I'm Jason Epperson, this is RV Miles, and it's time for this week's RV and camping news roundup.

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This week's episode is all about upcoming travel trends from snowbirds to fuel prices to the winter

weather outlook, but we begin with a look back at these unprecedented times on public lands.

The Center for Western Priorities, a nonpartisan conservation and advocacy organization

focused on protecting land, water, and communities in the American West,

has released a major report on camping's rise in popularity on America's public lands.

The biggest finding in the report is that camping was well on the rise before the pandemic,

which could mean that this boost in visitation is here to stay.

In 2014, an estimated 39% of reservable lower 48 public lands campsites were filled during

the summer months, which increased to 54% in 2020. That's an increase of 39%.

Summer weekends had a higher percentage of campsites filled up an estimated 60% in 2020.

That's all with many public campground closures and travel restrictions in place in early 2020.

Camp site occupancy increased more in the western states between 2014 and 2020 than the east,

giving the region the highest occupancy rates overall. For instance, in Colorado,

summer reservations jumped 64% over the six year period.

The data doesn't include anything in 2021, but clearly those numbers will drastically

increase by the end of this year, and that's with much of the travel industry still in recovery

...