Half Dome from Sentinel Bridge, a short walk from Upper Pines. NPS photo by Eric Bissmeyer.
Some campgrounds fill up. These ones vanish. We read the booking data and the sold-out stories from this season to find the ten most wanted camps in the country, and how to get into one next year.
Popular is a slippery word, so here's how we measured it. Nobody publishes a single leaderboard for every campground in America, but the demand leaves tracks. The Dyrt measures how much of each season a campground is fully booked. Recreation.gov warns you, on the listing itself, when sites sell out in minutes. And the people who book dozens of trips a year write down which camps they lose the race for. We read all of it, looked for the names that kept coming up, and weighed how fast each one goes. This is our best read, not an official ranking. We'd put money on every one of these being sold out next summer, though!
Upper Pines in winter, when it’s the only campground open in Yosemite Valley. Photo: NPS / Michele Asbury.
< 2 minfor all three Pines campgrounds to sell out when a new month opens.Source: Outdoorithm
This is the one. Upper Pines sits on the floor of Yosemite Valley along the Merced, the largest of the three Pines campgrounds with 238 sites, and Half Dome, Yosemite Falls and El Capitan are all within walking distance. Reservations open five months out on the 15th of each month at 7 a.m. Pacific, and they're gone in minutes. Log in before seven, have your dates picked, and don't hesitate at checkout.
How to get one: Try December. Upper Pines is the only Valley campground open in winter, the crowds are gone and the Valley is quiet under snow.
Underfoot: River gravel and sand left since the last ice age, over granite about 101 million years old. Recorded near here: giant sequoia, black bear, golden eagle.
5Mpeople visit Zion in a year. Watchman carries most of the park's camping demand.Source: Matador Network
Zion gets around five million visitors a year, and Watchman is where most of the ones who want to sleep inside the park try first. It's right by the visitor center and the pedestrian entrance at the mouth of the canyon, with the Virgin River below and the Watchman tower overhead. It's open year-round, and the person who made the reservation has to show photo ID at check-in, so don't book it under a friend's name.
How to get one: Winter and early spring are the gentle months here. The canyon is quiet and the shuttle lines are short.
Recorded near here: California condor, bighorn sheep, golden eagle.
The campground road, tucked among the sandstone fins. Photo: NPS.
99.2%of the season fully booked.Source: The Dyrt
The only developed campground in Arches, 18 miles past the entrance gate among sandstone fins and junipers. About fifty sites, a trail that leaves right from camp, and a night sky that people write home about. The Dyrt's booking analysis put it at 99.2% of its season fully booked.
How to get one: The campground has gone first-come, first-served in the winter months. Check the listing for this season's dates before you drive out.
Underfoot: The Slick Rock Member, sandstone that was once a beach or a dune, about 166 million years old. Recorded near here: bighorn sheep, pronghorn, golden eagle.
99.4%of the season fully booked. Tied for the hardest campground in the country to get.Source: The Dyrt
Fifty-four sites in the pines on Tahoe's east shore, a sandy beach out front and the Sierra across the water. It tied for the top spot on The Dyrt's hardest-to-book list at 99.4% of the season full. The 2.6-mile Lam Wa Tah Trail follows the shoreline, and many sites have a view of the lake.
How to get one: Look at weeknights. Friday and Saturday are what vanish first, and a Tuesday on the beach is the same beach.
Recorded near here: bald eagle, black bear, common loon.
Twelvemile Beach, a short walk from your site. Photo: NPS.
498Myears old: the sandstone under your tent on Lake Superior.Source: Campgrounder · Macrostrat
Our home water! Thirty-seven sites on a bluff above miles of wild Superior beach, in the middle of the lakeshore between Grand Marais and Munising. It tied Nevada Beach at 99.4% of the season booked. The lake is shockingly clear and cold, and on clear autumn nights the northern lights show up several times a season.
How to get one: Pack for the lake, not the forecast. Superior makes its own weather, and the wind off the water is cold even in August.
Underfoot: The Munising Formation, sandstone that was once a beach or a dune, about 498 million years old. Recorded near here: gray wolf, common loon, lady's slipper orchid.
Morning light through the Elkmont loops. Photo: Warren Bielenberg.
605Myears old: the Elkmont Sandstone. The oldest ground on this list.Source: Campgrounder · Macrostrat
The largest and busiest campground in the most visited national park in America. That's 220 sites, including 20 walk-in tent sites, along the Little River and Jakes Creek. The river-side sites in the A loop go first. In June, Elkmont is famous for its synchronous fireflies, which blink in unison after dark.
How to get one: Want the river? Be ready the minute your dates open. Want a weekend in October? Book it now, not in October.
Underfoot: The Elkmont Sandstone, once a beach or a dune, about 605 million years old. Recorded near here: black bear, trillium, mountain laurel.
Otter Cliff, a few miles up the Park Loop Road from camp. Photo: NPS / Matthew Lambert.
281wooded sites, all about ten minutes' walk from the Atlantic.Source: Matador Network
Where most people want to sleep in Acadia. All 281 sites are wooded, the rocky Atlantic shore is a short walk away, and the South Ridge Trail up Cadillac Mountain starts right from the campground. Watch sunrise from the summit, then bike the carriage roads out of Jordan Pond.
How to get one: The Island Explorer bus stops at the campground, so you can leave the car parked all trip.
Recorded near here: Atlantic puffin, humpback whale, common loon.
97.5%of the season fully booked. Every site looks at the Pacific.Source: The Dyrt
Thirty-two sites on a bluff above the Pacific, right off Highway 1, where every site is an ocean view. A short path drops to a rocky beach, and Sand Dollar Beach is a few minutes down the road. The Dyrt had it 97.5% booked across the season.
How to get one: Check the Highway 1 status before you go. Slides close sections of the road, and the detour can add hours.
Underfoot: The Broken Formation, about 201 million years old. Recorded near here: sea otter, California condor, coast redwood.
Morning coffee at Madison. Photo: NPS / Jacob W. Frank.
1stYellowstone campground to sell out when booking opens.Source: Outdoorithm
Madison sits where the Firehole and Gibbon rivers meet, in the heart of geyser country and a short drive from Old Faithful. That location is why it's the first of the park's reservable campgrounds to sell out. Bison wander through the meadow, and the Firehole Canyon swimming area is up the road.
How to get one: Madison books through the park's lodging concessioner, not Recreation.gov. Canyon is the backup with more sites.
Recorded near here: bison, grizzly bear, gray wolf.
An orchard barn under the Capitol Reef cliffs. Photo: NPS.
95.9%of the season fully booked. The quiet Utah park isn't a secret anymore.Source: The Dyrt
An oasis on the Fremont River, surrounded by orchards the pioneers planted in the 1880s that still bear fruit. In season you can pick cherries, peaches and apples, and the Gifford House sells pie a short walk from camp. Petroglyphs, slot canyons and Cassidy Arch are all close by.
How to get one: Go in fall when the cottonwoods turn gold and the apples are ready.
Underfoot: The Moenkopi Formation, limestone laid down under a shallow sea, about 252 million years old. Recorded near here: bighorn sheep, spotted owl, golden eagle.
Lower Pines and North Pines in Yosemite Valley sell out on the same morning as Upper Pines. Hurricane River at Pictured Rocks was 96.8% booked, and it sits on 1.1-billion-year-old Jacobsville Sandstone. Aspenglen at Rocky Mountain's Fall River entrance was 96.1% booked. Seven Points on J. Percy Priest Lake, ten miles from Nashville, was 97.6% booked. Twin Lakes in Mammoth Lakes was 93.7% booked. Mather on the Grand Canyon's South Rim can go in under five minutes.
Getting in anyway
Almost every camp on this list opens on a rolling window, most of them on Recreation.gov at 7 a.m. Pacific. Make an account ahead of time, know your exact dates and a backup site, and be on the page before the minute turns over. Then keep looking. Plans change all year, sites come back, and the people who get these campgrounds are usually the ones who checked on a Tuesday in February. For the federal camps, each Campgrounder listing shows live availability from Recreation.gov, so an opening shows up when you look, next to the forecast, the wildfire picture and the ground you'd be sleeping on.
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