A new report, The Camping Crunch, released by the Center for Western Priorities, shows the popularity of camping on national public lands skyrocketed in Colorado and nationally over the past decade, with a notable spike during the pandemic.
The report analyzed public lands camping data in the lower 48 states between 2014 and 2020. During that time, the analysis revealed that the estimated occupancy of reservable campsites in Colorado filled in summer jumped from 43% in 2014 to 71% in 2020 — a 64% increase in camping reservations over the six year period, compared to 39 percent nationally.
The Camping Crunch analysis found the COVID-19 pandemic helped drive a large bump in reservable campsite occupancy between 2019 and 2020. In Colorado, the estimated occupancy of reservable campsites filled in summer increased 20% just from 2019 to 2020.
Nationally, growth in national park visitation was particularly well-documented during the summer of 2021 as numerous national parks smashed records, bringing attention to the incredible popularity of these special landscapes. Analysis shows that reservable campgrounds in national parks are indeed some of the most crowded across the country; however, the report also shows that reservable campsites in protected areas — even excluding national parks and their immediate surroundings — are more occupied during the peak season than other public lands, demonstrating the popularity of all protected lands, not just national parks.
“More people visiting, camping on, and enjoying our treasured national public lands is certainly a good thing. However, the increase in visitation can lead to serious overcrowding and strains the infrastructure and resources on public lands during the peak summer season,” said Jennifer Rokala, Executive Director of the Center for Western Priorities. “The popularity of public lands in Colorado — and especially protected areas — should urge leaders to keep a good thing going by funding our land management systems and designating more protected areas to distribute visitation across different sites and seasons.”
For outdoor enthusiasts looking for less crowded campsites to visit, Camping Crunch provides a tool to search campgrounds with highest and lowest reservable site occupancy in Colorado — filterable by season, day type (weekday or weekend), and year. From 2019-2020, all seasons, and weekdays and weekends, Camping Crunch’s tool lists the following campgrounds with the highest reservable site occupancy:
- Aspenglen Campground, Rocky Mountain National Park (92 average percent of reservable sites filled)
- Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP South Rim, Black Canyon National Park (90 average percent of reservable sites filled)
- Glacier Basin Campground, Rocky Mountain National Park (88 average percent of reservable sites filled)
- Dowdy Lake, Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forest (85 average percent of reservable sites filled)
- Moraine Park Campground, Rocky Mountain National Park (82 average percent of reservable sites filled)
- West Fork Campground, San Juan National Forest (74 percent of reservable sites filled)
Colorado was not an outlier among Western states. Compared to other regions of the country, the Western United States saw the biggest increase in reservable camping activity, although the trend of increasingly full campgrounds was consistent. From 2014 to 2020, there was a 47 percent increase in estimated peak season reservable campsite occupancy in the West, compared to 39 percent nationally.
31 percent of Westerners say that one of the top five issues that limit how often they visit national public lands is that those lands are too crowded. Additionally, Western reservable campgrounds in or near non-national-park protected areas were reliably more popular than other public lands—which tracks with a massive 84 percent of Westerners who support creating new protected areas.
Learn More About Public Lands Camping Trends
Outdoor enthusiasts can explore The Camping Crunch to learn more about public lands camping trends nationally and in regions and states across the country. Interactive maps in the report allow users to view the most— and least—occupied reservable campgrounds in each state during 2019 and 2020, with the ability to use filters such as year, season, day type, and more.