Roaming.Camp
Camping in California

California

The Golden State

California holds nine national parks — more than any other state — and the camping spans an ecosystem range no single state matches. In the Sierra Nevada, Yosemite Valley's 3,000-foot granite walls and Tuolumne Meadows' subalpine flats at 8,600 feet anchor the high country, while Sequoia and Kings Canyon protect the largest trees on earth along the Kaweah River. South, Joshua Tree's monzogranite boulder piles meet the Mojave at 4,000 feet, and Death Valley drops below sea level at Furnace Creek. The coast runs from Big Sur's bluff-edge Los Padres campgrounds above the Pacific to the old-growth redwood groves of Jedediah Smith on the Smith River near the Oregon line. Pinnacles' talus caves shelter California condors in the Gabilan Range, and Lake Tahoe's west shore tucks small USFS camps under ponderosa pine at 6,200 feet. Few states pack snow tundra, redwood fog, and below-sea-level desert within a single weekend's drive.

Top 10 sites

The places we'd send you first.

No. 1

Upper Pines Campground

NPS · CA

The most-photographed campground in the West sits on the Yosemite Valley floor at 4,000 feet, shaded by ponderosa pine and incense cedar along the Merced River, with 238 sites a short walk from the Mist Trail at Happy Isles. Reservations release on Recreation.gov in rolling blocks on the 15th at 7 AM Pacific and sell out in under a minute for May through September. The Half Dome cables stage from camp via the John Muir Trail. Cottonwood smell on cool morning air; Valley walls catch first light pink.

When to go

California's defining weather feature is microclimate range — a single trip can swing from 35°F at Tuolumne Meadows to 105°F at Furnace Creek within four hours of driving. The coast runs cool and foggy in late spring and early summer (May Gray, June Gloom) before clearing in August. The Sierra follows a dry-summer Mediterranean pattern with almost no rain June through September. Desert summers in Death Valley and the Mojave routinely top 115°F with ground temperatures past 180°F — genuinely dangerous, not just uncomfortable. Wildfire smoke is a separate hazard from heat: check airnow.gov daily July through October.

Spring

Mar–May

Peak desert season and the only window with the whole state accessible. Joshua Tree, Death Valley, and Anza-Borrego run 70–85°F afternoons, and the Carrizo Plain and Anza-Borrego wildflower blooms — best in years following a wet winter — pull crowds from Los Angeles in March and April. The Sierra stays snowbound above 7,000 feet: Tioga Pass and Glacier Point Road typically don't open until mid-June, and Tuolumne Meadows is unreachable by car. Yosemite Valley waterfalls hit peak runoff — Bridalveil, Vernal, Nevada, and Yosemite Falls thunder in May. Coastal fog (May Gray) builds along Big Sur. Six-month-out reservations for Upper Pines fill the morning the window opens.

Summer

Peak season

Jun–Aug

Sierra and coastal peak; the desert closes down to dangerous. Tioga Pass typically opens by mid-June, finally connecting Yosemite Valley to Tuolumne Meadows, and the Half Dome cables go up Memorial Day weekend. Yosemite's reservation lottery binds hardest now — Upper Pines releases on the 15th of each month at 7 AM Pacific and sells out in under a minute. The park's timed-entry reservation system applies through October on peak days. Wildfire smoke risk begins mid-July and can shut entire forests within hours. Death Valley summer is genuinely lethal: ground temperatures past 180°F, air over 120°F, and Furnace Creek runs almost empty. Coastal fog burns off by mid-morning on the Big Sur bluffs.

Fall

Sep–Nov

The highest wildfire risk window of the year. September and October bring both active fires and PG&E Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS) that can black out entire counties and close national forests — check pge.com/psps and inciweb.nwcg.gov before any trip. Tuolumne Meadows closes early-to-mid October ahead of the Tioga Pass winter gate, which typically follows in late October or November. Eastern Sierra aspens at Sabrina Lake, June Lake, and Bishop Creek peak from the last week of September through mid-October — one of the West's best fall-color drives. Pinnacles and the Big Sur coast hit prime conditions as the marine layer breaks and summer crowds thin. Desert highs drop into the 70s by November.

Winter

Dec–Feb

Desert season returns. Jumbo Rocks, Furnace Creek, and Anza-Borrego run 60–75°F afternoons with cold clear nights — the best stargazing of the year over Joshua Tree and Death Valley. The Sierra is mostly closed: Tioga Pass is gated roughly November through May, Glacier Point Road shuts the same window, and Tuolumne Meadows, Lodgepole, and most high-country camps are inaccessible. Yosemite Valley plows Upper Pines onto a reduced loop and stays reservable year-round. Generals Highway in Sequoia stays open with chain controls during storms. The coast is shoulder-season — fewer crowds at Kirk Creek and Plaskett Creek but rain-dependent and exposed to big Pacific swells. Gray whales pass close to shore from late December through April.

Know before you go

Best time

Window
Jun–Aug
Peak — Summer
Jun–Aug
Spring
Mar–May
Summer
Jun–Aug
Fall
Sep–Nov
Winter
Dec–Feb

Sierra and coastal peak; the desert closes down to dangerous. Tioga Pass typically opens by mid-June, finally connecting Yosemite Valley to Tuolumne Meadows, and the Half Dome cables go up Memorial Day weekend. Yosemite's reservation lottery binds hardest now — Upper Pines releases on the 15th of each month at 7 AM Pacific and sells out in under a minute. The park's timed-entry reservation system applies through October on peak days. Wildfire smoke risk begins mid-July and can shut entire forests within hours. Death Valley summer is genuinely lethal: ground temperatures past 180°F, air over 120°F, and Furnace Creek runs almost empty. Coastal fog burns off by mid-morning on the Big Sur bluffs.

Reservations

Booking
Recreation.gov
Window opens
6 months out
First-come sites
Mixed · arrive early
Cancellation
48 hr · per facility
Peak weekends
Book on release

Permits & signal

Backcountry
Permit required
Dispersed
USFS · BLM · 14 days
Fire restrictions
Seasonal · check ranger
Signal · Verizon
Good
Signal · AT&T
Good
Signal · T-Mobile
Fair

Rarely on the beach itself. California's state beaches all require paid reservations through ReserveCalifornia, and there is no legal free camping inside a state beach. The Lost Coast — Sinkyone Wilderness State Park and the BLM…

Camping etiquette

Quiet hours
10 PM – 6 AM
Pets
Leashed · 6 ft
Pack-out
All waste
Food storage
Bear box / hang
Stay limit
14 days · 30 day window

Mostly yes in campgrounds, mostly no on trails. Leashed dogs are welcome at most state-park campgrounds — D.L. Bliss, Henry Cowell, Big Basin Redwoods, MacKerricher, and Salt Point all allow pets in developed sites. The catch…

Best for Hiking & Backpacking

California's Sierra Nevada holds the largest concentration of named alpine objectives in the Lower 48 — the 211-mile John Muir Trail, the 14,505-foot summit of Mt. Whitney, and the Tuolumne high country anchor a roof of granite shared by no other state. Pinnacles' talus caves and condor canyons add a non-Sierra hiking story entirely its own.

Best for RV Camping

California's national-park RV camping spans an elevation range no other state matches — Furnace Creek at 196 feet below sea level to Tuolumne Meadows at 8,600 feet, with afternoon temperatures that can differ by 70°F on the same date. Only a handful of NPS sites accept full-size rigs comfortably, and electric hookups inside park boundaries are vanishingly rare.

Best for Coastal & Big Sur Camping

US-1 between Carmel and San Simeon is the country's most-photographed coastal drive — 90 miles of cliff-edge highway with the Pacific 500 feet below and the Santa Lucias rising 5,000 feet east. California is the only state where you can camp on an open-ocean bluff and inside an old-growth redwood grove in the same trip, with sea-kayak launches at both ends.

Best for Dark-Sky & Desert Stargazing

Joshua Tree and Death Valley are two of the largest International Dark Sky Parks in the Lower 48, together protecting nearly four million acres of unlit Mojave and Great Basin desert. Pinnacles' 2023 dark-sky designation completes the trio, giving California more certified dark-sky acreage than any state outside Nevada and putting world-class Milky Way views within four hours of Los Angeles.

Frequently asked

It depends on which California. The Sierra peaks June through September once Tioga Pass opens and the high country thaws — Tuolumne and Lodgepole run their best windows then. The coast peaks June through October after the May Gray and June Gloom burn off, with September and October typically the clearest months on Big Sur and Pinnacles. The desert flips the calendar: Joshua Tree, Death Valley, and Anza-Borrego peak October through April, when daytime highs settle into the 70s. Reservation pressure binds hardest Memorial Day through Labor Day, when Yosemite, Sequoia, and the Big Sur USFS bluff camps sell out the minute the booking window opens on Recreation.gov. September carries the highest wildfire risk of the year. Overall, fall is the broadly best season for the coast and Pinnacles, and spring is the broadly best season for the desert.

Nearby states