CampsiteScanWhere People Are Trying to Camp in California
We watch 612 campgrounds across California state parks, national forests and national parks, which works out to roughly 25,000 individual sites. Most of the searches people run on CampsiteScan land in one of six places, and each one has a different reason for being hard to book.
The mountains and the coast fill up in summer and empty out by November. The desert does the opposite: Joshua Tree in July is nearly deserted and Joshua Tree in March is gone six months ahead. Knowing which curve you are fighting is most of the job.
Yosemite
67 campgrounds. Upper Pines, North Pines and Wawona go within minutes of the release window opening. Cancellations are how most people actually get in, and Valley sites like Lower Pines are the single most contested reservations in the state. If you want a Valley weekend, set the alert first and plan second.
Sierra Nevada
201 campgrounds. Mammoth, Tahoe, Sequoia and the Eastern Sierra. The biggest region we cover, and the one where a 25 mile search radius usually finds you something. This is where flexible campers win: pick an area instead of a campground and the odds swing hard in your favor.
Southern California beaches
38 campgrounds. Malibu, Orange County and San Diego. Eleven coastal parks had nothing bookable on any night we checked in late August. The full breakdown is in our beach camping guide, and if you are bringing a dog, only four of these beaches allow one on the sand; see beach camping with dogs.
The desert
41 campgrounds. Joshua Tree, Anza-Borrego, Death Valley and the Mojave. Peak season runs October to April, so summer is the easy booking. If you want a reservation win in July, this is where it lives, provided you can handle the heat.
Big Sur
14 campgrounds. The smallest region on the list and the hardest per site. Pfeiffer Big Sur and Andrew Molera absorb the demand of the entire central coast, and both regularly show zero open nights in our hardest to book ranking.
Northern California
137 campgrounds. Shasta, Trinity, Lassen and the redwoods. The best odds in the state if you are willing to drive past Sacramento. Even in peak August, most of this region has open weekend sites.
Whichever region you are fighting
Cancellations are the great equalizer: every region above churns constantly as plans change. Pick your campground, or a whole search area, and we will email you the moment a site opens for your dates. Free while we are in early access.