Making Reservations vs. Stopping When and Where We Want

We stayed over a week at Mossyrock Park, which is run by the Tacoma Power District.

 Evening at Riffe Lake, Mossyrock Park

This was the first year I made reservations, mostly at State and National Parks, for all of our over 90 nights of summer travel, before we left Jojoba in Spring. In other years I have made reservations for special places, like when I made reservations at Florida State parks in the Keys eleven months ahead. But I mostly have relied on making online reservations a few days or week ahead. I found this only worked part of the time and I sometimes ended up calling commercial parks as we traveled. These were mostly one night stays, that I picked  out of the Passport America book or used the Allstays site on the web. I do try to look at some of the reviews, but if it was same day, it was hard. Personally, I find hunting for a park or even a Walmart quite stressful while driving on a travel day, and we often want to stay in a place for several days. 

Cost and security are both very important to me. We do not use the big golf courses or other amenities that are included in the cost of some high end commercial parks. Nor am I comfortable with the tight spaces found at some of the old, and often NOT less expensive, commercial parks. 

Even with the reservation fee charged on State Park reservations, I find that we average a savings of $10 or more per night. Which comes to at least $900 for the summer! We put that into our fuel budget, and get to stay at some of the prettiest, friendliest places in the country. Of course we could save even more if we boondocked, but that is not our way.

Our rig is a 35' class A.
Some state and national parks have size limits of less than that, or have only a few larger spots. Some have no size limits. The upper area of the Mossyrock Park, called the Birds-Eye area, had no size restrictions. Ours was probably the only spot with two big trees, but we were still able to get satellite below the branches.

Getting a spot in most State parks during the week is no problem.
But we have found they are usually quite full on weekends, with more local people just getting away for a few days, or camping with their friends and families.

We see many groups on weekends. 

This friendly couple was "holding down the fort" for the others in their large group, who were out on the lake.

Their group of 40 reserves the same adjacent spaces every year, months in advance. Lots of kids, lots of bikes! Unfortunately they cannot have a campfire at the center of their large circle of chairs because there a burn ban went into effect two nights ago.

So, since we are retired and camping full time in the summer, reservations are required if we want to stay for the weekends at State Parks.

We do not have a boat, nor do we fish, but we like lakes, and it really doesn't take much to amuse us. 

One evening we took a ride down a small road  had a sign that read "Dam Viewing Point".
At the end of the road was what felt like a forgotten little park. It had a moss encased information sign that told us this dam was the tallest in Washington, and that it generated 40% of Tacoma Power's electricity. 

Ah! Summer Vacation!

We also came across this group of happy looking teenagers. We noticed they were not smoking anything, and only seemed to have a 12 pack of Mountain Dew. But remembering our own youth, we wondered what they might be putting in it! 

Later in the week we stopped a roadside pull out from which we could see the other side of the dam. I thought this picture tells the story: big dam, perfect summer sunny day, boy fishing. 
There were several other people fishing, but he seemed to have the best seat.









While at Mossyrock, we took a 75 mile round trip Jeep ride to see the "other" side of Mt. Saint Helen.

East side of Mt. Saint Helen

 We viewed her from west side last year.

A farther ridgeline in the blast area

It was interesting to see the difference between the areas that have been replanted by the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company, vs. natural regrowth. 

Trees in the blast zone all lie in the same direction.

Before the eruption, Spirit Lake had several Boy Scout Camps and private lodges along its shores.

One man famously lost his life, when he refused to leave his lodge on the lake before the mountain blew. The white edges of the lake, in the image above, are huge floats of logs washed down since the eruption in 1980.

There is a steep trail down to the shoreline, but there is no public access to the waters of Spirit Lake now.

There was some haze from distant fires, but we were able to see Mt. Adams from the Windy Ridge Viewpoint. We could not see Mt. Hood, which can be seen on a clear day, but got a glimpse of Mt. Rainier on the drive back.

As we looked at Mt. Saint Helen, I noticed something that looked like a cloud rising from a ridge.

Using the zoom on my camera, I was able to see it better and decided it might be a volcano vent.
It was all rock, so it couldn't have been a wildfire. 

She is still active!












We did do other things while at this park, including visiting our  new friend Kay from Jojoba, where we will be camping during the Labor Day weekend, and going to the local diner for a fish fry.  

Live music was being played

We heard about the local Blueberry Festival that was held in town over the weekend, and decided to stop in. As a previous exhibitor at Art and Craft Festivals I had great sympathy for the vendors at this one. It was almost deserted. 


But, all in all it was a quiet, relaxing, long week, just living the life.

Moving on Monday.

Reservations, Reservations, Reservations

Although we are still parked at Camp Driveway in California, I am confident we will soon be on our way.

I have been working on our plans for NEXT winter.  We want to go to Florida, and from what I have read on the blogs if you want to stay at State Parks, you really must get your reservations far far in advance.  For some of the parks reservations can be made eleven months in advance, and if you want to get a spot at one in the southern part of the state in late December or January you had better not wait.  They really fill up fast! Some fill in the first seconds they open reservations on the first day!

Picture from the Web.  Doesn't hurt to dream!

I did manage to get two weeks at Long Key State Park.  Not Key West as I had hoped, but the Keys none the less. 

Not us, this picture is from the park Web Site

I also got two weeks in a park  south of Maimi called the John Pennekamp Coral Reef.  We are not divers, but the beach looks pretty good, and maybe we can find some commercial boat tours to take in the area.

For our non-RV friends, the big differences between state parks and commercial RV parks in the Keys are cost and amenities.  In December - January, a spot in a commercial park can cost close to or more than $100 per night.  I checked on the January 2015 monthly rate for one park I was interested in and it was over $2600 plus electricity. 

The state parks cost a little more than $40 per night.  There is a 11% or 12% tax. At the commercial parks you have a sewer hook up.  At the Floriday State Parks you don't.  This simply means you have to drive  to another location in the park about once a week to empty your holding tanks.  We don't mind doing that. 

I have also made one or two week reservations at three other Florida State parks for January 2015:  Johnathan Dickinson, Kissimmee Prairie, and Wekiwa Springs.  I also have all but one week of November covered. 

From what I understand there is no boondocking in Florida in winter. Unless you have friends with an open driveway, or are traveling in a van type class D that can be discreetly parked.  I'm sure we will learn more when we are there, but for next winter I figure it is best to know where we will be staying.

I sometimes get the impression that true boondockers just pull up and park, but the truth is there is a lot of planning that is done there as well. As I read their blogs I catch statements about "checking out" this place or that for future use. Camping on the public lands in the Southwest also seem to take some planning, or at least the willingness to move if the spot they first park in is not right for one reason or another.

I hope that in our future we will explore many different options. Some high end resorts, some Walmart overnights, some Bureau of Land Management or Corps of Engineering campgrounds, and of course state, national and regional parks.  

As they say "Home is where you park it" and I am sooo ready.

The number of days until March 25th!