Looking to head there next weekend on short notice. 85 percent of their campsites are first come, first served. What experiences are there here working with first come, first served in this park? We are traveling with 40 ft MH and toad.
Is there a check-in time, or can you show up at any time? We have always worked off of reservations, so this is new to us.
It's one of our favorite campgrounds in the Shenandoah area and we've seldom had problems getting in. Plan on arriving in early afternoon because the later you get there the more chances are it can be filled. I think they DO have a check OUT time but if the site is empty you should be able to check IN any time you like.
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US Govt survey shows three out of four people make up 75% of the total population
Loft Mountain in VA is pretty well divided right down the middle of it as being reserved sites or not. Check out the LOFT mountain site map on-line. We always make reservations... Haven't been there is the past two years now so things may have changed since everything Government is running out of moneys and closing down things. When you enter the parkway the access point have signs showing the status of the major camp sites. We like LOFT MOUNTAIN the best. It seems like everyone wants to go to the BIG MEADOW camp grounds. There is more wildlife there to see at BIG MEADOWS. Both camp grounds have a local camp store and a restaurant with gasoline station on the parkway close by. Just bring yourself. Be aware none of these sites up on the parkway have hook-ups just bath house with water spigot at the bath house so bring along a water tote if you want go get water. I also bring a folding two-wheeled cart too. I can dump my cassette pottie tank at the bath house and bring back fresh water (not in same tote of course). Firewood and ice is available from the camp store.
The do have generator restriction run times in effect here. 8AM-10AM and then 4:30PM-7:30PM... I think there are some sites where no generators are allowed at all. HDTV being picked up off your OTA BATWING antenna is great here. We get 80 digital channels sometimes but of course they are a bunch of dupes from the different towns you can point to. they are all full screen full high def signals -great to watch NCIS up on the mtn with the squirrels and bears. Cell phone service is very spotty. Best thing to do is go down the hill to a pull-off along the parkway. I don't think cell phones works at the restaurant either on the park way. I did find a couple of spots on the west side of LOFT mtn sitting on the rocks... Ham Radio up there works great...
My trailer is setup to run all of our 120VAC and 12VDC items we want to have running from the battery bank and then we can re-charge our battery bank the next morning within the allowed generator run time restrictions.
Sometimes the camp grounds are packed and full over the weekends and not one other camper to be found from Monday thru Friday... very peaceful then up on Loft Mtn. Almost scary at times when things go bump in the middle of the night with no one else around.
We always park right in front of the bath house on B-road which is a non-reserve site. It has a pull thru and a nice closed area with tall bushes all around it. real cozy. Like the site off A-ROAD also which are mostly pull thru. You have to use the right side sites as the roads are all one way but they have camp sites on both side of the road. If they are pull thru loops then your awning will be on the wrong side if you take up the left side site pads. ALot of sites are back-in in also...
Another thing you might do is lookup LOFT MOUNTAIN with google maps and in SATELLlTE mode you can get a real clear view of all the sites roads. Can see the picnic tables plain as day. Find the site you like and from the on-line site map you can figure out if it is reserve sites or first come first serve sites. You can reserve on-line and get your site immediately. The EAST sites are the reserve sites with the WEST sites come first serve sites. Splif almost down the middle of the site map. (Two years ago at any rate). The best bet is go on Thursday if you can. Usuallly wont be no one there then. It fills up big time over the weekends then empties out of Sunday afternoon. Lots of college kids from Harrisonburg come here during school days...
I keep adding remarks: Goto GOOGLE search and type in "LOFT MOUNTAIN VA" and when it loads up select "IMAGES" from the left side of the computer screen and this will show you many many photos of LOFT mountain. The longer RV trailers all like to do the A-ROAD where they can do a pull through on the right side of the one-way road and have their awning open up into the camp site. These fill up first everytime when are up there...
Here I am again making more comments.... Checked the LOFT MTN sites available and they are far between for next weekend.. If i was you I would check-in right now and make reservations on-line. I see site B050 is open for the weekend FRI-SUN. This is back in site and has a quick path to the bath room on B-ROAD behind the trailer sites. There IS NOT MANY OPEN SITES on their reservation site. Better be safe before driving all the way up there and not find a site... Just my opinion... you can LOG-IN ONLINE and make RESERVATIONS for the sites that are available right now - I just looked... I bet there wasn't ten sites available for the whole site for next weekend. Then when you arrive you can drive right to the site and walk back to the check-in building and log into the site. I would bet there will be a real large lone line of folks waiting to be served at the check-in gate on Friday afternoon... If the Rangers dont call you at home after you reserve a site then it will be open for you if you have received a confirmation letter or just call the 800 number to check on it... Thats a long drive to find out they are full-up even with the first come first serve sites...
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My Posts are IMHO based on my experiences - PM me Roy and Carolyn
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Sorry to hear that Loft has made half or more of its sites reservable. Back in the 90's we used to go up there for long weekends several times a year - go up on Thursday and stay until Tuesday. Never had a problem getting a site - our favorites were over on the western side on the outside of the loop road - sites 11-19 or thereabouts as I recall. A short walk with our chairs after supper down to the ledges gave us a spectacular spot for watching the sun set. Here are some pix.
Holiday weekends are going to be packed, earlier you get there the better off you will be. As I have just retired I'm looking forward to my new schedule of arriving on Sunday afternoon and leaving on Friday morning. Hopeing to have much better luck finding the spots I want!
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I think, with the RV you have, you would be better off in A loop, they are generally more level, more secluded, & all pullthroughs, A-19 is an especially long one,
go to the Loft Mtn site; http://www.nps.gov/shen/planyourvisit/upload/Loft_mtn_campground-2.pdf
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I ended up getting reservations at Big Meadows. My schedule this week is not going to allow me to get to the park in time to play first come, first served roulette. Loft mountain will be there for another time.
I like that site, bukhrn. I've made a note of that site number.
Shot-N-Az wrote: I ended up getting reservations at Big Meadows. My schedule this week is not going to allow me to get to the park in time to play first come, first served roulette. Loft mountain will be there for another time.
I like that site, bukhrn. I've made a note of that site number.
If I had known you were looking at Big Meadows also,I would have suggested this site, F203, It's huge
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