If you’re thinking about a camping trip this summer, some people will tell you it’s too late already. Most popular campgrounds open up reservations four to six months ahead of time, and sites get snatched up quickly. That means if you want to camp in, say, Rocky Mountain or Yellowstone in July, you’d better have made plans in January.
Couple the fact that it was already tough to snag coveted summer spots pre-pandemic with the surge of new campers, and we’ve got a campsite shortage on our hands. The number of people who camped last year spiked by 28 percent, with 7.9 million new participants in 2020, according to the Outdoor Industry Association. A report from the RV Industry Association shows that RV sales shot up 43 percent from 2019 to 2020. And the global glamping market reached $1.8 billion in 2020 and is expected to increase to $2.35 billion around the world in 2021.
“There are absolutely more people camping,” says Jeremy Puglisi, author of the recent book Where Should We Camp Next? and cohost of the podcast Campground of the Week. “But when people say there’s nowhere to camp, it means the most popular places to camp are booked on summer weekends. So yeah, you can’t get a site at a Yosemite, but it’s still very possible to go camping.”