National forest camping

The Forest Service runs more campgrounds than any other federal agency — the majority of public campsites in the country sit on national forest land. They skew rustic: vault toilets, no hookups, and often no cell service, but they are also the cheapest and the least crowded, and many sit at elevations where summer nights drop near freezing.

9,378
Campgrounds
43
States
3,315
Reservable online
362
With electric hookups

What Forest Service camping is like

  • Mostly primitive — vault toilets and potable water rather than hookups
  • Frequently at high elevation, so seasons are short and snow closes roads
  • A large share are first-come, first-served rather than reservable
  • Typically the lowest nightly fees on federal land

Listings come from Recreation.gov's official catalog. We watch the reservable ones around the clock and alert you the moment a sold-out site frees up — see pricing.

Largest Forest Service campgrounds

The biggest, best-documented sites in the catalog.

National forest camping by state

Ordered by how many campgrounds each state has.

Other federal land

Army Corps campgrounds, National park campgrounds, BLM camping. Or browse camping by state and RV campgrounds with hookups.