How To Build a Trip
It all begins with an idea. This pie-in-the-sky notion. Now that school is “back” in session, our fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants adventure mode is pretty idle. I think all campers/anyone who has ever traveled in general can agree that summer breaks, winter breaks, spring breaks and all the other “school breaks” in between make travel a total Cluster F. The only silver-lining of Covid was the opportunity to hit the road whenever you had an inkling… and a plan.
I begin the build by figuring out ONE singular goal place to visit. I have my favorite apps/websites that I use to start honing in on the specifics. My GO-TO is Roadtrippers.com. This website is rad: it’s along the lines of google maps directions, but you can add a ton of different filters to have the results you want popup. For example: I want to go to South Dakota, I’ve juuuuuuust started my research into it. First I plug in “starting from” and then plug in” “destination”. It tells me how many hours, miles, road options, camping along the way, points of interest, National Parks, etc. on the way or surrounding where I want to go. It can also build me sample itineraries of destinations (but because I’m so anal-OCD, I build my own itineraries (of course starting with the lists of “must-dos”.))
My next favorite website is CampNab.com. This beaut of this website offers notifications for your most sought after/impossible to get campgrounds… ie: Yosemite, which is my white rabbit because it is SO IMPOSSIBLE to get into those campgrounds. There is such a learning curve that seasoned campers have that newbie campers scramble to learn. It takes years to really start understanding the lead-times and competitive nature of booking and securing campsites. And I’m not even seasoned, I just have a wee dash of salt on my side now.
In the example of Yosemite, campsites are released in blocks of one month at a time, up to five months in advance, on the 15th of each month at 7:00am PST which means you have to have your ducks in a row. You have to do your research, study the campgrounds offered (remember inside the park is key), look at campground maps, know which site numbers are ideal (FHU? by a creek?) and then set your alerts on your calendar with all the information at the ready. Using my Yosemite example, I have an alert set for February 15th at 6:45am PST for Upper Pines, Lower Pines and North Pines and I have my ideal site numbers that meet my requirements. Muy importante: Make sure you book a campsite that will FIT your RV or Trailer. A lot of campgrounds are tent only, or have a max limitation on length.
Another fun detail that will make you lose your mind… all the different websites that you have to remember when trying to book a campsite. You have NPS.gov that has all the information about the National Parks, but you have to actually book your site through recreation.gov. Isn’t that so fun? If you want to book a state park or beach, well, each state has their very own confusing system on how to do that. Since we’re in California, reservecalifornia.com is our local darling. Have fun with South Dakota 👺.
Forrest Gump Point