

Planning is a 50:50 thing. Final destinations, a definate reservation. On route varies, travelling over a long weekend in popular areas, you want a reservation. Same applies to local festivals. What are your timeframes like? Some days you can drive further than others, some days you don't want to drive. There are too many variables to go through it all.

[Francesca Knowles]

Originally Posted by Jim Bennett

I see no BLUE or RED lines, Francesca.

Weird!

I see them....and they showed up in the thread I copied the image from:
We don't need no stinkin' plan!

Francesca

[honda03842]

We basically do not make reservations unless we have to go to a specific spot at a speciic time/

We geneally travel during the off season from September to May. During our travels we always seem to be able to find an adequate place to stay.

Actually over the last three years places that often would be full were not because of the economy.

In our 315 day trip last year I belive that we did not make any reservations. In our general travels we hardly ever no WHEN or where we will be. We never drive more than 150 miles in a day and usually stop by 1PM giving us time to explore where we are. If it's interesting, we spend a few days if not we move on in the morning.

Sometimes as we may call ahead to see if a place has room for us. Due to our size and the general nature of the country's economy and fuel prices there are fewer people out there. We were not turned away once this past year. This included national and state parks that are often crowded.

We did make one rally reservation for the Oregon NOG though it appeared there were empty sites there as well.

Now we are retired and not on any form of schedule.

[hotfishtacos]

Norm and Ginny,

Norm and Ginny, what I've read about your adventures really inspired me. I know from reading your exploits that going on a moment's notice where you want is really possible. Unfortunately (or not) I tend to overdue things when it comes to preparations, unlike Jim who is a practicing "minimalist"...except for the beautiful trailer!...

Steve

[Jim Bennett]

Originally Posted by Francesca Knowles

Weird!

I see them....and they showed up in the thread I copied the image from:
We don't need no stinkin' plan!

Francesca

I can see it when I follow that link, but not here.

[Donna D.]

I'm still a working stiff and plan most of my vacation time a year in advance. The Oregon State Park system allows reservations nine months to the date of arrival. The cool part for 2013 is I have about 30 nights of camping planned and every night is now paid for! It really helps me when budgeting. For all of 2013, I now only need to budget fuel and food. Works for me! YMMV.

[hotfishtacos]

Originally Posted by Donna D.

I'm still a working stiff and plan most of my vacation time a year in advance.

So do we and our 2013 is also planned...but someday??!!.....we'll be free...

[Steve L.]

I'm still working so I plan the stops. On long trips I drive a day, stay a day, etc. So I plan my spontaneity(!) I can usually break the travel days into bite-sized chunks rather than a death-march marathon. And I try to pick my "stay a days" somewhere interesting.

[Thomas G.]

It helps to arrive before Friday PM and stay the weekend. Unless the destination is really popular, you can generally get a drop in site on other days.