Is Anybody Out There? Open Campgrounds in Northeast U.S. in October

Well, we had a plan as early as January with campgrounds all picked out. Come late July early August, as we began making reservations for October, we discovered that a lot of our selected campgrounds would be closed on the dates we had planned to be there. Ugh! My family, i.e. one particular and appreciated family member, went back to the drawing board. With autumn being the ideal season to take in the beauty of the colorful northeast stuffed full of trees, we expected campgrounds to be open for the leaf peepers. We found that many state and national park campgrounds would be closed in October due to the risk of the freeze coming, but open private campgrounds were easier to come by. 

For us, having campgrounds picked out and reservations made translates to peace of mind. Traveling can be stressful enough without the hustle of last minute phone calls or time wasted searching for the next stop. We did secure all of our reservations before hitting the road and this allowed us to have fun, be carefree and even make spontaneous sightseeing detours along the way. For me, the experience is a little different from all of my retired traveling companions in the caravan. I still work for a living. 

Last October, I had only made reservations for the first few planned campgrounds since I was undecided on how long I would travel. I ended up frustrated and left for home earlier than I had wanted so this year I made sure to decide ahead of time how far I would travel with the group and made my reservations. This proved to be a much more pleasant experience and I happily stayed for the whole planned trip. There were plenty of other campers out there in the campgrounds that were opened so of course this made for some very full parks. I would encourage you to make reservations ahead of time so you won’t have to settle for a less than ideal camping stop.

I met up with the group in Virginia and we made our way north up to Niagara Falls and into Canada making our way around Lake Ontario, staying in as many state parks as we could to keep campsite costs down. Private campgrounds are more expensive than the state and national park campgrounds typically. Then we made our way back into the U.S. through Maine and came down the East Coast into South Carolina where we went our separate ways. What a beautiful earth we have and what a fun family I have! 

Let me know in the comments if you would like me to share our campground itinerary so you won’t have to do as much research for your autumn travel in Northeast U.S. and Southeast Canada. And may you be blessed to find rays of sunshine in your life and in your travels!