Time to Reserve a Campground
Planning for your Summer Camping Trip 2018
It is the middle of winter but it is time to start thinking of those summer reservations and itineraries so that you are able to spend your spring, summer and fall camping time planning where to find that great micro-brewery or coffee shop instead of driving around hoping to find an empty campground. There are many great places in Southern B.C., Washington and Oregon to park a van, set up camp, get out your fly rod and enjoy the outdoors. Here is information on the 2018 reservation windows for parks in Washington, Oregon and B.C. We can help you with an itinerary if you simply mail us, info@chuckanutwestfalias.com. We have some really great four day itineraries for spring and fall that get you outdoors enjoying the beaches near Tofino or Mountain biking in the Whistler/Pemberton. Even if you already own a van or plan to use your tent and need advice for camping, mountain biking or hiking in our area simply drop us a mail and we would be happy to help you out. (as long as we are not busy getting one of our vans ready for the road).
Reservation Windows:
BC Provincial Parks– Make your reservations up to four months in advance of your anticipated camping date. The campgrounds on the sunshine coast and near Quadra Island are perfect for your salt water beach adventure. http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/reserve/frontcountry.html
Canadian National Parks (Banff, Jasper, Green Point on Vancouver Island and many other great parks on their web site) Reservations open on January 8, 2018 and they are sites can be reserved from April 2018 until March 2019. Now this seems crazy to us but that is the direction they are moving.
http://www.pc.gc.ca/en/voyage-travel/reserve
United States National Parks-Kalaloch is booking now and reservations can be made 6 months in advance. https://www.recreation.gov/camping/kalaloch/r/campgroundBookingWindow.do?contractCode=NRSO&parkId=70944
Sol Duc Hotsprings resort camping reservations can be made a year in advance. This is a great place for a day hike in the rain forest followed by a soak in a modern hot springs. This is not the log lined hot springs that we visited in the 70s.
Washington State Parks – For these parks you need to go to the reservation site https://washington.goingtocamp.com and check out availability. Extremely popular sites like Spencer Spit on Lopez or Fort Casey book out early.
Lake Chelan City Park-They take reservations 9 months in advance and this is a park with tight camp sites but the walks around the city, wine tasting, swimming in the lake and the quiet vibe of the city of Chelan, wine tasting and makes it tolerable for one or two nights on a North Cascades loop trip. https://cityofchelan.us/departments/parks-recreation/rv-park/
Oregon State Parks-Reservations are available up to 9 months in advance. The most recent check of our favorite location at Beverly Beach had several nice tent sites (the type of site that we use for our vans) left for mid July. These campgrounds always have some first come first served sites but so often people already camping in the area will run up and “occupy” those walk up sites until their friends arrive.
Camping Resources for Wild Camping or the unusual private campground:
Hipcamp– We have had customers use this site to find some really interesting campgrounds. www.hipcamp.com A known favorite is a little spot on Whidbey Island called Whidbey Island Sheep Camp.
IOverlander– This is the site that we use to find free campsites and DNR/Forest service camping. They do not have much listed for the North Cascades National Park but there are many sites on the Olympic Peninsula. http://ioverlander.com
Travel Resources:
GasBuddy– we use this handy app to help us find gas stations when we are on the road. This is especially useful when driving VanGogh as that van only runs on premium gas.
We hope that planning your summer adventure will give you some respite from the short days and grey skies of winter. Meanwhile, we are looking forward to Baja camping soon,
Bob and Maureen
Chuckanut Westfalias