Kirby Cove Campground reservations: how to book one of the five sites under the Golden Gate Bridge

Kirby Cove sits just north of the Golden Gate Bridge in the Marin Headlands, on a small beach with a view straight across to San Francisco. The National Park Service calls it "the most popular campground in the Marin Headlands," and the numbers back that up. It has only five overnight campsites. On September 23, 2026, the Recreation.gov availability data showed every overnight site reserved for every night from that day through November 30, the end of the season.

So getting a Kirby Cove site comes down to two things: booking the moment your dates open, or catching someone else's cancellation. Here is how the rules work.

Kirby Cove at a glance

All of this comes from the Recreation.gov campground page and the NPS campground listing for Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

Item	Detail
Overnight sites	5 tent-only sites, plus 1 day-use picnic site
People per site	Up to 10 (day-use site: up to 35)
Vehicles per site	Up to 3 (day-use site: 4)
Nightly fee	$40 per site (day-use site: $75)
Booking window	6 months ahead, and a stay can run 2 days past that
Stay limit	3 nights per season per camper
Check-in / check-out	1:00 PM / 12:00 PM
Season	Open March through November
Water	None

When reservations open

The Recreation.gov page says it plainly: "Reservations at Kirby Cove Campground can be made up to 6 months before your arrival and may extend up to 2 days beyond the 6-month booking window." In practice, that means on the day your arrival date comes into range, you can book that first night plus up to two more nights that are otherwise not yet on sale.

Recreation.gov doesn't list one release time for every campground. Its booking tips say "most campgrounds go on sale at 7am PT/8am MT/10am ET, but not always!" and tell you to check the Seasons and Fees tab on the campground page for the exact time and date. Look there before your release day.

Kirby Cove's window rolls forward one day at a time, so a new arrival date opens every day. Here is what that looked like in the Recreation.gov availability data on the afternoon of September 23, 2026, exactly 6 months before March 23, 2027:

• March 23 (a Tuesday), the night that opened that day: 4 of the 5 overnight sites were still available.
• March 24 and 25: marked "Open" rather than "Available" on all five sites. Our reading is that these are the 2-day extension nights. You can add them to a stay that starts on March 23, but nobody can start a new stay on them yet.
• March 26 onward: "Not Yet Released."
• Earlier March nights: the season's first Friday and Saturday nights (March 5 and 6) and the next two weekends were fully reserved. The only overnight sites left in March were a few on Monday the 22nd and Tuesday the 23rd.

So weekends are what go fast. A Tuesday night in early March was still there hours after it opened, while summer and fall weekends had been gone for months.

Stay limits

The Recreation.gov notice reads: "Only 3 nights per season per camper! This is in order to ensure everyone gets to enjoy Kirby Cove." The facility's booking rules on Recreation.gov also cap a single stay at 3 consecutive nights and allow up to 3 reservations at a time.

The practical effect: if you burn two nights on a Tuesday in April, you have only one night left for the rest of the season. Pick your nights carefully.

Fees, changes, and cancellations

An overnight site is $40 a night, and the day-use picnic site is $75. Recreation.gov's reservation policies list a reservation fee of $8 for bookings made online ($9 through the call center at 877-444-6777), and that fee is non-refundable.

Kirby Cove's individual campsites follow Recreation.gov's standard rules: a $10 service fee to cancel, and a bigger penalty if you cancel the day before or the day of arrival. We covered how those rules work, and how they shape when cancelled sites reappear, in How Recreation.gov cancellations actually work.

One Kirby Cove exception: the day-use site "must be cancelled or modified more than 14 days before your check-in date otherwise it will be considered a late cancellation." That rule is for the picnic site only, not the five overnight sites.

Getting in: the gate, the code, and the walk

Kirby Cove is behind a service gate on Conzelman Road at Battery Spencer. According to the Recreation.gov directions, you enter "the gate codes provided upon reservation," and then it is "a mile drive down the dirt trail to the Kirby Cove Parking lot."

A few rules follow from that:

• Your confirmation is your permit. Recreation.gov says to print your confirmation email, put a copy on the dashboard of each vehicle, and keep one on you. The gate codes are in it.
• The parking lot is not at your site. Recreation.gov describes Kirby Cove as "a walk-in, Tent Only facility," with "up to a 200 yard walk from the parking area to your campsite." No RVs and no car camping.
• Bring your own way to haul gear. The NPS listing notes, "We no longer provide wheelbarrows at the campground." For a 200-yard carry with coolers, water, and firewood, a collapsible folding wagon saves several trips.
• Accessible access. Sites 2 and 5 and the day-use site are accessible. A second gate lets people with a disability or limited mobility drive closer. To get that code, email your name, phone number, date of visit, and a photo of your ADA placard to goga_marinheadlands_info@nps.gov at least 48 hours ahead.

What is at the site (and what isn't)

No water. This is the one rule Recreation.gov puts in bold at the top: "There is no water available at this campground." Bring all of your drinking, cooking, and cleaning water. The NPS also asks you to bring soap and hand sanitizer.

Toilets. The NPS lists vault toilets. There are no showers.

Fires. Campfires are allowed only in the fire grills provided at the campground, according to the GGNRA fire regulations. Gathering firewood in the park is not allowed, so bring your own. No fires are allowed on Spare the Air days, when fire danger is very high or extreme, or during red flag warnings. Gas stoves are allowed.

Food storage. The campground has food lockers. Recreation.gov asks you to keep all food in the locker or in your car trunk, and to use the dumpsters in the parking lot for trash.

Other rules. No pets (trained service animals only). Quiet hours are 10 PM to 6 AM. Hammocks must be free-standing, not tied to trees.

Weather and noise. Recreation.gov says to expect lows of 50 to 55 degrees and highs of 60 to 65, with fog common from May through September, and that "lightweight summer clothes are rarely comfortable" there. A windproof fleece jacket is a reasonable layer. Recreation.gov also warns that Golden Gate Bridge foghorns "can be loud" and suggests earplugs.

Season

The NPS listing says the campground is open March through November, and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy notes it is "typically closed from December 1 through first week of March." The NPS lists the current closure as December 1, 2026 through March 11, 2027. Recreation.gov's 2027 rate season, though, starts March 5, and March 5 nights already show as reserved. If you are booking early March, call the Marin Headlands rangers at (415) 331-1540 to confirm.

How to actually get a site

On release day:

• Count back 6 months from the arrival night you want and put that date on your calendar. If your dates are flexible, pick a weekday: that is where sites were still open after release day.
• Sign in to Recreation.gov before the release, with payment saved. Recreation.gov's own booking tips say to sync your clock to Recreation.gov's and refresh at the exact release minute. Once a site is in your cart, it is held for 15 minutes.
• Use one browser window only. Recreation.gov warns that signing in on multiple tabs or browsers can trigger a reCAPTCHA check and slow you down.
• Remember the 2-day extension. Booking your arrival night on release morning lets you add up to 2 more nights in the same reservation. Since nobody can start a new stay on those extra nights yet (see the "Open" nights above), this is the easiest way to get a 3-night trip. One catch from Recreation.gov's policies: a reservation that includes dates beyond the booking window can't be changed until 18 days after you made it.

After release day:

Once a weekend opens it is gone, so for weekends the only other way in is a cancellation. With five sites, there are not many chances, and a cancelled site goes back on Recreation.gov with no notice to anyone. Tent & Tree can watch Kirby Cove for the dates you want and email you when a site opens up. When that happens, book first and sort out details later. Cancelling before the day before arrival costs the $10 service fee, plus the reservation fee you already paid.

The short version

Kirby Cove has five tent sites at $40 a night, no water, a 200-yard walk from the parking lot, and a limit of 3 nights per camper per season. Reservations open 6 months ahead on Recreation.gov, with room to extend 2 days past the window, and the season runs March through November. As of September 23, every overnight site was booked through the end of the 2026 season, while an early-March Tuesday still had 4 of 5 sites open hours after release. For a weekend, be online the minute your date opens. If you miss it, watch for cancellations.