First long trip through the Rocky Mountains?

[mike1306]

Santa brought us a 5th wheel. We want to take our first long trip this summer through the Canadian Rockies. We live in TN and will start out headed to New Mexico and then North up into Canada. I know we need our passports. For planning purposes is it best to make a detailed plan that includes determining camp sites for every time we stop for a few days? Will drive 6 to 7 hours per day depending on the distance between campgrounds. I went to tripadvisor and found some of the most favorite campsites in Canada. Will do the same for the Rockies in the US. Amy tips for planning a trip like this? Being retired, time is not of the essence. Thinking maybe 2 to 3 months for the entire adventure. Thanks for your experiences.
Mike, Diane and Maci

[Gold Country Livin']

try "www.rvparkreviews.com" That has some good info. Good Sam has an easy "trip planner" if you are a member, or join it, $27/year I think. The planner is easy and gives you time and distance. You can easily add stops etc. but do not rely on their campground locator. They only give you some of the campgrounds. Another site I use but does not have all camps, is "www.campsitephotos.com". These provide additional looks of sites and some are actually quite good. If they list a campground, I find that they take pictures of each site.

[JCZhome]

If you're traveling in the summer months (after school is out) then advance reservations are recommended. However, from fall to spring we never make reservations more than a couple of days in advance and often times just wing it. This allows you to spend an extra day or so when you find that really nice RV park in an area that you'd wished you could spend another day or so in. You can try this for the first few days/weeks and if you find it's not working for you then reserve further in advance.

By the way, we have the 376TH so it's 41'4" but we've always been able to find some place. If we're going to stay someplace for a few days, a week or more then we get a little more selective. But if we're just spending the night and go then we're pretty much just looking for a low price that has 50 amps (don't need the pool, hot tub, game room, modern bathhouse, etc.) and will even use walmart if it's just eat, sleep and go to the next great place. We've found that we try to avoid the high tourist areas on holidays and may even try to avoid them on weekends.

Curious why you picked New Mexico to the west? You have some really great areas to explore very close, southern Utah, just about all of the western half of Colorado is worth spending time.

Here's a pick of us up on top of Vail Pass.....

[mike1306]

Our son is a Navy geek stationed at White Sands NM. Thought we'd stop in and pester him for a few days and play a round of golf while I can still beat him.

If you're traveling in the summer months (after school is out) then advance reservations are recommended. However, from fall to spring we never make reservations more than a couple of days in advance and often times just wing it. This allows you to spend an extra day or so when you find that really nice RV park in an area that you'd wished you could spend another day or so in. You can try this for the first few days/weeks and if you find it's not working for you then reserve further in advance.

By the way, we have the 376TH so it's 41'4" but we've always been able to find some place. If we're going to stay someplace for a few days, a week or more then we get a little more selective. But if we're just spending the night and go then we're pretty much just looking for a low price that has 50 amps (don't need the pool, hot tub, game room, modern bathhouse, etc.) and will even use walmart if it's just eat, sleep and go to the next great place. We've found that we try to avoid the high tourist areas on holidays and may even try to avoid them on weekends.

Curious why you picked New Mexico to the west? You have some really great areas to explore very close, southern Utah, just about all of the western half of Colorado is worth spending time.

Here's a pick of us up on top of Vail Pass.....

[Gold Country Livin']

Mike, I am in the middle of planning 2 separate trips next summer, one to Oregon and one to Montana. During the summer, they are already starting to get booked up based on my research and phone calls in the last few weeks. Plus some have shut down for the winter. If you are doing tourist spots (if that's your thing), like JCZ said, definitely reserve something, too many people !!

JCZ......Nice pix!

[Markmiller639]

I just booked out a trip for July in Northern California and Oregon and many parks are booked out, especially for anything 40' or larger. The same scenario a few years ago when we did a Yellowstone trip in a 30' trailer. Depending on time of year as mentioned, if anytime in the summer and in a large 5th wheel it needs to be booked 6-12 months in advance. You can leave a few days in between, but I would at least have a reservation for a couple days every week so you can pull in and refresh the trailer. Make sure to visit Custer State Park in South Dakota if you get a chance, beautiful place.

[sande005]

In this day and age - YES, make a plan and get reservations ASAP. A few years ago, it was dicey as to whether you could find a place in fun areas by just showing up. With the current boom in RV sales, it is getting to be impossible. In the last couple of years, in every campground I've been in, have seen many people turned away for not having reservations. There are numerous small roadside RV parks good for overnight stops that aren't as critical - but they are in places that otherwise are not very attractive to multi-night explorations. But anything that could be counted as a "destination" area - one where you will want to spend a few days exploring, will be very booked up - sometimes many, many months in advance. I'm going through that now working on a too late planning start "snowbird" trip in a couple of months, and finding it pretty tough to find spots in my hoped for areas. The closer you get to a National Park, most State Parks, or anyplace within one day of a moderate city, the further out you have to plan, especially when traveling during the peak months of summer when everyone else wants to camp, also. Whether you have to have full hookups and are/are not willing to pay very high rates for a site will have a big effect on what you can find, also. Other resources: allstays.com, rvparkreviews.com and campsitephotos.com

[kregli]

Sounds like a great trip! I've traveled a lot in the last 4 years and I'll make an advance reservation if I know where I want to be for a few days. If I'm just overnighting, I'll call the day before or at noon the day of or just show up. I've only been turned away once and I found a place a mile away. On the other hand, making a reservation gives you a sense of security. I'd recommend planning shorter driving days when you're driving multiple days in a row - driving gets old after a while. Leave yourself a little time for repairs - on that long a trip something will probably need maintenance. Bring less of everything - there are stores along the way if you forget something, but it's hard to get rid of stuff you find you don't need. Most of all, take your time and have fun!

[orbiker]

I agree with Keith.
Don't burn yourself out driving long days. Go 4 or 5 hours and find something interesting to do. Camp for a few days and move somewhere else interesting. My wife and I like to stop at museums. The little town museums have local people in the museum and are full of information.

Mike
Are you going in the first part of summer or later? Summer in the Rockies doesn't start until July.

[JCZhome]

Aug is the warmest and the least amount of rainfall for the Vancouver, BC area (which is very close to the Canadian Rockies) so Aug would be ideal month up there. However, most of the workamper positions start on May 1, which means most of the RV parks open by May 15th and a few at higher elevations will be later, depending on the snowfall in the spring.

We start in Rapid City (the Black Hills and Mt. Rushmore) of South Dakota on May 1st also. It looks like most of the Colorado workamper jobs also start on May 1st or May 15th according to the workamper classifieds.