Campground Prices Are Just Going Insane!!

[ATCguy]

So I received an email this past week that the West Glacier KOA up in northern Montana by Glacier Nat'l Park has just opened it's calendar for 2023. Yes, you read that right... 2023.

Now any of you who've ever tried to reserve a site at any campground up in that area know 2 things:

1) they're almost always completely booked up well over a year in advance, and...

2) they're damned expensive.

There are reasons for this, I get it. They have a VERY short season up there to make their money (June-early September)... and there's really only one small town (Kalispell) that's near the park.

In re the first point... I first began trying to reserve a spot up there for a week back in 2015. That first year, I could NEVER find anything available. Oh sure, a night or 2 here & there across the summer calendar... but never a full week. And even for those 1 or 2 nights, I gotta admit I nearly gagged when I saw the prices. I thought booking in Moab, Utah was expensive until I saw the prices around Glacier.

So anyway, after getting the email I decided to go ahead a take a look. I began selecting various weeks to check availability, and sure enough... I had my pick. Great... but wait? What was that average nightly rate again? WOW!!!

For a standard pull-thru site on the grass in the late July / early August time-frame, the rate is over $150 per night... or $180/night for a deluxe patio site, by the time to add tax & an added 'resort fee'. Add another 1-time charge of $45 is you want to pick your own site location from the map.

Now I don't usually choose a back-in site, but I did look, and they were only just slightly less at around $135/night... and they were already almost sold out of them. There were only 2 left during the one week i looked at... and 3 left for the other.

They can do this because they are fully booked, every night of their season... and have been for the past 6 or 7 years, at least. It's truly a "seller's market" up there.

Now again, I thought Moab was expensive. I love going to Moab, with both Canyonlands, and Arches Nat'l Parks right outside of town... and I admit to having a hard time justifying paying around $125/night when I go visit there. But Glacier just takes the cake on this.

Some of y'all remember my rant from the end of last summer when I decided it was time for me to end my full-timing RV life. Apart from the availability issues, I mentioned how the prices have just been skyrocketing over the past few years from when I began. So being a little bored this weekend, I decide to do some checking on places I'd stayed in years past.

Now I should mention right off that I've always been a bit picky about the places I've stayed. I mean, yeah I know there's usually always some little run-down $20/night place you can stay on the cheap if you don't mind just setting up in an open dirt field beside an industrial plant, or a 'sweet-smelling' manure farm somewhere... or maybe some place filled with old & rusting permanent campers that looks like a 3rd world refugee camp... but that not my style. While I don't need a resort with golf courses, I do prefer a nice, quiet setting with pleasant scenery. Another words... someplace "nice".

While I fully expected prices to have gone up at all of these places (inflation is everywhere, right?)... I was surprised at the variations. Some had only risen moderately, taking in to consideration the number of years since I was there, and what my old travel logs say I spent when I was there... but most had gone up quite considerably. Most in the 35%-40% range... and a couple had damned-near doubled their prices. I guess I can't blame a business owner for cashing in, when able... but wow.

Anyway, just wondering if you guys are seeing the same?

Even though I'm settled back into a house now, I've still got a few trips booked this summer... including a few days up at Glacier, and a week down in Moab. But if the prices continue on this skyward trend... this may be the last time I get to those places. We've got plenty of open BLM land up here in Wyoming, and a few boon-docking trips out there by myself are beginning to look more & more attractive.

[lcv800]

Tom, it's just not RV parks either. We got tired of playing the game of reservations and hopping around. Found a place in Fort Myer Beach Florida and bought a lot. Prices of lot are insane. In less than a year our lot has gone up over 25% Since January alone, 10%. When will it end and prices drop? When I decide to sell. LOL.
Rusty

[edwin sandel]

This whole country is just plain greedy. When pandor's box was opened and 15.00 per hour minimum wage was the rage, everybody felt that was the time to raise their prices as they would be paying their help the 15.00 per hour. For many their pay doubled overnight. Full time rv'ers are feeling the high prices as well making it difficult to find sites and when they do, it's shocking.

[Witt84z]

I travel for work in Oil and Gas. The campgrounds are charging about 40% more than they were 5 years ago and it's tough to find a spot without an advanced reservation.

[trucking]

Try rv campgrounds on Flathead lake we have found them to be very reasonable at a good fee.
We used flathead lake camp as a base camp unhooked the tt and went to Glacier National Park in the truck.
Happy trails, PJ

[trucking]

Hi Rusty, we have not had problems getting reservations for our rv spot nor was the full hookup price increased ($49) in the Northern Californee Redwoods on hwy 1.
Lucky I guess I called in the beginning of February had many rv spots to choose from for spring rv camp spot.
Happy trails, PJ

[ATCguy]

Originally Posted by trucking

Try rv campgrounds on Flathead lake we have found them to be very reasonable at a good fee.
We used flathead lake camp as a base camp unhooked the tt and went to Glacier National Park in the truck.
Happy trails, PJ

Oh yeah… I’ve stayed at Eagle Nest Campground a few times. Right there in Polson, at the southern end of the lake. Great place… and I like the people who run it. Hard to go wrong there.

In fact, that’s the place I was staying when I had the accident in my truck one afternoon in town that caused my life-changing spinal injury a few years ago. They were extremely helpful in a difficult situation for me.

The only downside about staying in Polson is that it’s a good 90-minutes from Glacier. While not necessarily inconvenient… it does add about 3 hours to your day trip there.

But in addition to Glacier, the Nation Bison Range is located just a few miles south. Great place to drive thru & enjoy the wildlife.

[trucking]

Nice ATCguy,
It is always nice to hear of different rv spots.
We stayed at West Shore Unit - Flathead Lake State Park, MT
It is one hour away from Glacier West gate.
Having a base camp with a vehicle to site see was excellent.
The cost is $28 a night.
Great price full hookup.
Happy Trails, PJ

[kjlarson]

We are a KOA member but have only stayed at the one in downtown SLC, UT. Several years ago we got tired of the increases and spend couple of thousand dollars preparing our TT for boondocking. Now we never stay in a developed RV park as there are usually great places to stay on USFS, BLM or ACOE land. We stayed in a couple of very nice USFS campgrounds just outside Kalispell, MT and Yellowstone NP couple of years ago for less than $15/night. Campgrounds had pit toilets, fire rings and 2 had picnic tables. Much prefer boondocking now.

[capeharj]

It sounds like you don't want to camp, you want a campaminium with pools, hot tubs, golf courses, 4 star resturants. I've stayed at Glacier just outside the east gate and didn't pay anywhere near that. We spent the summer traveling from Michigan to Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Kansas and back to Michigan. Never had any of the problems you talk about. We went to 11 National Parks and stayed at RV Parks off the parks because they only had half the normal capacity. KOA is one of the more expensive, but nowhere near what you state.

[azdryheat]

We stayed at West Glacier KOA many years ago and it was expensive then. Last trip we stayed in Kalispell @ Rocky Mountain HI. They're showing $56 for full hookups. I'd stay there again.