Olivia Allen-Price: Here to help us break down what it takes to nab a good campsite in California is KQED’s Senior Editor of Audience News Carly seven. Hey, Carly.
Carly Severn: Hello, Olivia.
Olivia Allen-Price: So I can’t help but notice, but here we are in the middle of winter. It’s cold outside. The days are short. This is not the time of year I would normally associate with camping. And yet it’s top of your mind right now. Tell me why.
Carly Severn: It’s because, and I’m just going to cut to the chase, many camping spots open up six months in advance. So you’re in the depths of winter and you’re already thinking about summer and making these reservations, which I know can be a little bit counterintuitive. And it’s a little bit like when the dentist asks you, like, what are you doing in six months time at 4 p.m.? Like, you don’t know. But if you want to make a camping reservation, it is good to get yourself in the mind frame of doing this now.
Olivia Allen-Price: Yeah. I feel like camping has become a competitive sport in California and it really favors people who can plan ahead. So we’re talking about this today so that you, Dear Bay Curious listener, can be one of those people. I’ve been camping in California for, I don’t know, more than a decade. And it just feels like every year it gets harder and harder to get my hands on whatever spot I’m trying to get.
Carly Severn: So this is not just you. It’s not just your impression. There are more people camping. There’s this franchise called Kampgrounds with a K of America, better known as KOA. They run private campsites, and for more than ten years they have been researching who camps and the kinds of experiences that people want. And the most recent report in 2024 found that almost 53.6 million households across the country identify as active campers, and that is a 68% increase since 2014.
Olivia Allen-Price: That’s huge. Why so much growth?
Carly Severn: There are a lot of factors, including camping is no longer this simple throw-your-tent-in-the-car and go. There’s everything from glamping, where you have a ton of amenities, all the way to backpacking — super simple — and everything in between. There are just a lot more options, which means that more to appeal to different people now. Another huge thing, obviously the Covid pandemic has really influenced this market to rise. REI sales went up by 35% from 2020 when you know, a lot of folks physically couldn’t leave the house. A lot of parks were straight up closed, you couldn’t get those camping spots. By the time it got to 2021, they were up 35%.
Olivia Allen-Price: Wow. Yeah. I mean, I will admit, the first trip that I took during the Covid pandemic was a camping trip to the Trinity Alps. And it felt kind of like the safest way to get out of my house. Where you’re still going to be socially distanced from people in our little pod.
Carly Severn: Felt like doing the right thing, right? Yeah.
Olivia Allen-Price: You’re you’re among the trees instead of, you know, in your living room for the 300th day straight. So this growth in popularity, I guess it’s you know, it’s made it pretty competitive to get a campsite. I know some years ago there were issues with bots reserving campsites. We actually had a Bay Curious episode about that. Is it still an issue?
Carly Severn: So a few years ago, the frustration with the sheer competitiveness of snagging a campsite, it was leading a lot of folks to assume that it was bots scooping up all your spots. And it was actually hard to assess how much of that competitiveness around camping generally was actually bots. But one thing we do know, is it sounds like the California state park system, at least, took it pretty seriously, especially after they moved to this third party online reservation system. So eventually some security features for users were added to the process for anyone logging in. And they also did this big analysis of, like, IP addresses and timestamps for all the reservations coming in. And after that they officially concluded that bots are no longer an issue, at least on the state parks system. And in large part, it really does just seem to be a supply and demand issue. Not enough campsites, too many people who want to camp. I don’t know. Is that is that good news? Is that bad news?
Olivia Allen-Price: I would say good news. I would say good news. But yeah, let’s break it down from here. So let’s say I’m a first time camper. I’m looking to book a campsite. Walk me through a little bit of the matrix that I’m going to be navigating as I’m looking to make a reservation.
Carly Severn: Okay. First of all, a plug. I’m the senior editor of the audience news desk at KQED, which is basically explainers and guides. So we love talking about this kind of stuff. If you’re interested in it, you can go to KQED dot org slash explainers. We have all these tips. And I do want to say, these tips that I’m about to give you, the creme de la creme of what we have published so far, come from our reporter Kelly O’Mara, who has been diving deep into how to snag a camping spot. The process to making camping reservations in California…it depends where the campgrounds are located and what agency operates the campsite. This is the boring stuff, but it really helps if you understand because you’re going to be able to navigate the system a lot quicker and snap up your campsite.
Olivia Allen-Price: Right? Understanding where you’re camping makes all the difference.
Carly Severn: Exactly. There are different reservation systems, essentially, and different timelines for making reservations for national parks, tate parks, and just to complicate things there are also private campgrounds. You’ve got a lot in the mix, but essentially in a nutshell, you can camp in California’s national parks. So that is spots like the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Point Reyes. And to do that, you make reservations on recreation.gov.
You can camp in California State Parks. You can make that reservation at reservecalifornia.gov. That’s stuff like Mt. Tam, Mount Diablo, Angel Island and a lot of Tahoe spots. There’s a huge amount of California State Parks, 279 units with campsites. And then you also have camping in California regional parks. That includes things like the East Bay Regional Park System. And all of these regional park systems have their own websites and their own booking methods. And the cherry on top, you’ve also got BLM land. That is Bureau of Land Management camping, where you can do what’s called dispersed camping, sometimes without the usual amenities like potable water, bathrooms, etc.. And sometimes BLM campgrounds require a reservation, but sometimes they don’t.
Olivia Allen-Price: I will definitely add that BLM camping is maybe the best avenue to try if you have procrastinated at booking a site. I’ve had a lot of luck there in the past. But yeah, in general, block off some time on your calendar to really go through and figure out where you want to camp. Who’s in charge of it? What you need to do to reserve it. It’s an effort.
Carly Severn: Yeah. Because I think a lot of people, even ones who like camping, they might not know that the sites open up six months in advance. And if they’re thinking, you know, I didn’t get my spot this year, it’s because someone was so on it and they weren’t. The system is meant to give everyone this chance to book, but there are challenges for folks who say, don’t have access to reliable WiFi. Or don’t have access to a computer. Or they just don’t have free time to get up and mark their calendar, secure the spot. Plus planning three months, six months in advance like it lends itself to a certain type of person, shall we say.
Olivia Allen-Price: Well, you think of camping as like, I don’t know, I think of it as sort of a last minute thing, you know, what should we do this weekend? We don’t have plans. Let’s go camping. That is not the case at a lot of these campgrounds in California. It is almost like taking an international trip where you really need to be thinking about it and planning your way ahead.
Carly Severn: Yeah.
Olivia Allen-Price: Help us increase our chances at getting one of those spots. Kali, please.
Carly Severn: Okay, so these are some of the tips, just some of the tips we have been sharing online at KQED. The first one, it sounds so obvious, but just be ready with all your information ahead of time. Ready to make that booking. Create your account on the reservation site, have your credit card ready, even know, like, what’s my vehicle license plate? I don’t know about you, I always forget what my license plate is. But the reservation system, when you book for your campground, it’s probably going to ask you what the car looks like that you’re going to be showing up in. So be logged in as well so that you are ready before that time slot opens and you won’t have to, like, reset your password because you forgot it. I’m talking to myself. I always have to reset my passwords because I forget them.
Olivia Allen-Price: This sounds almost like you’re going to, you know, like a Taylor Swift concert or something.
Carly Severn: Nailed it. That’s exactly what it feels like sometimes.
Olivia Allen-Price: So as soon as the reservation system opens and your campsite becomes available, you need to be ready to hit purchase.
Carly Severn: So another tip, keep an eye out for cancellations. You can even set up an alert on the reservation site to let you know if something opens up. Similar to what you can do in, like, Open Table or something for, like, a dinner reservation you want to make. On the Reserve California site, there’s like a little notify me button that you can click when you search for a particular camping spot. It’s really handy. You know, someone else’s change of plans could be your gain.
Olivia Allen-Price: I will vouch for this, not a campsite, but I did score last minute half dome hiking permits because somebody canceled. That’s so cool. Yeah, I only got that experience because somebody canceled.
Carly Severn: Yeah. When it works, it works really well. Another thing that works well when it works is knowing about day of spots and walk-in sites. Point Reyes National Seashore, for example, they hold back a handful of campsites to give out two weeks beforehand and also a few to hand out each day. You still need to reserve them. You know, the spots open up at 7 a.m. There’s still, like, a certain methodology to it. So, it’s not loosey goosey, but you may have more luck taking this approach. Another thing about walk-ins, many popular campgrounds are also operating first come, first serve sites, which you can typically claim if you get there by noon-ish. Obviously, if you want the site for a busy weekend, then you probably need to be there on Friday morning or even Thursday evening for long weekends. Be prepared to be flexible as well. You may have your heart set on this like one Tahoe campground. You might not be hitting that campground this year. Keep your mind and your heart open for lesser known campgrounds. The Reserve California site actually has this recommendation engine which will show you other parks nearby that have availability when you put your dates in. So it’s a good thing to give it a try.
Olivia Allen-Price: Donner State Park… still holding a candle to make my way out there someday.
Carly Severn: Okay, Olivia, we’ve gone through some pretty straightforward tips. Are you ready to come to the dark side with me?
Olivia Allen-Price: Oh my. Am I ready? Yes. Yes. Take me there.
Carly Severn: I like to just sound the metaphorical unethical klaxon because some of the tips that have been shared with us, there are some things that, you know, might stray beyond the boundaries of acceptability. Not everyone might be comfortable making them, basically. So I offer them in that spirit, not necessarily endorsing them, but just telling you what some campers do to get spots.
Olivia Allen-Price: There’s no gatekeeping here, we’re going to the dark side. Okay.
Carly Severn: With those caveats. One way that dedicated campers try to reserve those really coveted weekend spots is by deliberately starting their reservation a few days before the weekend. Because remember, the reservations open several months in advance and you can book multiple nights. So reservations for trips that start on the Wednesday or the Thursday of that week that you’re hoping to visit, they’ll open before the weekend reservations. So you could log on as soon as Wednesday reservations open and reserve a trip that starts then and lasts four nights and thereby snag your weekend camping spot before the reservations for Friday or Saturday even open.
So you might be saying, what is the problem here? If someone is just planning a lovely longer camping trip and they are happening to benefit from the way the reservation system works? I’ll tell you the problem. Some people do this and then they just don’t show up for those first couple of nights. They just roll up for the weekend dates that they really wanted that are included in their reservation. And if you’re thinking about trying this, you should be very careful because not only have different campsites always had different rules about giving your spot away, if you no-show after a certain day or time it is actually now California law that a state park will give your campsite away if you don’t show up on day one of your reservation. And if, you no-show more than three times in one year, you could be banned from making any more reservations within the California state park system entirely.
Olivia Allen-Price: Yeah, I do feel weird about this tip, just thinking about the possibility for empty campsites when people are not planning to be there. But what if you modified your dates after the booking?
Carly Severn: You could totally do that, to essentially remove the earlier dates and keep the weekend. It is undoubtedly more ethical to cancel the nights you are not planning to be there and let someone else have the fun. This new California law is all about trying to encourage more ethical, generous camper behavior and not hogging all the coveted spots for yourself.
Olivia Allen-Price: And of course, once you get there, be a respectful camper so that you can have others enjoy their stay as well. You know, don’t make noise after quiet hours. Don’t leave your trash out. Like, just be a good person.
Carly Severn: Yeah. And also check the specific place you’re going for any fire regulations. Wildfires have been started by people who are lighting illegal campfires that got out of control. So it’s really, really important that we all take those risks seriously.
Olivia Allen-Price: Carly Severn, thank you so much. We are going to go home tonight and get on our summer plans because of this conversation, so thanks again.
Carly Severn: See you at the campground.
Olivia Allen-Price: Remember you can find all kinds of tips for camping at kqed.org/explainers. Special thanks this week to Katrina’s Dad. He’s taking Carly’s advice to heart.
Tim Schwartz: I’ve never tried to modify a reservation before, so I’m not quite sure…
Olivia Allen-Price: Bay Curious is made by…. Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale, and Olivia Allen-Price.
Tim Schwartz: So what I’d like to do is delete the first day because I don’t think I can make it up there in time. I’m trying to be accurate and a good citizen and return the day to somebody else.
Olivia Allen-Price: With extra support from…Amanda Font, Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Jen Chien, Holly Kernan and everyone on Team KQED.
Katrina Schwartz: Yay you did it!
Tim Schwartz: So we achieved our modification.
Olivia Allen-Price: Our colleagues at The Bay are working on a podcast episode about dating in the Bay Area — the good, the bad, and everything in between — and we’d love to hear from you. What’s your experience been like? What’s dating like in your city? Do you have a wild story? Leave a voicemail at 415-710-9223, or send a voice memo to thebay@kqed.org. Tell them your name, your city, and your story.
Thanks for listening. See you next week.
