Planning for the Trip

We are back home from our maiden voyage to Bull Run Park and continuing to work on planning for our National Parks Adventure. Planning is necessary in these days when the very crowded national park campgrounds fill up early in the day and don't take reservations. How did we know this? By subscribing to RV related publications, both in print (e.g., Motor Home Magazine) and on line (e.g., RVTravel.com). Chuck Woodbury in RVTravel.com has been writing lately about how, with the boomer generation reaching retirement age, RVs are flying out of dealerships in record numbers. That means more campers vying for available campsites. To make matters worse, campground operators are not creating new sites. In fact, many are converting existing sites to more lucrative cabins.

What does one do? We are not risk-takers, so we opt for planning out our trip so we know where we will be and when. That way, we can find our campground of choice and reserve a site. Reservations are a necessary fact of life for RV travel, especially for the best campgrounds. For part of our adventure, we will be traveling with friends, so we'll be needing two campsites, preferably ones close together if not side-by-side. As an example, we booked our campsites in Grand Canyon RV Trailer Village about six months ago when we first decided to go there.

Campgrounds that do take reservations, especially the campgrounds in the parks, book up early, so detailed planning is essential. Here are a few things we have considered as we planned our trip:

• Hours per day are we willing to drive (6 to 7 hours max)
• Type of amenities we require during our stay (full hookups preferred; i.e., Electric, Water and Sewer. Cable is a nice to have and we are not depending on reliable WiFi).
• Transportation while we are at a campground or National Park (rental cars company that will pick us up at the campground.)
• The route will we take: Interstate highway or more scenic non-Interstate paths (mostly Interstate to make good time, with occasional ventures off the main to see something special).
• Location of rest stops, available fuel, and of course, the campgrounds (Good Sam Trip Planner does a nice job at this)
• What are the campgrounds like? How do they compare to each other? (We are relying on Good Sam ratings for the campgrounds and seek to find 9's or 10's across the board when possible. Clean rest rooms are paramount.)
• Weather such as average, high and low temperatures, likelihood of rain (helps with taking the right clothing and outdoor gear).

We used two tools extensively: the Good Sam Club Trip Planner and Google Maps. Trip Planner is geared toward RV'ers. It provides a comprehensive routing utility that takes into account vertical clearances, road condition and other factors that RV'ers need to know. You set a distance off your route and Trip Planner will display campground locations, fuel stops that offer Good Sam discounts, rest stops, attractions, etc. [Note: you must be a member of Good Sam Club to use the Trip Planner. Cost is nominal and worth every penny.] Google Maps is another option, but does not take into account RV restrictions and uses a higher speed to compute driving times. Together, they help bound the trip.

Both mapping applications also provide quick links to the various campground and park websites [Note that some campgrounds don't have websites, and some websites are pretty primitive]. So we used them as a jumping point to learn more about our destinations and for choosing a campground.