Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Travel

Book a Last-Minute Summer Camping Trip Just About Anywhere With Pitchup

Mike Richard
By
hammock camping
Esther Tuttle

We’re in the thick of summer travel and road-tripping season in the Northern Hemisphere. For campers, finding a last-minute campsite — particularly in the country’s most popular outdoor destinations — can seem almost impossible. With Pitchup, campers can shop cheap, last-minute campsites near some of the most iconic national parks and sites in the U.S.

Pitchup boasts more than 3,600 private campgrounds and RV parks throughout the United States, Europe, and South America. Options range from primitive, dirt-patch tent sites to spots to pitch a camper to lodges, cabins, and huts. Dig deep enough, and you’ll also find unique gems like yurts, tipis, and bell tents. While its numbers pale in comparison to its brand-name competitors, the company’s site promises instant confirmation (a rarity in the campground world), no booking fees, and offers more than 250,000 reviews.

Recommended Videos

Where Pitchup shines, however, is in finding affordable, last-minute stays during peak season. North Carolina’s Fort Wilderness RV Park and Campground, for example, has midsummer stays starting at $25 nightly just minutes from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Nantahala National Forest. A half-hour from Yellowstone National Park, Mack’s Inn Henry’s Fork RV Park offers tent sites for around $50 per night. Pitchup also has campsites within an hour’s drive of the country’s most popular national parks, including Death Valley, Badlands, Arches and Canyonlands, and Mesa Verde.

Related

Airbnb is, of course, a great resource for booking alternative accommodations. However, searching specifically for campsites or campgrounds often requires wading through more full-featured (read pricey) options that aren’t quite what you’re looking for. GlampingHub is ideal for travelers looking for glamping alternatives that offer many of the conveniences of home in a more rustic setting. For truly off-the-beaten-path and off-grid rentals, however, we’re still fans of Hipcamp which claims more than 300,000 private campgrounds and public park campsites, all bookable through its website and mobile apps.

Pitchup is free to join as a camper. Sadly, reservations can only be booked through the Pitchup.com website as there are currently no mobile apps for either Android or iOS.

If you’re keen to get way off-grid with a complete lack of utilities and people, however, dispersed camping is a great way to camp for free all over the U.S.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Mike Richard
Mike Richard
Contributor
Mike Richard has traveled the world since 2008. He's kayaked in Antarctica, tracked endangered African wild dogs in South…
Jackson Hole Mountain Resort owners sell to local families, keeping resort hyper-local indefinitely
Jackson Hole resort has been sold - to everyone in the area, basically
Skier heading downhill at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, with the sun and aerial tram in the background.

Consolidation and conglomeration. These two words have dominated almost every industry — from banks to fast food restaurants to web apps — over the last two decades as more small- to medium-sized businesses are gobbled up by large, often international corporations. In many cases, that loss of independence means putting customers second and profits first. The mountain resort industry has been no different, with massive multinational conglomerates buying up U.S. resorts for years now.

But many smaller, family-owned resorts have stood strong, vowing to remain independent despite seemingly all-consuming consolidation — resorts like Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in (where else?) Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It's a world-class, year-round playground that's been a mainstay of North American ski resorts for the better part of a century. The bad news is that it's been sold; the good news is that the buyers of the famed Jackson Hole ski resort aren't who you might expect.

Read more
Yellowstone river mountain whitefish should not be eaten, but rainbow trout are fine, authorities say: Here’s why
You might want to avoid all fish in the Yellowstone river for now
An angler holding a rainbow trout above a fishing net.

Yellowstone River is widely renowned as one of the hottest fly fishing spots in the U.S., but now the Fish Consumption Advisory Board has issued a consumption advisory act on mountain whitefish caught in the river. This act covers whitefish caught between Twin Bridges Road and Laurel on the Yellowstone River following a train derailment in late June that has seen chemicals in the river reach dangerous levels.

Shortly after the derailment, the Fish, Wildlife, and Parks Authority — FWP — collected five mountain whitefish and five rainbow trout to test the levels of chemicals. While the results aren't necessarily conclusive on whether the train derailment is the cause of the increased levels of chemicals, it is clear that all fly fishermen and anglers should be cautious when it comes to eating any fish pulled from the Yellowstone River. Here's what this means for Yellowstone River anglers.

Read more
To avoid a bear attack, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park closed a road
Hungry bears get hangry, too
BLACK BEARS LOOKING FOR FOOD AND FEEDING

 

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a haven for both nature enthusiasts and wildlife. However, coexisting with the park's wildlife has its responsibilities, especially when it comes to respecting and protecting its resident black bear population. A recent incident involving a bear encounter has prompted park officials to take a proactive step toward ensuring the safety of both visitors and these magnificent creatures.
Why Great Smoky Mountains National Park closed a road
On a seemingly ordinary day in the Cades Cove area, a visitor had an unexpected and heart-pounding encounter with one of the park's iconic residents — a black bear. While the visitor remained unharmed, the incident shed light on a concerning issue that has been gradually developing: bears becoming habituated to human presence and vehicles.

Read more