Greetings from Perth, Western Australia.

Hi everyone. My name is Kate and Hubby (Paul) and I are planning to come over early May 2017 for a months touring around the South West and up to Yellowstone and back down via Flagstaff, Denver, Salt Lake City. Mainly wanting to stay at or near scenic National Parks along the way. We are researching RV's at the moment and am leaning towards a Class C for ease of going through cities, and into the Parks, and of course great places to stay along the way. I am having so much fun planning this!

I am sure I will have loads of questions to come, but a couple of things I would like to know now are;

1. Travelling throughout May, are advanced bookings for RV parks essential? would we be able to chance it and still find somewhere to stay if we just winged it (my preferable option so that we can be flexible with our itinerary).

2. How difficult is it to find parking if you need to call into the shops for supplies etc?

3. Do most people get a cab into town to go out for dinner if they don't have a car towed with them?

Thanks for any responses, it all helps with ear-marking where and which parks I will book mark to stay in.

Kate

 

Welcome to the forum. Sounds like you are planning a great trip. We always tow a car so I don't have a lot of tips, but I'll try to give some advice.

1. This is always difficult to answer. First you are going to some really popular spots and May is the beginning of camping season so you could encounter some places that are full. Course our schools are still in session then, so it should not be as bad as June or July. Personally I like to know I have a spot waiting after a long day's drive, so I would make reservations.

2. If you are in class C parking will probably not be a problem unless the store or restaurant has a very small parking lot.

3. What you need to consider is that if you try to take the RV wherever you go, you will have to unhook and pack up each time. (Some people do not pack up their cables and hoses and personal stuff if they are coming back to the site again that night, but I'm not sure I would recommend going off and leaving this type of stuff sitting out where anyone could take it.) If you are going to spend more than a day at a place, a rent car might be the best bet.

You might try googling "RVing without a tow car." There are lost of websites that offer information about doing this.

Have fun planning!!

 

Welcome to the forum. Sounds like you are planning a great trip. We always tow a car so I don't have a lot of tips, but I'll try to give some advice.

1. This is always difficult to answer. First you are going to some really popular spots and May is the beginning of camping season so you could encounter some places that are full. Course our kids aren't out of school yet so it should not be as bad as June or July. Personally I like to know I have a spot waiting after a long day's drive, so I would make reservations.

2. If you are in class C parking will probably not be a problem unless the store or restaurant has a very small parking lot.

3. What you need to consider is that if you try to take the RV wherever you go, you will have to unhook and pack up each time. (Some people do not pack up their cables and hoses and personal stuff if they are coming back to the site again that night, but I'm not sure I would recommend going off and leaving this type of stuff sitting out where anyone could take it.) If you are going to spend more than a day at a place, a rent car might be the best bet.

You might try googling "RVing without a tow car." There are lost of websites that offer information about doing this.

Have fun planning!!

 

Hi Kate (and Paul),

It does sound like a great trip you are planning and I think you should e OK for not making reservations for the main part. Just one cautionary note, the US has a holiday in mid to late May (being a pomme I'm not sure which holiday it is but perhaps one of my learned friends on here could enlighten us both). I might suggest a reservation for that weekend because if it is anything like the same weekend in Canada it signals the start of the RVing season for many. Yellowstone might still get a heavy dump of wet snow but by mid to late May that is diminishing. The Grand Canyon will be hot when you are saying there but very scenic. A few hours east but still in Arizona there is also a big hole in the ground created by a meteor strike which is also worth a look. Sedona would be a must see on a trip like this. If you don't know about that area the best suggestion I have would be to use Trip Advisor. We love the Sedona area and the Red Rock Canyon.

As for shopping with your Class C - getting it in to any Wal-Mart car park would be easy and they also welcome (mainly) RV's who may need to boondocks overnight in their parking lot. Something you might consider if you cannot reach your next preferred destination.

Back in the early 90's we used to watch a show called "The DIceman". He would take several suggestions and then roll a dice (or two) to decide what to do, where to go and how to get there. Used it with my kids when they were small and that way we never got disappointed because we had no firm plans, only outline ideas. It was also fun because it could lead to lesser known places suggested by the locals.

 

Hello,
I have a couple suggestions for researching and planning your visit.
Google "National Park Grand Circle". You should find lots of valuable information browsing, including what to expect for weather and lodging. Weather in the springtime near the Rocky Mountains can be pretty unsettled and you may have to wait out a storm or two. Also Google "Yellowstone in the Spring". Many campgrounds in Yellowstone don't open until late May because of snow.
An earlier post mentioned a holiday in May. This is Memorial Day. It is always the last weekend in May and falls on the 29th in 2017. You will need reservations ahead of time for that weekend.
Finding an RV Park or campground to stay during the week shouldn't be a problem, but I'd recommend reservations for weekends.
I don't know whether you prefer to stay in campgrounds or RV Parks but if you want to stay IN the national parks you are visiting you'll be in a campground. RV Parks are typically near populated areas. There are rarely any major cities near the National Parks except Arches is near Moab Utah and Mesa Verde is near Cortez Colorado.
Denver and Salt Lake City aren't really RV destinations. You'll likely stay in a park many miles from downtown. A rental car would be a must if you want to go downtown.
Hope you have a great visit!

 

On our trip thru the west in 2014, it was a pain trying to find available space in Denver. In Salt Lake City, there is a KOA in town, not a far drive from downtown. Very nice place. You'll probably want a rental car if you stay a couple of days in SLC.

 

Thanks everyone for your responses, you have not only put my mind at rest but confirmed what I had heard, and that is that RVérs are a friendly and helpful bunch of people. That's really good advice about booking for weekends and we will hire a car for when we are near the bigger cities and want to explore them. It will be interesting to see if we do the entire NP circuit we have mapped out to do, just googling places makes me think we might never get out of Arizona! Thanks again for your help. Kate

 

Glad we could help. Feel free to ask more whenever you would like.