Cancellations / Rules

Recreation.gov cancellation policy for campsites

What it costs to cancel a campsite on Recreation.gov, the deadline that matters, which campgrounds set their own, and how far ahead the nights people give back actually are.

The rule for most campsites

• Any cancellation: a $10 fee, taken out of your refund.
• Late cancellation: after 12:00 a.m. the campground's local time on the day before your arrival date, you also forfeit the first night's fee (never more than you paid).
• One-night stays cancelled late: you forfeit the whole amount, but no extra $10 fee.
• On your arrival day: from 12:00 a.m. you can't cancel online, in the app or through the contact center at most campgrounds. Only staff on site can help.
• No-shows: a $20 fee plus the first night, at campgrounds whose staff record no-shows.
• Cabins, lookouts, yurts and group sites: the late window is 14 days before arrival, not one.

From Recreation.gov's Rules & Reservation Policies, read Sep 30, 2026. That page says a campground's own policy overrides it.

The deadline, in Pacific time

Arriving Friday? Cancel by 11:59 p.m. Wednesday and you lose only the $10. From Thursday on, the first night goes too.

One catch. 12 of the campground pages we track still carry an older copy of the site-wide rules that starts the late window at 12:01 a.m. Eastern on the day before arrival. That's 9:01 p.m. Pacific two evenings before. The current rules page says the campground's local time, but it also says a campground's own page wins. Until Recreation.gov cleans those pages up, cancel by 9 p.m. Pacific two evenings before you arrive.

Yosemite: 48 hours

The seven Yosemite campgrounds we track (Upper, Lower and North Pines, Crane Flat, Hodgdon Meadow, Tuolumne Meadows and Wawona) each publish their own rule: more than 48 hours before your arrival date costs $10; inside 48 hours, $10 and the first night. Each campground's exact wording is on its page below.

How far ahead the cancelled nights are

We check every site at these campgrounds around the clock and log each booked night that comes back up. In the last 30 days, that's 8,405 site-nights. 6,572 of them (78%) were for a night in the next two weeks, and 989 (12%) were for tonight or tomorrow night.

• tonight432
• tomorrow557
• 2 days945
• 3 days977
• 4 days792
• 5 days567
• 6 days476
• 7 days459
• 8 days362
• 9 days239
• 10 days188
• 11 days200
• 12 days159
• 13 days112
• 14 days107
• 15+ days1,833

Days from the check that caught each night opening to the night itself, Pacific dates. We look at nights this month and next most often and further out less often, and a site that opens and is rebooked between two checks isn't counted, so these are floors. The live log →

The rule at each campground we track

Each campground's rule from its Recreation.gov page, read Sep 30, 2026. Campgrounds whose page has no rule of its own follow the site-wide one.