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Reader Participation Day: Where is Your Favorite National Park Campground?

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By Kurt Repanshek - November 18th, 2009

If oceanscapes are your favorite, it's hard to beat the view from the campground at Elliott Key in Biscayne National Park. NPS photo.

Is there one particular national park campground you like to return to again and again and again?

For example, the Jenny Lake Campground in Grand Teton National Park has some of the most spectacular views of the Tetons, while the Slough Creek Campground in Yellowstone National Park is in the middle of wolf pack home ranges.

Back east, head to Cataloochee in Great Smoky Mountains National Park and you're in the middle of elk habitat and off the well-trod path. Pitch your tent at the Seawall Campground in Acadia National Park and you're a ten-minute walk from the Atlantic Ocean.

Some folks like location, some like scenery, some like wildlife nearby. With that understood, where are your favorite national park campgrounds?

Comments

Submitted by admin on November 18, 2009 - 10:29am.

Cinnamon Bay Beach campground, St. John, Virgin Islands National Park. As long as you don't mind sharing your tent with a mongoose.


Submitted by y_p_w on November 18, 2009 - 10:48am.

Only stayed one night, but Kalaloch Campground at Olympic NP. The coastal loops (RV only I think) had spectacular views of the ocean, and the interior loops are some of the best forest campground I've ever seen. The sites are very well maintained and well spaced.

We saw sunset on the beach there.


Submitted by SaltSage236 on November 18, 2009 - 10:56am.

Devil's Garden Campground in Arches National Park is my favorite. The expansive redrock scenery speaks for itself, but the absolute silence you can experience there is magical.

Runners up:
1. Toroweap Campground at Grand Canyon National Park: Remote, silent and unparalelled in its beauty.
2. North Rim Campground at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park: Feels as remote as Toroweap, with cliffs nearly as precipitous only steps away, but it's closer to both home and civilization.
3. Wheeler Peak Campground at Great Basin National Park: The stars, the mountain, the wildlife and the lushness of this place keep me coming back. And, the crowds are missing!


Submitted by admin on November 18, 2009 - 11:26am.

Cottonwood Campground at Canyon DeChelly National Monument. It's free, it's not usually very crowded, and the cottonwood trees are amazing.


Submitted by admin on November 18, 2009 - 12:44pm.

My favorite is Pinyon Flats Campground at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve in Colorado. Always quiet and peaceful with a beautiful view of the sand dunes at the base of the Sangre De Cristo Mountains


Submitted by admin on November 18, 2009 - 1:26pm.

Lava Point Campground at Zion. Great views only steps away from this campground, with six quiet sites shrouded in the pines.


Submitted by admin on November 18, 2009 - 7:42pm.

We haven't camped all that much so I don't have a lot of experience with camping in the National Parks. However, this last September, we camped at Great Basin National Park. Because it truly is in the middle of nowhere, it was quiet, peaceful and wonderful. And Great Basin is beautiful!


Submitted by admin on November 18, 2009 - 9:06pm.

Wonder Lake--Denali National Park and Preserve--when the mountain is cooperating.


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