Life Used To Be Simple

 

You literally need a command center if you want to book a site in Yosemite.

    I admit, I've never tried to reserve a campsite in a National Park before this year. And I'd read all about how competitive it had become, especially since the pandemic. But a small part of me figured: Really, how hard could it be?

    Really hard.

    In my last post I touched on the fact that we chose North Cascades National Park over Glacier because it offers a similar experience with millions of fewer visitors. And that's not hyperbole. In 2021, Glacier saw 3 million visitors. North Cascades? Only 18,000! Should be easy to get a campsite there, right? Not so much. Because of renovations and road repair, fewer campgrounds were taking reservations. I ended up getting one of the last sites available in the entire park, and that was booking six months in advance. Anne and I realized if we wanted to stay at any of the popular parks, we'd have to bring our A game. 

Here's where I cheat a bit and send you to an article I wrote about how we managed to get a campsite in August in Yosemite Valley, literally one of the most difficult reservations to nail down in the entire Parks system. Here's a teaser: it took five people across three states to pull it off.

My pictures from Yosemite will totally look this good, I swear. (Pic by Mick Haupt on Unsplash)

    Read all about it here. If enough people click on the article, maybe the good people at Paste Magazine will hire me to write a few more. I gotta fill that gas tank somehow.