Are Noisy Campgrounds Part of the Equation?

[Vee and Zeekie]

Have been getting excited learning about and looking for my first RV. This forum is amazing! But a new concern surfaced yesterday: Since I am single, female, in my 60s, and a newbie to RVing, I am not (yet) comfortable boon docking in remote places alone. So that leaves me with campgrounds, (public, private, etc…). The one time I went RVing in a rented Class C, with a man, I was really irritated by generator noise. Even in relatively uncrowded areas, someone would invariably run their generator. I think they are obnoxious at any time of day or night. I am also not crazy about having to listen to other people’s music. Does that mean RVing might not be for me? How can I stay in places where there are people around, and yet not be subject to generator noise, music blaring, and kids running around screaming? All of that is the opposite of relaxation and fun! For many years, I used to backpack and relished the hiking, nature, peace and quiet. I hope I am not confusing the backpacking experience with the RV camping experience! Can't wait to hear your thoughts!

Signed,
Getting Cold Feet? Or Being Realistic?

[mkguitar]

most commercial campgrounds ( like a KOA) have nose limitations
and also shore power- there is no need to run a genny.
the campground operator has to keep the peace, and in our experience they do



in an area without shore power or boondocking people may use a genny all night

for some, the "camping" experience requires outdoors TV with a subwoofer- and a genny perhaps placed closer to your campsite than theirs
( we had these neighbors in a federal area, no winning, we packed up and moved)

you need to pick your spots
mike

[@Michael]

The noise varies with the type of campground and patrons. Some campgrounds are very quiet, others not so much.

Around here, the State Parks have strict noise and generator restrictions. The State Forests do not. So in a State Forest campground, your neighbor might be using a chain saw to cut firewood, might run a noisy generator, etc.

I've left campgrounds because as the weekend approached, they got too noisy.

--Mike

[BillsPaseo]

Yeah, we just did that a few weeks ago... we were in a National Forest campground, had already been there 5 nights, had paid for 6. All week it was really quiet, but then on Saturday, 4 carloads (all appearing to be late teens or early 20's) unload into the campsite right next to us, and proceed to unload several coolers of beer and set up a boombox.

This was in a very remote campground with no camp host. It was our last night anyway, so we just pulled out and drove about 3 miles down the road to a dispersed boondock spot we had seen earlier in the week, and had a blissfully quiet night.

[magicbus]

“The one time I went RVing in a rented Class C, with a man, I was really irritated by generator noise. “

Either you need to lose the man or you’re talking yourself into cold feet.. You will encounter some irritating campers, but most places aren’t that bad.

[Jon in AZ]

It varies according to the type of campground, location, season, and day of the week. As you would expect public campgrounds close to metropolitan areas on weekends during school vacations are the noisiest. Avoid the crowds, avoid the noise.

There are times I actually enjoy the commotion of a busy campground: kids playing, adults laughing, and music playing. If I desire quiet, often a walk away from the campground on a nearby trail provides solitude.

I remember the time we pulled into Lake Pleasant outside Phoenix during spring vacation. Next door was a truck camper with three women, beers in hand, loud country music, and louder conversation. My heart sank because we had young kids. When they saw the kids, they immediately toned down the party. They turned out to be great neighbors and even used their boat to rescue our kids’ soccer ball when an errant kick landed it in the lake.

Most people are good neighbors. Large, loud, open-frame generators are the worst. A small inverter generator on low to recharge batteries is barely audible one site away.

[booster]

Yep, where and when make a difference, but it can be very irritating even within the rules.


A few years ago we stayed at Devils Tower in a no utilities campground. Lots of tents, climbers, hikers, bikers, etc.


Two fifth wheels pulled in and immediately disconnected the trucks, turned on standalone generators, and left in the trucks leaving the generators running all day, day after day, whenever it was within the rules which was most the day then. Most of the time, the people were off in the trucks somewhere else.


Not good neighbors and there were a lot of upset other campers.

[mkguitar]

Originally Posted by booster

Not good neighbors ...

but we only remember these because they are the exception- right?

as mentioned above, neighbors and meeting new people can be a joy

one of our best experiences was in a campground with an immigrant family who had never camped and were trying to experience America.
We had a great weekend with them sharing the practicalities of camping and the wonder of the outdoors
Mike

[booster]

Originally Posted by mkguitar

but we only remember these because they are the exception- right?

as mentioned above, neighbors and meeting new people can be a joy

one of our best experiences was in a campground with an immigrant family who had never camped and were trying to experience America.
We had a great weekend with them sharing the practicalities of camping and the wonder of the outdoors
Mike

Depends on where you are. In the Smoky Mountains it was like everyone wanted to have a generator running, even outside the generator campground. Host were constantly going around to tell people to shut them off. Of course everybody there had campfires going dawn till dusk whether they were around or not. Very inconsiderate in many ways. Between the generators, diesels on high idle, and campfires, it was more polluted than any city I have been in outside of China and Taiwan.


We have found it more peaceful in many of the electricity available campgrounds, even though everyone is closer together as it gets rid of the generators and trucks idling.


Of course the no generator no utilities campgrounds or areas are the best.


And yes, there certainly are many, many good times, too, but incivility and rudeness seem to be expanding quickly.

[dodgeCoachmen]

Originally Posted by mkguitar

but we only remember these because they are the exception- right?

as mentioned above, neighbors and meeting new people can be a joy

one of our best experiences was in a campground with an immigrant family who had never camped and were trying to experience America.
We had a great weekend with them sharing the practicalities of camping and the wonder of the outdoors
Mike

Totally agree. Noone lives in a vacuum. We all have to live together and if it just happens that you have noisy neighbors, just bear in mind that they don't do it to spite you. They are having fun and I suggest you doing the same. If it doesn't bother other campers then maybe, just maybe they are not the problem.

[booster]

Originally Posted by dodgeCoachmen

Totally agree. Noone lives in a vacuum. We all have to live together and if it just happens that you have noisy neighbors, just bear in mind that they don't do it to spite you. They are having fun and I suggest you doing the same. If it doesn't bother other campers then maybe, just maybe they are not the problem.

If it didn't bother others, I am sure it wouldn't bother us, either, but the examples I cited had lots of folks complaining.

[jrobe]

After also getting back into camping in my 60's (from my younger backpacking days), I have found 2 main problems with the whole RV experience. The first is the above noted noise issue. It seems to us that 95% of campers are considerate and about 5% couldn't care less about anyone but themselves. I guess that shouldn't surprise anyone.

The other issue that is somewhat related is that it is often so busy everywhere that you can't be spontaneous anymore. We frequently have to make reservations 6-12 months ahead just to get a simple campsite at the most scenic state and national park locations. This was unheard of when I was camping and hiking in my youth. We even try to travel more in the spring and fall when kids are in school and try to find less popular areas. The noise issue seems more discouraging when you plan a trip a year ahead and then have to listen to 10 barking dogs and generators when you finally get there. We try our best though to just accept it as reality.

[Keyne]

We have had really good experiences with quiet campgrounds. When we call for a reservation we look at the site map and tell them we don’t have kids or pets so quiet is great for us. That has worked well.

Also we have had issues even in some very full campgrounds and asked for a different site. We may have been lucky but every time they moved us to a quieter section. One time there was another couple that wanted to be closer to the action with their kids, etc so we switched spots. Either way if we couldn’t have moved it still would have been fine but sometimes it’s good to ask.

[booster]

Originally Posted by jrobe

After also getting back into camping in my 60's (from my younger backpacking days), I have found 2 main problems with the whole RV experience. The first is the above noted noise issue. It seems to us that 95% of campers are considerate and about 5% couldn't care less about anyone but themselves. I guess that shouldn't surprise anyone.

The other issue that is somewhat related is that it is often so busy everywhere that you can't be spontaneous anymore. We frequently have to make reservations 6-12 months ahead just to get a simple campsite at the most scenic state and national park locations. This was unheard of when I was camping and hiking in my youth. We even try to travel more in the spring and fall when kids are in school and try to find less popular areas. The noise issue seems more discouraging when you plan a trip a year ahead and then have to listen to 10 barking dogs and generators when you finally get there. We try our best though to just accept it as reality.

There were a few discussions here a few years ago about the new reservation rules in campgrounds. In Minnesota they made nearly all the popular ones reservation only, so unless you could predict vacation or free time, you were out of luck, in general. They have backed off a bit lately by shortening the time before the reservations on some sites, like having some that can't be reserved until two weeks before the date, which has helped, but doesn't help drive ups. I talked several times to the park service people in charge of the policies, and they were unconcerned that much of the population who paid taxes to support the campgrounds in state parks, wouldn't be able to use the nicest ones.



What has happened is those with enough money to accept lots of cancellation fees reserve a whole bunch of the best sites as soon as the become available and then cancel if they don't want to go later. It does give some others a last ditch chance, but there is no waiting list, so you have to watch the website or call very often to catch one that comes open.


In the many times we have tried to get in later, we only "won" once, getting 3 days in our favorite campground in Custer State Park in South Dakota. We were getting ready to go on a long trip and would be going through the area and a about 2 days before we left, the site popped up when I looked at the reservation website. It hadn't been there a couple of hours earlier.


It is a bummer for all the folks that have jobs where they can't reserve vacation more than a week or two ahead of time.

[mkguitar]

Originally Posted by booster

It is a bummer for all the folks that have jobs where they can't reserve vacation more than a week or two ahead of time.

Yes.
We like Oregon as they have some campgrounds 100% OFF the reservation system ( Washburn for one). and many of the other campgrounds they keep a % off the res system.
Harris Beach releases unclaimed sites and we lucked into an amazing week just by driven past the "full" sign and asking nicely- they had an overnight spot and the next morning told us other people had cancelled and left spots open.
when we wander we try to keep it loose
I'll probably never get to camp at yosemite- but that's ok

Mike

[GeorgeRa]

Originally Posted by mkguitar

Yes.
We like Oregon as they have some campgrounds 100% OFF the reservation system ( Washburn for one). and many of the other campgrounds they keep a % off the res system.
Harris Beach releases unclaimed sites and we lucked into an amazing week just by driven past the "full" sign and asking nicely- they had an overnight spot and the next morning told us other people had cancelled and left spots open.
when we wander we try to keep it loose
I'll probably never get to camp at yosemite- but that's ok

Mike

We just came back from this trip, Washburn is closed, Tillicum Beach reservation only. Practically all attractive campgrounds on this route either closed or reservation only. Hopefully camping in Oregon will be back to normality past Covid19 soon.

[Vee and Zeekie]

Originally Posted by booster

Depends on where you are. In the Smoky Mountains it was like everyone wanted to have a generator running, even outside the generator campground. Host were constantly going around to tell people to shut them off. Of course everybody there had campfires going dawn till dusk whether they were around or not. Very inconsiderate in many ways. Between the generators, diesels on high idle, and campfires, it was more polluted than any city I have been in outside of China and Taiwan.


Of course the no generator no utilities campgrounds or areas are the best.

That first paragraph sounds awful! What exactly is a "no generator - no utilities" campground? Are there campgrounds that do not have hook ups, but also don't allow generators?

[Vee and Zeekie]

Originally Posted by jrobe

After also getting back into camping in my 60's (from my younger backpacking days), I have found 2 main problems with the whole RV experience. The first is the above noted noise issue. It seems to us that 95% of campers are considerate and about 5% couldn't care less about anyone but themselves. I guess that shouldn't surprise anyone.

The other issue that is somewhat related is that it is often so busy everywhere that you can't be spontaneous anymore. We frequently have to make reservations 6-12 months ahead just to get a simple campsite at the most scenic state and national park locations. This was unheard of when I was camping and hiking in my youth. We even try to travel more in the spring and fall when kids are in school and try to find less popular areas. The noise issue seems more discouraging when you plan a trip a year ahead and then have to listen to 10 barking dogs and generators when you finally get there. We try our best though to just accept it as reality.

Wow. I really don't like planning way ahead like that! My schedule does allow for avoiding the peak of summer travel, but you are saying that even if I go off-peak, reservations must be booked way in advance? That would be a real deterrent for me.

[MsNomer]

Depends on where you go. We’ve spent this summer in Colorado and Wyoming. We make sure we have a place for the weekend by Friday noon. Otherwise, we don’t worry about it. Generators and other noise have not been a problem. Maybe it’s because we’re not going to "destinations," but instead simply seeking out nice places.

[SteveJ]

Originally Posted by Vee and Zeekie

That first paragraph sounds awful! What exactly is a "no generator - no utilities" campground? Are there campgrounds that do not have hook ups, but also don't allow generators?

Yes, particularly in national parks. I rarely stay at a state park so I don't know about those.

I think it was covered elsewhere but start your camping at busy campgrounds until you get your feet wet. If have a question or situation that you don't know how to deal with friendly camper help is close by.

After doing some of this, get more primitive to your comfort level. NSFS or BLM official campgrounds and then if you want, dispersed areas to finally totally dispersed.

By all means, have fun and enjoy the adventure.