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Frank Varga

Internet, more interest prompts a reserved attitude at campsites in state

Richard Baker figured he was ahead of the curve last fall when he went online to reserve a campsite at Lake Chelan State Park nearly nine months before his trip.

Boy, was he wrong.

The park had begun taking reservations a few days earlier, and all the campsites were already booked.
“You gotta be able to plan quite a ways ahead,” said Baker, who guaranteed himself a campsite at Bay View State Park for most of this summer by working there as a camp host with his wife, Gwen. “It’s tough on people who can’t plan that far out.”
Competition for campsites has always been tight during summer months. Now, thanks to the Internet, reserving one ahead of time has never been easier, while the competition for sites has never been more intense.

With the summer camping season drawing near, it’s crunch time for families planning summer outings.
“I’d be checking now,” said Virginia Painter, public affairs director for Washington State Parks.

Most state parks begin taking reservations up to nine months in advance of a planned arrival date. Summer weekends fill up fast. On holidays, the competition for campsites and cabins can be fierce.
“There are families that camp on the same weekend every year, and they wait for the first day they can make a reservation, and they all go online,” Painter said.

Memorial Day typically marks the first big camping weekend of the year, although the camping season actually starts picking up weeks before.

Don and Wanda Piper of Everett found that out when they went online back in February to reserve a cabin at Bay View State Park. They were expecting to land a cabin for late spring when the weather would be a bit warmer. They found that the earliest opening was the first weekend of May.“This is about the earliest in the year that we’ve ever gone camping,” Don Piper said, after arriving at the cabin on a recent chilly, overcast Friday afternoon. “But we just had to take it as it came.”

At Deception Pass State Park, Washington’s most popular state park, campsites typically fill up every weekend from Easter until the second weekend of October, said Assistant Park Manager Rick Blank, who’s worked there for 18 years.

As of early May, the park’s campsites were almost fully reserved on every nonholiday weekend from mid-June through August. Holiday weekends were full before the start of the year.

Of course, the days of tossing a tent and sleeping bag into the car and driving to a state park without a reservation aren’t over.
In spring, even parks that fill up on weekends aren’t fully reserved ahead of time, and in summer, cancellations are common even at the most popular parks.

Meanwhile, a number of first-come, first-serve campsites are available at some parks. When vying for those sites, Painter advises people to arrive before lunch on Friday to secure a site for the weekend.

Camping on weekdays is always an option too. Nearly every campground has plenty of openings mid-week, even in summer.
Last summer, Painter, who lives in Olympia, and several friends had the itch to camp, but they didn’t make reservations and couldn’t take time off during the week.

As a compromise, they packed a minivan before the beginning of the work week and drove their families to Millersylvania State Park near Olympia. For an entire week, they got up every morning, made a fire, brewed coffee, ate breakfast, took showers and commuted to work in Olympia, while one adult stayed behind to watch the kids. “I’d recommend that for people who can’t get away for the week,” Painter said. Sometimes, it’s just a matter of being flexible.

Kim Cannon and her husband Tracey of Stanwood knew they couldn’t get to Deception Pass State Park early enough on a Friday in late April to land a site. Instead, they showed up on a Sunday with their 26-foot camp trailer and their pug, Eva. When they arrived, the park was still teaming with people. By Wednesday when the couple were getting ready to leave, it was virtually empty.

The Cannons would like to camp again in the summer, but so far they don’t have reservations at any nearby state parks.
“It’s nice that you can reserve campsites ahead of time, but it gets full so fast, it’s hard to get in,” Kim Cannon said.

Josh Lintereur can be reached at 360-416-2141 or at .