Mellow
Admin
I say I just show up... but the campground is on my start/stop list...How do you locate a campground if you are winging it?
I decide where I want to go, then I decide how many miles I want to do in a day.. some days it's 800 on the highway just to get out of DFW and 'somewhere'.. and once there, the mileage may just be 400+ a day or less.
I then look for state parks in that range and pick one, go to their site to see hours in case there's a gate and to see how many sites they have or any closures. I then repeat that for each leg of my trip. I typically follow that plan and load it into the gps... rarely do I stray from that route but if I do, I just do a search on the gps for state/nat'l parks. In some states, you'll see a State Park sign almost every 50 miles but in some it's not that easy. I don't typically travel on holidays so it's rare I show up at a full campground.