Planning Our 2014 Travels With the Good Sam App!

To continue with my post from February 16, 2014 on planning our major camping trip for 2014, I write today to discuss a new tool in my planning: my Good Sam Camping iPhone app. I downloaded it a few days ago to locate a campground for our trip.

You may recall that our plan is to “bag” four fourteeners (Colorado Peaks rising 14,000+ feet above sea level) on our trip this summer. Mounts Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln and Bross can be climbed, one after the other, in one day.  While it takes some strength and determination to do it, the journey is only about eight miles round trip with an elevation gain of 2,200 feet.

To begin, I simply searched for, then downloaded the Good Sam app, at no charge, from the App Store on my iPhone. This app is also available for Android users for your Android phone.

It took only a minute to download and proved simple to use. Knowing the names of the mountains but not where they were located in Colorado, I googled the first mountain we would climb, Mt. Democrat, for a location. It was reported to be just a bit northwest of the town of Alma, CO.

I then went to my Good Sam app and entered Alma, CO in the search location box. The app immediately brought up a number of campgrounds, the first four of which were complete with ratings. However, two of these were located in Buena Vista, CO and the other, the top choice, Tiger Run RV Resort, was located in Breckenridge. I did have to go back to Google for a map to tell me which was closest to Alma and learned the Breckenridge campground was closest. It, also, happened to be the highest rated of the three, receiving scores of 10 for the facility, 10 for the restrooms and 10 for appeal.

In addition to giving information about the facility and sites available, there was also a link to the campground’s own website and a button one could click to “Call now”. I must say, this is much more convenient than the old planning process! While I am not able to book just yet as I must have more information about my son’s summer schedule before making any firm plans,  I am pretty convinced that the Tiger Run will be our best option.

Looking to get just a bit more information about Tiger Run, I chose to visit the Park’s own website, after looking at the Facility Information page on the app. I had noted that there was a checkmark by the phrase, “Pet Restriction on Quantity.”  Some of you may recall that we have three cocker spaniels that love to camp and hike with us so this was information I needed to have. Upon viewing the park’s website, I learn that there is a maximum of two dogs per site. That eliminates us as it would be heartbreaking to leave one dog home and take the other two!

I move on to my next choice: Arrowhead Point Campground and Cabins in Buena Vista. This facility received ratings of 8, 9.5 and 9. Not bad. I visited the campground website for further information and it looks good.At this point, I will save this information in my 2014 camping file and wait to hear from our son regarding dates he can be available. At that time, with most of my planning complete, I will simply book our site.

Happy travels!

Read more about Colorado campgrounds and things to do in Colorado.