SAN JOSE, Calif. — California has one campground among the nation’s 10 most difficult to book, according to a campsite-finding app — and it’s not in any of the famous parks.
At No. 9 on the list released by The Dyrt is Twin Lakes Campground, in the Eastern Sierra near the Mammoth resort.
The 94-site campground is fully booked 97.2% of the time, the report said. It credited Twin Lakes’ popularity to its Sierra Nevada scenery, recreation opportunities (hiking, fishing, boating) and the convenient 10-minute drive from the stores and restaurants of Mammoth Lakes. The campground, at 8,600 feet elevation in Inyo National Forest, has flush toilets, showers, a store and a boat ramp.
Twin Lakes can be booked through the federal Reservations.gov portal. It’s open from May until October and accepts RV and tent campers; sites start around $30 a night.
The Dyrt’s app scans sold-out campgrounds and alerts users when one of their desired campsites is available.
Topping its 2023 hard-to-book list are two campgrounds in Yellowstone National Park — Slough Creek and Mammoth — that The Dyrt says are fully booked 100% of the time. Only two sites on the list are east of Colorado.
The company didn’t compile a hard-to-book list last year, but its annual report said the pandemic boom in camping popularity contributed to a reservations crunch, particularly on the West Coast and in the Rocky Mountain states. Its poll found that more than half the people who camped using RVs or trailers reported difficulty finding spots in 2021, compared with about 15% in 2019.
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