Any RVer who’s traveled to Colorado will agree that it’s one of the most spectacular places to go RVing. The new Colorado State Parks reservations requirement wants to make the experience even better for campers.
Colorado State Parks Reservations Requirement Goes Live
Colorado RVing Near Rifle. Image; iRV2 Forums Member JiminJersey
It’s so relaxing to wander at your own pace when you’re traveling through beautiful Colorado. There’s so much to see, from the epic Colorado Monument in the west, to Denver’s Cherry Creek State Park in the east (it’s one of the best urban camping experiences around!).
The problem is that getting into a Colorado state park campground has always been tricky. Most parks had limited first-come, first-served campsites available. If you arrived at a park without reservations, you could be out of luck. Not anymore. Starting in 2020, a new Colorado state parks reservations requirement makes sure we all have a campsite.
Book a Campsite on Arrival, or Up to Six Months Earlier
The end of first come, first served campsites is a phenomena that’s slowly taken over large park systems across the country. Even the National Park System is slowly moving toward reservations only at its most popular destinations like Yellowstone and Yosemite.
Visitors have always been able to book campgrounds online at some Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) parks. But now all of Colorado’s state parks require campers to have a reservation before setting up camp. According to CPW, now you can book any campsite, cabin, yurt, picnic area, or other facilities at all of Colorado’s 41 state parks.
Campers have the choice to go online and book at cpwshop.com, or call 800-244-5613. The online booking portal is referred to as “the Colorado Parks and Wildlife purchasing system.” It allows you to book your preferred spot starting six months from your arrival date. You can even book the moment you arrive at a park and spontaneously decide camp there.
No More Vacation Stress or Campsite Hoarding
Camping at James Robb State Park, Fruita CO. Image: IRV2 Forums member Scottybdivin
Proponents like CPW say that reserving a site on the same day eliminates vacation stress. Campers no longer have to gamble on a first-come, first-served spot, only to arrive at a park and discover that all spots are taken.
Some people worry that campers may try to game the system. In some online booking systems, campers are known to hoard several spots in one park all summer long. Then they cancel at the last minute. But the CPW says don’t worry, campsite hoarding is a non-issue.
Jason Clay of CPW told ABC 7 News in Denver that “under their reservation system, one camper cannot reserve multiple sites at the same park within the same time period, and one camper cannot make multiple reservations at multiple parks for the same time period. There is no limit to how many single reservations can be made for different time periods over the course of a year.”
The new Colorado State Parks reservation requirement plan was tested successfully at five parks in 2018 and 17 more parks in 2019. Apparently what made campers want to use it, is that “campers can reserve a site 24/7 and no longer have a closed window that prevents them from reserving a site in the three days ahead of a planned stay,” said Travis Duncan, a CPW official.
Park managers already using the booking system reported success. They eliminated the three-day reservation window that prevented online bookings at the last minute. The new system allows campers to reserve their own spots via phone or online–even on arrival day.
Visit Colorado Parks Wildlife to reserve your RV site.
However, CPW officials urge campers to remember that Colorado’s spectacular parks are often in areas with spotty cellular broadband coverage. Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area, Golden Gate Canyon, State Forest and Highline are just three examples. In situations like this, you could literally be standing at the park gate and unable to make a reservation. Always try to book a site before your cellular signal fades away.
Rene Agredano and her husband, Jim Nelson, became full-time RVers in 2007 and have been touring the country ever since. In her blog, Rene chronicles the ins and outs of the full-timing life and brings readers along to meet the fascinating people and amazing places they visit on the road. Her road trip adventures are chronicled in her blog at LiveWorkDream.com.
Colorado State Parks are very expensive; when you add the daily entrance fee to the daily campsite fee, the price is only good for weekenders.
Parks and campgrounds are crowded because being outdoors and rving has been marketed successfully. Here is an email I sent to the RVIA in 2018:
The RV is parked in the most idyllic part of the wilderness; the family is enjoying the outdoors; Dad is smiling; Mom is putting out some tasty goodies; the kids are all romping about. What a bunch of B.S. The RV parking spot you use in the ads does not exist. In case you haven’t noticed, there were many times more RVs sold in the past year than campsites, and RV sites created. Keep selling the dream! The reality is that after pulling into a cramped RV park packed with permanent residents from the Star Wars bar scene, over-stressed Dad breaks out the bourbon, Mom staggers through a pizza delivery order and the kids, as usual, are nose-down in their phones. Stop already.
As for the RVIA, no email address is listed, it is clear that the “standards” are not seriously applied. Does RVIA read the owners blogs? The customer service, quality control and dealer performance are terrible. I realize that consumers will spread bad news and not kudos, but….
Having seen the RVIA seal on trailers that I have owned, I wondered if the association was addressing issues like China bomb tires and plastic trim that was not UV resistant. Does the association allow the seal on trailers that have tires and axles that only marginally meet weight needs? Of course, Caveat Emptor.
So, who am I to bitch? If I had an RV resume’ it would include a 1960’s Shasta as a pre-teen and teen; my home-built Datsun pick-up in the 70’s; re-building a Rolite trailer and a Steury trailer in the 80’s; with a Jazz 5w, Thor toy hauler, Forest River toy hauler and a new Airstream since. I’ve watched small, ethical RV dealers get swallowed up by big sales yards that would watch as customers left with too little tow vehicle and too crappy an RV. I’ve seen parking lots call themselves campgrounds, RV parks go to permanent residents, State Parks price increases to handle maintenance from RV slobs, and National Forest land closed due to garbage dumping. I bitch because now I am retired and I can go anywhere, anytime but often cannot because of the crowds. Yeah, keep on selling the sizzle.
Well, yes and no. Apparently two things have changed. There are no campsites specifically set aside for first-come-first-served, and there is a cross checking system set up to try to stop campsite “hoarding.”
First the “hoarding” problem. If a few people in the same family each have a State Park logon they can each reserve a site and then decide which one to use when the time comes. It will cut down on the gross “hoarding”, but not necessarily all “hoarding”.
As for FCFS, you can still go to a campground and check for open (non-reserved) sites. If there are any you can “reserve” it on the spot. Actually it makes the whole system FCFS. Only now it is all FRFS (First Reserved First Served). You can either reserve from home (or from wherever you are) as early as six months ahead of time, or you can take your chances and hope to make a “reservation” on the spot when you get there. It just makes the later a little less likely. If you want to wait until the last moment, check just before leaving home (or wherever) to make a reservation. If none are available don’t bother going.
FCFS isn’t eliminated, it is just made less likely you will have success. And you can check (almost) for sure before you head out. “Almost” because you can still head out on the chance that someone with a reservation will cancel, or not show up, at the last moment. Good luck!
As others have said, Colorado State Park camping is already expensive when you tack on the entrance fee as well. I see that there is no mention of a “reservation fee”. I’m guessing that there will be one as that’s the way camping is heading these days. Too expensive for my tastes.
What about travelers to your state?
This is the reason we boondock,We are snowbirds, and travel all summer and never know where we will be in the country, so I never reserve a campsite ahead of time in this great open country, beautiful places to stop and camp without the stress of being at a place where I had to make a reservation months earlier not knowing where we will be at a certain time.
What about the people that don’t cancel reservations?so many times great sites are not occupied and sometimes for consecutive days at a time.I think if they don’t show up by the next morning the site should be let go.
I agree with Pam, that if a reserved campground isn’t claimed by 10am the next day, it has lost its “reservation” is now open. We, too have seen too many reserved campsites sit empty when there is demand for the sites.
A few years ago, at a Colorado State Park near Colorado Springs, several Colorado Springs campers told us that since they were so close to the park, they make reservations for every weekend. If they can’t make it for the reservations, they were gladly willing to just loose their small deposit because it did not cost much to make the reservation. They were not concerned that it kept others from having access to a camp site. At the time, we were able to stay one night and were then replaced to another site because someone had reservation for the site we were on. We were moved close to our original site but no one showed up for their reservations. We had to move and someone else wasn’t able to obtain a site either. I realize some only have a few days or a couple of weeks for vacation and reservations are a blessing, but FCFS will always get my vote. When we scouted for another site at a near by Forest Service campground, there was only 8 campers on site and 80+ open. The host would not let us pay up front for a site unless we had out trailer with us. Something seems amiss here…