Most Amazing National Parks in the US for Camping

Living in the lap of nature is an experience in itself! Exploring the wilder side of life and enjoying the sun, sky, and the stars amidst the breezy air and great views make camping one of the best activities for most people. If you are in the United States, you will have no dearth of options, with landscape diversity at its peak. Here are the best picks keeping choices wide and varied.

Assateague Island National Seashore, Maryland

Incredibly stunning, this can be the ultimate beach camping site! The Maryland side of the location allows camping, and it is always on the first-come-first-serve basis. Horse camping is also allowed, but what’s the best part? Well, it’s open all around the year!

If you love beaches and camping, this is the spot for you. Assateague is a barrier island off the coast of Maryland and Virginia covered in sandy beaches, salt marshes, forests, and coastal bays. There’s even a community of wild horses (how exotic!). Enjoy relaxing on the 37 miles of beach or hiking by day, and buckle down your tent right by (er, a safe distance from) the crashing waves for a night under the stars. Greatist

Glacier National Park

Lake Mcdonald Glacier NP

If you are keen on great sunrises and want to explore the best of views around Lake McDonald, Glacier National Park is your best bet. The best part is the number of campsites, which are almost 1,000 or more, and the amenities and sceneries are different.

Glacier National Park: One of the best parts about camping is witnessing those awesome sunrises. Pitch your tent at Rising Sun Campground and take in the scene near the Canadian border. Care to wake along the shores of Lake McDonald with snow-covered peaks in the distance? Head to Sprague Creek Campground. Or backpack deeper into the wilderness of Glacier’s more than one million acres to set up camp at one of the park’s backcountry sites. USAToday

Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

From mountain lakes and stunning views, Rocky Mountain National Park is much more than what you would expect. One of the most popular sites includes Andrews Creek campsite, which is remote but often the camping experience is better than others.

On your way to this cliff-hemmed, pine needle-strewn patch of alpine comfort, you’ll pass two deafening waterfalls, a glassy, peak-reflecting lake known charmingly as “The Loch,” and a shady aspen forest sprouting between boulders of pink granite. The glacier itself lays smoothed across charcoal-grey slopes just west of the remote Andrews Creek campsite and drips enough meltwater to send a creek burbling past the site’s sunny clearing. BackPacker

Yosemite National Park, California

No list is complete without the Yosemite National Park in California. A major part of the park neither has structural roads nor even electricity, so camping here is a quite a wild adventure. There are more than 10 popular campgrounds that are scattered but do check in advance because campgrounds are open for certain months, although the Park is open all year long.

In the heart of Yosemite Valley you’ll spy more natural wonders in a minute than you will anywhere else in an entire day. California’s Yosemite sparkles as a crown jewel of the national parks, showcasing not just glacier-carved beauty but a panoply of superlatives: North America’s highest waterfall (Yosemite Falls). Telegraph.

Joshua Tree National Park, California

From the beaches and mountains, it is time for the desert, and there is nothing better than the Joshua Tree National Park, which spreads over 800,000-acre in California. There are nine campgrounds, and each one is unique in its own. The park is open all through the year, but seasons for campgrounds vary. The pricing for each night is also lower than many others on this list. A must-see experience for wild lovers.

We know, camping in the desert doesn’t sound like so much fun (hello, sunburn). But the nearly 800,000-acre Joshua Tree National Park is so much more than just desert. The park sits at the intersection of two very different ecosystems: To the east is the low-lying Colorado Desert; to the west lies the slightly higher, cooler, wetter Mojave Desert (home to the park’s namesake, the Joshua tree). Greatist.

Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

Mojave point – Grand Canyon NP

No one needs a reason to come to Grand Canyon! This is also one of the best places for Backcountry hiking if you are interested, and you will love both North Rim and South Rim although the former is more secluded. There are three well-developed campgrounds, but it is wise to consider advance booking. The park is open all through the year though some facilities may not be available in South Rim in winter whereas the North Rim is open for the middle of the year.

The Grand Canyon in Arizona was the fourth-most popular spot among national parks for camping in 2014, with 438,845 completed overnight stays. The iconic canyon is one mile deep and up to 18 miles wide. MarketWatch

Some of the other locations that should be on your must-camp list include Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, Zion National Park, Utah and Olympic National Park, Washington. Commendable mentions also include Grove Furnace State Park, Pennsylvania and Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee.

Spring season is starting so it is time you start creating your own wild hiking and camping plans now!

To find more info on these US National Parks as well as info related to campsites visit www.nps.gov/findapark/index.htm

 

 

from What Camping Tent http://www.whatcampingtent.com/blog/most-amazing-national-parks-in-the-us-for-camping/