Twenty campgrounds, picked for a car you sleep in
Most "best campgrounds" lists are written for tents or RVs. This one is filtered differently, on two things that matter when the car is the bed:
- Can you charge nearby? A Supercharger or a destination charger within reasonable reach.
- Is it good for Camp Mode? Quiet enough, safe enough, level enough to sleep in the car.
Prices and reservation windows below are what they were when we last stayed. Park fees move, so check before you count on one.
Utah
1. Watchman, Zion. $30. Reserve 6 months out, and mean it. On the Virgin River with shuttle access. Charging in Springdale, 5 minutes.
2. North Campground, Bryce. Right on the rim, ranger night-sky programs. Destination charger at Ruby's Inn, 10 minutes.
3. Fruita, Capitol Reef. $25, first come, 12 sites. Historic orchards, and in September you can pick apples from your site. The best campground on the Grand Circle and almost nobody knows it.
4. BLM land near Moab. Free. Willow Springs Road and Highway 128 have the good spots. Red rock in every direction.
5. Goblin Valley State Park. Rock formations that look like another planet. Kids lose their minds. Nearest Supercharger is Green River, 45 minutes.
Arizona
6. Mather, Grand Canyon South Rim. $18, reserve 6 months out. Two minutes' walk to the rim, elk in the morning.
7. Coconino National Forest, Flagstaff. Free, dispersed. Pine forest at 7,000 feet, which means cool when the rest of Arizona is unbearable. Dozens of pullouts on the forest roads.
8. Sedona, Forest Road 525. Free, dispersed. Red rock in evening light, several panoramic spots.
9. Valley of Fire, Nevada. An hour from Las Vegas and the best possible first night after pickup.
California
10. Alabama Hills, Lone Pine. Free. Rock arches with the Sierra Nevada behind them. You have seen it in about a hundred films.
11. Joshua Tree BLM, south side. Free, where the park itself charges $30. Silence after sunset and Joshua trees against the Milky Way.
12. Kirk Creek, Big Sur. On the cliff above the Pacific. Destination charger in Big Sur, 15 minutes.
13. Furnace Creek, Death Valley. $22, reserve October to April. Lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level, and the night sky is absurd. Camp Mode is what makes it survivable when it is still 95°F at bedtime. ⚠ Nearest fast charging is Pahrump or Beatty, so see Death Valley in an EV before you go.
Colorado and Wyoming
14. Moraine Park, Rocky Mountain NP. Elk grazing 60 feet from you at breakfast. Trail Ridge Road, the highest continuous paved road in the country, starts here. Charging in Estes Park, 15 minutes.
15. Jenny Lake, Grand Teton. $33, first come, 49 sites, and be there by 8am. The Tetons reflected in the lake at dawn is worth the alarm.
16. Grant Village, Yellowstone. Level 2 charging in West Yellowstone, an hour out. Plan the charge, not the drive.
The underrated ones
17. White Sands, New Mexico. $8 permit, same day at the visitor center. White gypsum dunes under a full moon. Backcountry only, so no facilities.
18. Palo Duro Canyon, Texas. The second largest canyon in America and hardly anyone has heard of it.
19. Craters of the Moon, Idaho. Volcanic fields and lava tubes you can walk into.
20. Glacier Basin, Glacier NP, Montana. Worth the detour if your route goes that far north.
Booking, briefly
recreation.gov handles every national park site. Reservations open 6 months ahead at 10:00 AM Eastern, and the popular ones are gone in minutes. Set an alarm. State parks use their own systems. First-come sites mean arriving before noon, earlier in summer.
Five rules that keep you welcome
- Quiet hours, usually 10pm to 6am. Camp Mode makes this easy, since there is no generator.
- Fires in rings only, and only when allowed. Bans are common in drought years and they are enforced.
- Store food properly. Bear box or the closed car. The trunk counts. Never the tent.
- Leave No Trace. No trash, no soap in water, stay on the trail.
- Say hello to your neighbors. Campground people are friendly and it is how you find out about the site nobody lists.
Free alternatives to all of the above are in the boondocking rules, and what to bring is in the packing list.
The best site on this list is whichever one you reach before dark with enough battery to sleep comfortably. That is the whole selection criterion, and it eliminates more bad nights than any ranking does.