3 wk western US trip

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And many of these campgrounds get full very early in the day so, unless you make reservations which I hate to tie myself to when traveling, you will often not be able to get a camping site later in the day.

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I never make camping reservations on a roadtrip, and can only think of a couple of times where I've found "No Soup" at a public campground. In those cases, I've still usually been able to find another park nearby with openings. If I can't, that's when I start looking at private facilities.

I certainly understand the access issue, but honestly, that's one of the reasons I like finding the public sites. Not only does it get your campsite away from the hum of the interstate, but it gives a good excuse to get off the super-slab for a little while. I can almost always find a site within 15 minutes of the interstate, and within 30 minutes of a major city.

For a trip to Tahoe, we camped in a private campground. We made the reservation without much research. When we got there, we could see the interstate from our campsite AND a safeway or vons was seriously less than 3 minutes walking distance. It was not what I was expecting, but oh well, it was a different style of camping and still fun.

Just curious, how are the roads in Canada? Are they comparable to the States? Any major differences driving in Canada? I'm thinking of taking a ferry to Victoria then to Vancouver. Anything to do while on Victoria or just keep gong on to Vancouver?

ahhh.... thanks again everyone! hopefully i'll have time to do everything!

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Originally Posted by Midwest Michael

I never make camping reservations on a roadtrip, and can only think of a couple of times where I've found "No Soup" at a public campground. In those cases, I've still usually been able to find another park nearby with openings. If I can't, that's when I start looking at private facilities.

I certainly understand the access issue, but honestly, that's one of the reasons I like finding the public sites. Not only does it get your campsite away from the hum of the interstate, but it gives a good excuse to get off the super-slab for a little while. I can almost always find a site within 15 minutes of the interstate, and within 30 minutes of a major city.

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Maybe it's a regional thing. I have never been able to get a campsite after about Noon anywhere near Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens, in the San Juans, and at the better campgrounds anywhere on the Olympia Peninsula. Even mid-week, if the weather is good, open sites can be non-existent. I've experienced much the same along the Oregon Coast. And we have lots of campgrounds. Maybe we also have more campers?? Or maybe we just have less good camping weather so during the few, short months we have it, EVERYBODY is out doing it?

And it's not unusual for campgrounds around here to be 10-15-25-30 or more miles off the main road. That's a long way to drive after a long, hard day's driving to search for a potentially non-existent campsite, imho.

There are very few campgrounds within 30 minutes of major cities around here...even commercial campgrounds are very scarce and most of the ones that do exist only take RVs, no tent camping allowed. The closest state park to Seattle is only about 20-40 minutes south of Seattle (depending on traffic) but it's also directly in Sea-Tac Airport's flight path. We stayed there once. Never again. Any other state parks are closer to an hour away from the I-5 corridor until you get south of Olympia or north of Everett. And national park campsites are even more remote.

Of course, it's possible that your campsite radar-finding system is more finely honed than mine. However, one a roadtrip when I usually need to do speed runs to burn miles, I just don't have the time. Wish I did, but I don't.

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Originally Posted by kuodachrome

For a trip to Tahoe, we camped in a private campground. We made the reservation without much research. When we got there, we could see the interstate from our campsite AND a safeway or vons was seriously less than 3 minutes walking distance. It was not what I was expecting, but oh well, it was a different style of camping and still fun.

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I've stayed in KOA's and other private campgrounds that are away from roads, stores, etc., and that are quiet, peaceful, and full of trees and other wildlife. And I've stayed in a few that are as you describe. They vary so much that it's always hard to know ahead of time. And I do think they exagerrate a lot in their descriptions. Sometimes the various books and websites that rate campgrounds can be of help with this.

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Just curious, how are the roads in Canada? Are they comparable to the States?

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Yes, pretty much. Their major highways tend to have less lanes than in the US but, besides that, not much different. Well, at least in the parts of Canada near the border. I've been to northern BC and the roads are definitely less crowded and even the major roads are usually 2-land roads. But they are well marked and well maintained.

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Any major differences driving in Canada?

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Not that I've noticed. Just make sure you're looking at your km part of your speedo! Just be careful and courteous. You don't want a ticket out of country!

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I'm thinking of taking a ferry to Victoria then to Vancouver. Anything to do while on Victoria or just keep gong on to Vancouver?

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Lots! If you have time for a drive up to Butchart Gardens, go for it. Sublime! And I'm not really much of a gardens person. And I'm not one of those ladies into going "to tea" but you can't beat tea time at the majestic The Empress in Victoria. Lovely place. The Pig War Museum is kinda fun. Hey, if you don't know anything about the infamous and, actually, very important Pig War, you've gotta check it out. It's been so long since I've been to the Royal Museum, I can't remember what it contains. But I remember being quite impressed. And this was after visiting the museums in London so I figure it must have been good. The replica of Anne Hathaway's Cottage is nice. And they have a very nice Sealand (Seaworld, something like that). You could spend a week on Vancouver Island and not run out of things to do, imho.

To really see some amazing country and rugged beaches, you should try to drive up the west coast of Vancouver Island. You can't go the whole way around but you can see some amazing vistas. The last time we did this was about 15 years ago and it was very rugged but also very secluded with little population. We saw very few cars on the road. We were stopped by a herd of elk just standing on and by the road for about a half-an-hour before they wandered off and we felt it safe to drive. Very cool. It's not unusual to see a lot of interesting sea life on this road either. Unless, of course, it's changed since we were there.

If you visit Vancouver Island, I highly recommend driving up to Nanaimo and taking the ferry to Horseshoe Bay. You'll get 2 benefits from this. First, a drive up the beautiful eastern coast (not quite as remote, rugged, and solitary but still quite wonderful) and, second, Horseshoe Bay is a lovely little town on the acclaimed drive up to Whistler from the city of Vancouver, BC. So it's a lovely drive back to the city. I think it takes about an hour from Horseshoe Bay so it's not a long drive. There is a lovely waterfall near Horseshoe Bay but I don't recall if it's a bit north (and the wrong direction) or on the way back to the city.

Hope this gives you some ideas.

I'll chime in here a bit too --

Campgrounds -- depends upon the campground. I've been in private campgrounds that were private, wonderful places to stay and very well equipped. And I've been in others including KOA that were like parking lots... My preference is to go for the smaller state or regional or national forest campgrounds, since they seem to be less used -- at least by the big RV folks. I can put up with more tents and people, and less generators and satellite dishes and TV shows.

Reservations are sort of required in my opinion in August -- its the busiest time of the year, so its most likely that you'll have problems getting in. I also tend to travel later in the day, so I'm getting in at around 4-5 pm, which also puts me in the busy time of finding a place to camp. And this goes double for campgrounds in popular areas, like national parks, near urban areas, or along the coast. But.. given a day's notice its not too hard to call ahead and check on campground availability, or have Plan B ready if you're concerned about somewhere to throw out the tent.

For things to do in Victoria and the area -- Judy did a pretty good list. Butchart Gardens is very beautiful, but its about 20-30 minutes north of downtown Victoria. Its moderately expensive and rather touristy and has lots of tour buses in the parking lot. Gorgeous flowers -- although they don't label anything if you want to know what that beautiful plant is.

The Royal BC Musuem is worth a look, just for the history of the area. www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca is their web site.

There are Orca watching tours that leave from the basin in downtown. There are several pods of Orcas that frequent the straits nearby, feeding on the salmon which run this time of year. Some of the boats are worth the price in themsevles -- basically large (20 person) high powered Zodiac boats where you strap yourself in like into an airplane and skim across the water. (They slow down of course when they get within a couple of miles of the Orcas.)

The sthick in Victoria is a pseudo-British atmosphere. Have some fish and chips, drink a pint in a pub and have fun. The Empress Hotel in Victoria serves high tea -- which is always fun. Only, you have to be dressed appropriately for this -- no Jeans. I found this out one time when i came in with a button down, long sleeve oxford shirt and a new pair of dark blue jeans and hard sole shoes. Didn't get in -- although they let someone in in red, yellow and white golfing outfit.

There's a pretty nice smallish Aquarium, specializing in local sea life including Beluga whales.

If you want to do some hiking, as Judy said, head over to the west coast and there are some wonderful trails through the forests and along the rocky coasts. There's a coastal trail along most of the west coast of Vancouver Island, but its a multi-day backpack trip. Some spots you can visit via road and shortish hikes -- Nice spots. I've driven and camped up to the north end of Vancouver Island, and the farther north you go, the less people, and more trees.

But if you're passing through -- its good for a day, and then mosey up to Sidney or Nanaimo and catch the ferry to the main land. It's a cool place to visit.

You might be a little prepared for ferry lines. They're not uncommon in the summer when the ferry traffic is the busiest. If you're time critical, then you can get reservations on a specific run. However, I've never waited more than one run to get on (a few hours). I always have a book and a couple of soft drinks in the cooler and a folding camp chair or two, and after I've gotten out and walked around a bit, I'll just settle back and relax and wait for "island time" to catch up with me.

Oh yeah.. Judy mentioned the Pig War. That's a little known incident where the US and the British militaries squared off for a while in a border incident in the 1850's. Fortunately cool heads prevailed and after a face off for a while, the borders were resolved to what they are today. That's over in the San Juan islands, near Friday Harbor on San Juan Island (not walking distance from the ferry dock, though). Sometimes you can get a ferry that stops at Friday Harbor before going on to Victoria, but I don't think the ferries from Port Angeles do that.. Friday Harbor is a nice little town and I've been out to the Pig War museum and camps (theres an "American Camp" and a "British Camp"). The San Juans are really nice to boat around and explore -- but somewhat hard to get to in passing.

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Maybe it's a regional thing. I have never been able to get a campsite after about Noon anywhere near Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens, in the San Juans, and at the better campgrounds anywhere on the Olympia Peninsula. Even mid-week, if the weather is good, open sites can be non-existent.

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I can say that I've never once been shut out looking for a campsite anywhere. Occationally, I've had to find a second choice site, but I've never been unable to find a campsite without a reservation.

I don't think it is a regional thing though, as I've had luck pretty much everywhere - even up in your next of the woods. In southern Washington state, we found a great county park on a hill right above the beach where we there was only one other camping group in the whole park, on a Friday night in late June. The next night we did find the Prov. Park we were planning to stay at about 30 miles from Vancouver was full, but found a nice private campground along the same road.

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However, one a roadtrip when I usually need to do speed runs to burn miles, I just don't have the time. Wish I did, but I don't.

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That might be a big part of it. I rarely do camping on true speed runs. We will frequently be doing all-day drives, but we usually start looking for places to sleep early enough in the evening where we could find a back-up plan before its too late - and rarely have specific places we need to be.

On true speed runs, I usually drive until 2-3 AM or later, which makes camping rather unpractical.