We stayed last night at Cresap Bay, we watched the reservations on the website trying to catch an opening before my husband's knee surgery the first week if August. We finally got 1 night, on a Sunday with a full campground... except it was not actually full.
A03, A04, 15, all sites around me are marked reserved but no one was there when we arrived @2pm yesterday and no one was there when we left at 3 pm today (we went out kayaking before we left the park, we have a season parking pass).
There were at least 10-15 other sites that were unoccupied last night, I just did not get photos of them.
"Due to high volume of park use, campers not checked in and occupying site by 11 a.m. the morning after the reserved arrival date will be considered a “no show." The reservation will be canceled and all reservation fees forfeited."
If that is the rule then there should be a bunch of available spots open to reserve, but as of 4:15 pm there is only 1 ada spot available.
One of names on the reservation cards at A5 (my spot, didn't have my name on my reservation card), A4 and A3 are duplicates on all 3. My spot says "Stakhov" had my spot reserved for 7/30- 8/6 along with A4. We were at A5 and no one was at A4, so by the rules A4 & A5 reservation should be canceled and available to reserve. Along with A3, "Hess" was not in his campsite last night or today at 3pm.
I wish I had taken photos of all of the reserved sites that were empty last night and today. I brought it up to the campground host, and she got very defensive and said, "Oh no, we are always full with reservations." It is very obvious that certain people are reserving the sites to have access to the boat launch as this is a popular site and if they take the camping spots they don't have to get there early to be able to get in.
We go to Saddle Dam park a few times a week and until yesterday we haven't been able to get in at Cresap Bay because it always has the full sign up, even when we get there by 10-11am. It is really discouraging that there are families who want to go there for day use or to camp but it is always "full" and all the reservations are taken. The parking lot is full because the pretend campers are never using their camp spot to park, just filling the lot up so no one else can go enjoy it.
I'm am sure the park hosts see what is happening and don't mind because it just means less work cleaning up if half of the sites are never used to begin with.
Something needs to be done to stop this from happening. Having a group of people who don't care what it costs to monopolize the camping and day use of the lakes is ridiculous. Maybe just move to a first come first serve on campsites or at least a portion of them? Maybe block people from being able to reserve if they get caught doing this?
It seems like there is no reason stopping them right now as their reservation is not being canceled and they are free to come use the park anytime they want because they are reserving a week at a time and multiple sites so they can have multiple vehicles/boats at the park.
I hope this helps get something changed so more people have the chance to camp and enjoy these beautiful lakes!