National Park Camping: The Good Ol' Days

Above, at Manzanita Lake Campground at Lassen Volcanic National Park in 2017. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Once upon a time, people could jump into their cars or campers and head out for a summer camping vacation trip to any national park and just pull up to the gate of one of their campgrounds, pay the fee, and select a campsite and camp. No reservations were needed (the parks didn't reserve campsites in those days). No problem. No crowds.

The only time we had to face a full campground at a national park was in 1972 at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We parked outside of the park in an overflow area in our 1968 Buick Le Sabre for the night. My mom and I slept inside the car and my dad slept on the hood. We woke up early the next morning, went to the campground gate (we were one of the first in line there) and when it opened, we were able to get a campsite. We were tent camping at the time.

Nowadays, in order to get a campsite in many of our national parks, one must make reservations months in advance. This is now the rule, rather than the exception.

Only two times in recent years I had been able to pull into a national park, pay the camping fees (without prior reservations) and get a campsite. Those were in 2015 at Joshua Tree National Park (Cottonwood Campground) and 2017 at Lassen Volcanic National Park (Manzanita Lake Campground). Both parks had plenty of spaces available. This used to be the rule, rather than the exception.

The days where one can camp in a national park without reservations were the "good ol' days" and are almost gone now. 

Emily Woodbury at RV Travel has an article on a recent trip while remembering days gone by when there were no crowds and plenty of campsites available. 

Here's a snippet:

I know what the parks were once like. I remember camping with my dad, Chuck, in Bryce Canyon National Park years ago. We arrived in the afternoon and pulled into a campsite practically hanging over the hoodoo formations below. No problem. Peace, quiet, open campsites and no crowds. And it wasn’t just like this at Bryce… Death Valley, Yellowstone, Arches… it was all the same back then.

To read it, go here.