When Do California Park Camping Reservations Open?

Campgrounds at state parks and national parks in California can be highly competitive. Often, camping fees are minimal, and campsites are well situated and well stock.

California hotels–especially in popular destinations–can be exorbitantly expensive. That makes it hard to find an inexpensive place to stay while you visit California’s popular tourist destinations, from the Golden Gate Bridge to Legoland or the San Diego Zoo.

Likewise, many of California’s most beautiful scenic areas are very remote and rugged. There may not be traditional accommodations nearby to these pristine, national locations.

That’s certainly true of places like Death Valley and many locations towards the southern portions of California. But it’s also true of popular destinations like Big Sur.

Often, the sane undeveloped beauty that makes California special also means you won’t find hotels–or even AirBNBs–nearby.

Why is it so hard to find campsites in California?

All these factors combine to make campsites a popular alternative for California travel.

It’s so hard to find campsites in California because there’s a large amount of competition for a limited number of sites, the campsites are an inexpensive alternative to traditional hotels and vacation rentals, and many rugged locations only have campsites, with no other nearby lodging options.

When do California Campsite Reservations Open?

Complicating things further is that different parks in California are managed by different agencies. Some are National Parks, which are managed by the Federal government. Yosemite National Park is a perfect example. Others are state parks, managed by California itself.

This means that each park’s campsites have different requirements, and open registration dates at different times.

To simplify the process of finding campsites in California and nationwide, camping website the Dyrt recently compiled a detailed list of National and State parks in California with campsites, as well as the number of months in advance that those campsites open for reservations.

It’s a little silly that you need to sit at a computer, waiting to reserve a campsite as if you’re purchasing Taylor Swift tickets! But with the Dyrt reporting that demand for campsites has increased 500% over the last year, that’s the world we live in!

California Campsite Reservation Opening Dates