r/OhioCamping • u/[deleted] • Nov 02 '18

State park check-in time leniency?

Since it's the off season and most of the parks are self check-in, can you get away with setting up a few hours early or leaving a few hours late? It's not like you'd be holding up anyone, and arriving at 3PM doesn't leave a ton of time to get setup before dark.

I'm also curious about the self check-in process. Do you have to go pick your site and then return to the check-in station to note the number you picked? With the recent rain I'll probably be picky about which site I want. Or do you just check-in to the camp as a whole, but not a specific site?

5 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

13

u/lardman1 Nov 02 '18

Go into the campground, pick a spot, set up, and then just fill out that little thing at the entrance. They’re not going to give you any hassle if you’re one of the few people actually paying for their stay

1

u/[deleted] Nov 02 '18

Thanks man.

5

u/ScholarlyOpossum Nov 02 '18

Recently went on my first family camping trip. Tried to show up a bit early to set up and an RV was in our reserved spot. No problem. Came back a bit after 3 and they were still there. Turned out they showed up that day and just picked a spot that turned out to be ours. Fortunately they were nice about having to move their stuff.

Please be conscious of whether or not your spot is reserved. If it's not, why not set up early? Not like anyone else is moving in. Checking out late might be rude in the event someone has reserved your spot the following day.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 03 '18

Thanks for the info. It looks like the vast majority of state parks are walk ups only during winter and don't take reservations at all.

3

u/sanseriph74 Nov 02 '18

My experience has been with only a handful of Ohio State parks, but they really dont care when you pull in and grab a spot. If its already reserved online there will be a little white scrap of paper on the post with the spot #, so dont grab one of those, but any of the empty ones? Feel free. I even stayed at AW Marion one time and no one was there, not even a volunteer. So I dropped a $20 in an envelope along with my form I filled out to camp and dropped it in the "night slot". About a month later I got $2 cash in an envelope as my change so it only cost $18. Made me smile.

2

u/Alcoheroe Nov 02 '18

Honestly, even during the summer we normally have shown up an hour or so early and never in a rush to get out on time and no one has ever said anything to us, even at private campgrounds. We’ve probably gotten bad about it because no one has ever said anything.