2023 Camping Season Booking is Now Open!
It's hard to believe that in just a few months we open the gates to welcome guests for our 19th season! We open on May 1 and we have been working hard to get ready for another year. New reservation system! New campsites! New restroom/shower building! And there is a lot more in store! As of this past weekend, we have turned on the ability to book camping sites for the 2023 season! Keep reading for more information on a range of topics below:
- New reservation system
- Event and Holiday Weekends ... so far!
- Requesting a Group Code
- Construction Update
- Final Words ...
Keep scrolling to read the details!
New Reservation System
Last fall, the folks at our previous booking partner let us know they merged with another company called Firefly and that we would need to make some decisions that would affect your reservation and booking process with us. After looking at a range of options, we made the decision to pull the plug on our previous tool and move everything over to Firefly. Last week, we completed testing of the system and over the weekend we went live with our new booking tool.
Some new features you can expect:
- improved booking right from the campground map
- better filters while making a reservation to help you select the best campsite for your stay
- new guest portal for updating, cancelling, changing reservations online as well as updating credit cards or other methods of payment
- we now accept American Express ... so you can earn SkyMiles with your stay
- improved ability to pre-purchase firewood and other add-ons when you reserve your site
- ability to issue Group Codes that will give your group time to reserve online (more information below)
If you are planning on coming to Gilbert this season, make your reservation today to save your spot!
Check out event weekend dates in the article below to help your planning for the season!
Event and Holiday Weekends ... so far!
Each season, we have a lot of events in and around Gilbert. To help with your planning, here are the ones we know about so far with notes on how they may affect your stay with us:
- May 1 - West Forty RV Park and Campground opens for the season!
- May 26-29 - Memorial Day weekend; 3-night stay is required for all reservations. Trail Busters weekend - event organizers have reserved their campsite block.
- June 1-4 - Gilbert CampOUT weekend private event; campground fully booked. Event organizers will issue the designated Group Code when booking for the weekend opens to eligible participants. Unclaimed camping spots will be available open to the general public starting May 18.
- June 9-11 - LROC Women's Weekend of Wheeling; campground fully booked. LROC will issue the designated Group Code to their club members when booking for the weekend opens.
- July 1-5 - Independence Day holiday; a 3-night stay is required for all reservations between the dates of July 1-5
- July 13-16 - Crawl 4 the Cure weekend; a 3-night stay is required for all reservations.
- August 18-20 - Trail Jam weekend; campground fully booked. Iron Road Offroad will issue the designated Group Code when booking for the weekend opens. Unclaimed spots open to the general public starting August 7.
- September 1-4 - Labor Day weekend; a 3-night stay is required for all reservations. Trail Busters weekend - event organizers will release their Group Code to eligible participants.
- September 8-10 - Fall CampOUT weekend private event; campground fully booked. Event organizers will issue the designated Group Code when booking for the weekend opens to eligible participants. Unclaimed camping spots will be available open to the general public starting August 24.
- September 28 - October 1 - Fall Colors Run - MN Trail Lizards.
- October 6-8 - Rock Rash weekend.
- October 19-22 - M.E.A. (Minnesota Education Association) weekend.
- October 27-29 - last weekend of the 2023 camping season for West Forty.
All non-event/holiday weekends require a minimum stay of 2-nights for any reservation that starts on a Friday or Saturday.
We strongly encourage booking reservations at least 30-60 days in advance to secure your spot!
Requesting a Group Code
Our new booking system now allows us to work even more closely with off-road clubs by being able to assign Group Codes to block out campsites for specific dates. If you've ever booked a hotel for a wedding party and requested a 'room block' before, it's essentially the same functionality. This gives each person in your group the time they need to book online without the worry that someone else will grab the site before they can book. Now we can get details from your group's organizer/leader and assign a code that they can send out to the rest of the people in the group. When group members visit our website, all they need to do is enter the dates of stay and Group Code to get access to the site block.
If you would like to have us build a group code for you, visit our Group Code page on our website, fill out the information on the form and send it in to us. We'll review it, assign a code or let you know if we have any questions.
And don't forget, if you have a group or event with more than 15 campsites expected to be booked, check out our Large Groups and Special Events page for more details on other services we can provide.
Construction Update
When we started our expansion plan three years ago, we definitely thought we would be done much sooner, but a global pandemic, government red-tape, supply chain issues and so many more things seemed to conspire and create delay after delay. We're more than a little exhausted, but also very happy to share some updates about our progress:
- New restroom/shower building: the exterior of the building was compete before we got snow and we were able to continue interior construction during part of the winter months. In February, we are expecting the electric to be connected and plumbing to go in. March-April we will be able to focus on sheetrock, tile, and interior details. By May, we should be close to scheduling inspections that will allow us to open the building for customer use. While we very much want the building to be open for Memorial Day, we are expecting it to be closer to sometime in June.
- New big-rig-friendly D section: sewer and electrical risers have been installed for sites D1-D5 and D9-D10. In May, we will install water risers to the sites and complete surface lot grading. Sites D6-D8 are temporarily on hold until we can move our overflow parking area; until then, parking will remain on the hill in this section.
- Electric upgrade for A section: new electric pedestals have been installed for sites A1-A5. These sites now have 30-amp service which will allow for larger rigs to use them. We are in the process of recycling the 20-amp pedestals for use on tent sites A6-A9 and A12-A13 early this season. We expect that ALL campsites in the A section will have power this season.
- New EV charging station: starting in May, we will offer Gilbert's 1st electric vehicle (EV) charging station* in our new parking lot across from our restroom/shower building. This area will also serve as one of our newly designated "Repair Zones" designed for a safer place to fix off-road vehicles after trail breakdowns. Our EV charging station will use a standard NEMA 14-50 outlet and will be available for customers who need to plug in an arc-welder for repairs. *connection fee and regular kWh use charges apply.
- New overflow parking area: as soon as possible, we will have our contractor begin clearing trees to make way for our new and expanded overflow parking area. Ater we complete this portion of project, we will resume construction on the remaining sites in our D section.
As you can see, there are still a lot of new things coming, but we are working hard to get these projects complete ASAP so you can enjoy them!
Some Final Words...
With the start of a New Year, the City of Gilbert has a new Mayor and some new members on our City Council. We excited to begin working with them to bring even more options for off-roading and visitors of all sorts when you come spend time in Gilbert!
If you are a member of MN4WDA or ATVMN, be sure to check-out the spring edition of Minnesota Wheein' magazine for an interview between us and the Mayor on all the exciting things we are working on together!
See you in a few months!
Paul & Ron Skrbec, owners
West Forty RV Park
west40rv@gmail.com
218-248-7362
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