Chapter 2: One group site, or several neighboring sites?

There are two ways to camp as a group. You can reserve a site built for groups, or you can reserve several ordinary sites near each other. Neither is the right answer for everyone. This chapter gives you a way to decide, and it should take about fifteen minutes once you have your numbers from the front page.

What each option gives you

Those are tendencies. The official listing for a specific site tells you what is true there.

Start with the limits, since they often decide it

Take your people, tents, vehicles, dogs, and RVs to the listing and check each one. Published limits from two national parks show how much they vary.

At Yosemite, the National Park Service says group campsites are for 13 to 30 people, are tent sites only, and have parking for up to five vehicles near the group camp. RVs and trailers are not allowed at group campsites, and pets are not allowed there. A standard campsite in the same park holds a maximum of six people, children included, and two motor vehicles.

At Zion's Watchman Campground, group sites are sized individually. Site E5 is listed for 7 to 15 people and site E1 for 15 to 30.

Three things follow from numbers like these.

There can be a gap. With a six-person ceiling on standard sites and a 13-person floor on group sites, a Yosemite party of seven to twelve fits neither a single standard site nor a group site. That party needs two standard sites, a larger guest list, or a different campground.

A minimum is a real limit. Organizers plan for the maximum and forget the floor. If your group could shrink below the minimum after two cancellations, a group site carries a risk that a block of standard sites does not.

Equipment can rule a group site out on its own. One family with a trailer, or one dog, is enough to make a tents-only, no-pets group site the wrong choice. At Yosemite, pets are permitted in most campgrounds but not at group campsites, so a group with dogs would be looking at standard sites there.

Then weigh the things limits don't cover

Togetherness. If the reason for the trip is one long table and one fire, a group site delivers that by design. Standard sites deliver it only if you can reserve sites that are truly side by side, and separate reservations are not linked to one another. Look at the campground map before you count on it.

Who carries the risk. A group site puts one name on the reservation. That person is responsible for the fee and for the group's behavior. With standard sites, each household can hold its own booking and its own risk. Some organizers find that a relief.

Cancellation terms. These can differ by type of reservation. On Recreation.gov, a group overnight facility cancelled less than 14 days before arrival forfeits the first night's fee and pays a $10 service fee. An individual campsite reaches that same penalty only when cancelled the day before or the day of arrival. A group site therefore asks you to commit about two weeks earlier.

Booking effort. One group site is one transaction on booking day. Four standard sites are four transactions, ideally made by four people at the same moment, each going for a site agreed in advance.

Noise and neighbors. A group spread across standard sites is surrounded by other campers and shares their quiet hours at close range. Group sites are often set apart. If your group includes small children who wake early or adults who talk late, think about who the neighbors will be.

A fifteen-minute decision

1. Check your numbers against the group site's listing. If any limit fails (people above the maximum or below the minimum, too many vehicles, a barred RV or pet), the group site is out. Go to step 4.
2. Ask whether headcount could fall below the minimum before arrival. If that is likely, prefer standard sites or a smaller group site.
3. If the limits fit and the headcount is firm, choose the group site and keep standard sites as your fallback.
4. For standard sites, divide people and vehicles by the per-site limits to get the number of sites. Then find that many neighboring sites on the campground map and assign one household to book each.

Questions to ask the campground

A short phone call or email settles what a listing leaves unclear:

• Do day visitors count toward the site's occupancy limit?
• Where do vehicles beyond the limit park, and is there a fee?
• May one group reserve several standard sites, and is there a cap per person?
• Are the sites we picked actually adjacent on the ground?
• Can someone other than the reservation holder check in?
• Is there anything about this site that groups regularly get wrong?

Checklist: before you choose

The checklists on this page print cleanly, one box per line.

• People, tents, vehicles, dogs, and RVs checked against the group site's listing
• Minimum occupancy noted, with a plan if the group shrinks
• Cancellation terms read for both options
• Campground map checked for sites that are truly side by side
• Reservation holder (or holders) agreed
• Open questions sent to the campground
• Fallback option written down for booking day