The most sought-after national park campgrounds are the ones inside the park, a short walk from the main trailheads: Watchman in Zion, Upper Pines in Yosemite, Mather on the Grand Canyon’s South Rim, Cades Cove in the Smokies and the Yellowstone campgrounds along the loop road. Nearly all National Park Service campgrounds are reservation-only now, most open exactly six months ahead on Recreation.gov, and very few have hookups. Michigan has its own: Pictured Rocks, Sleeping Bear Dunes and Isle Royale. Plan your stay at Walnut Hills Family Campground in Durand.
Here’s a short list of the campgrounds worth planning a trip around, how the booking windows work, where you can find electric, and the Michigan national park campgrounds closest to home.
Which national park campgrounds should you book first?
| Campground | Park | Why it stands out | Hookups |
|---|---|---|---|
| Watchman | Zion (Utah) | Open year-round beside the Virgin River, a short walk from the Zion Canyon Visitor Center and shuttle | 92 sites with 30-amp electric; a handful of 50 amp; no water or sewer |
| Upper Pines | Yosemite (California) | In Yosemite Valley at about 4,000 feet; the Mirror Lake and Half Dome trails start nearby | None; dump station and water on site |
| Mather | Grand Canyon South Rim (Arizona) | The largest campground in the park system at 327 sites, in Grand Canyon Village; free shuttles to the rim trails | None; free dump and fill station nearby |
| Cades Cove | Great Smoky Mountains (Tennessee) | One of two Smokies campgrounds open all year, in the valley known for deer and bear sightings | None (a 5-amp outlet for medical equipment only) |
| Fishing Bridge RV Park | Yellowstone (Wyoming) | The only Yellowstone campground with full hookups; hard-sided RVs only | Full hookups |
| Platte River | Sleeping Bear Dunes (Michigan) | Electric sites, showers and modern restrooms near the Platte River and Lake Michigan | Electric at some sites |
| Twelvemile Beach | Pictured Rocks (Michigan) | 36 sites on a bluff above Lake Superior, May 15 to October 15 | None |
How do National Park Service campground reservations work?
Most NPS campgrounds are booked on Recreation.gov, and the standard window opens six months before your arrival date. Zion’s Watchman, Grand Canyon’s Mather, the Pictured Rocks drive-in campgrounds and six of Yellowstone’s campgrounds all follow that pattern. Two exceptions trip people up:
- Yosemite releases sites five months ahead, in one-month blocks, on the 15th of each month at 7:00 a.m. Pacific. On January 15, for example, arrival dates from May 15 through June 14 go on sale.
- Yellowstone’s five largest campgrounds (Bridge Bay, Canyon, Fishing Bridge RV Park, Grant Village and Madison) are booked through Yellowstone National Park Lodges, not Recreation.gov, also on a rolling six-month basis.
Summer weekends at the famous parks usually sell out within minutes of release. If you miss the window, cancellations do show up, and spring and fall dates are far easier. Our national park camping rates guide covers what the sites cost.
Do national park campgrounds have hookups?
Mostly no. National park campgrounds are built to keep the footprint small, so the norm is a paved or gravel pad, a fire ring, a picnic table, restrooms and a dump station at the entrance. Electric exists at a few: Watchman in Zion, some sites at Look Rock in the Smokies, and Platte River at Sleeping Bear Dunes.
Full hookups inside a park are rare; Fishing Bridge RV Park in Yellowstone is the well-known example. If you need 50 amp and sewer, plan to stay at a private campground outside the park entrance, or treat the national park as a few dry-camping nights with a full charge and empty tanks on arrival.
National parks with camping in Michigan
You don’t have to drive west for an NPS campground.
- Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore (Upper Peninsula) has three drive-in campgrounds: Twelvemile Beach (36 sites), Hurricane River (21) and Little Beaver Lake (8). All are reservation-only on Recreation.gov up to six months ahead, $25 a night, with vault toilets and well water and no hookups. The season runs May 15 to October 15.
- Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (northwest Lower Peninsula) has Platte River Campground, with electric sites, showers and modern restrooms, and D.H. Day, a rustic campground with dirt roads and vault toilets a short walk from Lake Michigan.
- Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior is reached by ferry or seaplane, and camping there is backcountry-style at designated sites, with no vehicles on the island.
Michigan’s national forests also have campgrounds; see our national forest campgrounds in Michigan guide.
Closer to home: a full-hookup base in southern Michigan
If a national park trip is the once-a-year adventure, most Michigan families do the rest of their camping within a couple of hours of home. Walnut Hills Family Campground in Durand, between Flint and Lansing, is the opposite of dry camping: 80 full-hookup sites with 50 amp, many of them 70 to 80 feet long for rigs up to 45 feet, on 42 acres of old-growth trees along the Shiawassee River.
The park has a spring-fed swimming lake with a 14-piece Wibit floating water park (free for campers Tuesday through Thursday), canoe, kayak and tube trips on the river through Cheff’s Canoe Rental, a renovated bathhouse and a food truck every weekend from Memorial Day through September.
Nightly RV sites start around the high $40s and vary by date and site; see the rates page. One campground employee’s advice for a first visit: arrive Wednesday or Thursday, because “there’s simply so much to do that you can’t experience it all by coming in on Friday and leaving on Sunday.”
National park campgrounds FAQ
How far in advance can you book a national park campsite?
Six months for most Recreation.gov campgrounds and Yellowstone’s lodge-run campgrounds; five months, released on the 15th, for Yosemite.
Which national park campground has full hookups?
Fishing Bridge RV Park in Yellowstone is the best-known full-hookup campground inside a national park. Electric-only sites exist at Zion’s Watchman, Look Rock in the Smokies and Platte River at Sleeping Bear Dunes.
Are there national park campgrounds in Michigan?
Yes: Pictured Rocks (three drive-in campgrounds), Sleeping Bear Dunes (Platte River and D.H. Day) and Isle Royale (backcountry).
