It’s No Secret, Camper Numbers Up in Western States

Presley Morse, 6, helps land a cutthroat trout while fishing with her mother, Jill Gilson, at Scofield State Park on Friday, Aug. 27. It’s no secret — the outdoors are being loved to death. And in the public land-rich states of the West, campsites have seen an explosion in popularity over the last decade. Spenser Heaps, Deseret News

It’s no secret that the outdoors are being loved to death. And in the public land-rich states of the West, campsites have seen an explosion in popularity over the last decade, according to Desert News.

Camping Crunch, a report from the Center for Western Priorities released Thursday (Oct. 28), quantified something many in the West already know — it’s hard to find a campsite.

From 2014 to 2020, states — excluding Alaska and Hawaii — saw a 39% increase in occupancy for reservable campsites during peak season, according to the report. Western states saw a 47% increase during the same time frame.

Some key findings from the report:

• The Mountain West was a particularly popular place to camp in 2020 — Montana had the highest rate of reservable campsites filled at 76%. Colorado came in second at 71% and Idaho fifth at 57%.
• At 96%, campsites in Wyoming saw the largest percent change in occupation since 2014.
• National park campsites are by far the most popular, with some nearing 100% occupancy.
• Only six states had an overall decrease in summer occupancy since 2014. Four are in the Northeast and saw increased summer occupancy until 2019, where the report notes COVID-19 impacted recreation in densely populated states.
• In the summer of 2020, Utah had an average of 49% occupancy at its 201 campsites that were analyzed.
• Since 2014, Utah saw a 77% increase in reservable campsites filled.

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