How to Get a Point Reyes Backcountry Campsite

Point Reyes National Seashore has no drive-in campground. Camping there means a boat-in beach on Tomales Bay or, for most people, one of four hike-in camps: Sky, Coast, Glen, or Wildcat, each a walk of 1.4 to 5.5 miles from a trailhead, two of them a short walk from the Pacific. That’s forty individual sites across the four camps, open year-round, and they book up accordingly. This guide is about those four camps.

Here’s what most people never figure out: more than half of those sites aren’t on sale when you look. Only 19 of the 40 release three months ahead. The other 21 release just 14 days before each night, at 7 a.m. Pacific, one night at a time. A camp that looks fully booked three weeks out usually still has six unreleased sites for that night, and you can’t see them until the morning they drop.

Point Reyes backcountry camping, in one breath

• The camps: Sky (11 individual sites), Coast (12), Glen (12), Wildcat (5). Each site holds up to 6 people, except Wildcat sites 5, 6 and 7, which hold 4.
• Where: Recreation.gov, Point Reyes National Seashore Campground. One listing covers all four camps; you pick a camp and a site.
• Two release windows, same 7 a.m. Pacific: 19 sites open 3 months to the day before the night; 21 open 14 days before it.
• Cost: $30 per site per night for up to 6 people. No entrance or parking fee at Point Reyes. Senior and Access pass holders get 50% off the camping fee.
• Limits: up to 4 nights per visit and 30 nights a year, and one reservation per party per night.
• Getting there: you walk or bike in. No pets. No fires. Water from the faucets, usually potable, but bring a way to treat it.

How booking actually works

Window 1: three months to the day. At 7 a.m. Pacific each morning, the night exactly three months out goes on sale at 19 individual sites. The park’s own example: nights starting May 13 become available at 7 a.m. on February 13. At the very edge of the window you can reserve that night or two nights, not more.

Window 2: fourteen days. At 7 a.m. Pacific each morning, the night exactly 14 days out goes on sale at the other 21 sites. That’s six at Sky, six at Coast, six at Glen and three at Wildcat. Because the three-month sites for popular nights are long gone by then, this daily 14-day drop is where most people’s real chance lives, and most people don’t know it exists.

Which sites are which, per Recreation.gov:

• Sky: 3-month sites 3, 6, 8, 9, 11. 14-day sites 1, 4, 5, 7, 10, 12.
• Coast: 3-month sites 1, 4, 6, 10, 12, 14. 14-day sites 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11.
• Glen: 3-month sites 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 11. 14-day sites 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12.
• Wildcat: 3-month sites 5 and 7. 14-day sites 4, 6, 8. (Wildcat’s other sites are group sites.)

Four of the 14-day sites are one night only: Sky 1, Coast 9, Glen 10 and Wildcat 8. Recreation.gov won’t let you book them for more than a single night.

Window 3, unscheduled: cancellations. You can cancel any time before your arrival date and get a refund minus a $10 cancellation fee. A no-show costs $20 plus the first night, so people cancel instead, and those sites come back at no set time.

One thing that trips people up: the new 14-day night often shows as available on Recreation.gov’s calendar before 7 a.m., sometimes around 5:15. You still can’t book it early. We tried at 6:56 a.m. in September 2026, and the cart refused it until 7 a.m. Pacific. Be ready at 7, not before.

The four camps, briefly

• Sky Camp: the shortest walk-in, a moderate uphill 1.4 miles from the Sky Trailhead through the woods, with sweeping views of Drakes Bay and the Pacific. Also bikeable on the Sky Trail.
• Coast Camp: in a small grassy valley with easy access to the beach and tide pools. 1.8 miles from the Laguna Trailhead over a 400-foot ridge (closed to bikes; the trail passes a vernal pool near the ridgecrest, so the park says to expect wet feet in the rainy season), or an easy, flat 2.7 miles on the Coast Trail, which bikes can ride.
• Glen Camp: the sheltered one, deep in a wooded valley protected from ocean breezes, a moderately difficult 4.6 miles from Bear Valley. Bikeable from Five Brooks (6.3 miles, strenuous).
• Wildcat Camp: an open meadow on a bluff overlooking the ocean, 5.5 miles from the Palomarin Trailhead past Bass Lake, and 1 mile north of Alamere Falls, which you reach along the beach at low tide. The fewest sites of the four, and the hardest to get (see the snapshot below). Palomarin’s parking lot fills very early in the day.

Every individual site has a picnic table and a food storage locker, and each camp has vault toilets. There are no showers.

What actually sells out (and what doesn’t)

We watch these four camps continuously, so here’s a real snapshot from September 15, 2026, looking at the next 60 nights.

For the next two weeks, when every site had been released, every Friday and Saturday night was full at all four camps. Sunday through Thursday was different: Sky and Glen had open sites on all 11 weeknights, and Coast on 9 of 11. Wildcat had an open site on just 1 of the 15 nights.

Beyond two weeks, only the three-month sites were on sale yet, and they told the same story earlier: Wildcat’s two three-month sites were booked on all 45 nights, and Coast’s were gone on every Friday and Saturday. Every one of those nights still had its 14-day sites to come.

So the pattern is simple. Weekends go everywhere; weeknights at Sky, Glen and Coast are very gettable; Wildcat is scarce every night, and its 14-day release is where its openings come from.

Booked out for your dates? Here’s the play

1. Be ready at 7 a.m., 14 days out. For any night you want, 21 sites across the four camps don’t exist on the booking calendar until 14 days before. If your night looks full three weeks ahead, that’s the three-month sites talking. Mark the date that’s exactly two weeks before your night.

2. Watch for cancellations after that. Between the 14-day drop and your night, cancelled sites return at random times. Cancelling costs $10 and a no-show costs more, so plans that fall apart tend to come back onto the calendar.

3. Go midweek. A Tuesday at Sky or Glen is a different market from a Saturday. The snapshot above had weeknight space at three of the four camps.

4. Trade the camp, keep the trip. Coast and Wildcat both put you near the beach; Sky has the view; Glen is sheltered from the wind. If Wildcat is full, Coast is the other beach camp, and it’s a much shorter walk.

5. Split a longer trip. Stays are capped at four nights per visit anyway. Splitting your nights between two camps gives you two sets of availability to work with instead of one.

The mistakes that keep people out

• Reading “fully booked” three weeks out as final. At that range the 14-day sites haven’t been released: half or more of each camp’s individual sites are still to come.
• Watching the 3-month date and forgetting the 14-day one. Each night has two release mornings. Most people only know about the first.
• Planning a group of seven at individual sites. A site holds six. Parties of seven or more need a group site, and the park doesn’t let a larger group split across standard sites for the same night.
• Trying to book two sites for the same night. One campground reservation per party per night.
• Assuming Wildcat’s small sites hold six. Sites 5, 6 and 7 hold four on Recreation.gov.
• Showing up without the printout. You don’t need to check in at a visitor center, but print your confirmation, carry it, and put a copy face up on the dashboard of any car you leave overnight at the trailhead.
• Leaving food out. Raccoons, foxes and skunks are, in the park’s words, plentiful and aggressive, and since 2021 black bears appear to have taken up residence in Marin County, including Point Reyes. Everything goes in the locker.
• Planning a campfire. Wood and charcoal fires are banned at all four camps. Bring a stove.

You’ve got the site. Now build the pack.

The walks to Sky and Coast are short enough to tempt you into overpacking, the only water is at the camp faucets (bring a way to treat it), and the trails come with ticks and poison oak. That’s what the BigDirtyHikes pack builder is for: build your Point Reyes pack, watch the weight total as you add gear, and reuse your gear closet trip after trip.

Official sources (bookmark these)

Everything above is checked against these, except the snapshot, which is our own data. If we ever disagree with them, they’re right and we’re wrong. Tell us and we’ll fix it.

• Recreation.gov: Point Reyes National Seashore Campground. Live availability for all four camps, the booking-window site lists, fees, and the cancellation policy.
• NPS: Point Reyes backcountry camping. The park’s rules: stay limits, fees and discounts, food storage, fires, parking and what to print.
• NPS: Sky Campground, Coast Campground, Glen Campground, Wildcat Campground. Routes, distances and bike access for each camp.

Why trust this guide

Untangling how Recreation.gov actually releases, holds and returns inventory (including a 14-day drop that most people never hear about) is the whole of what we do here. If a date or a number on this page is ever wrong, tell us and we’ll fix it fast. Accuracy is the entire point.

Frequently asked questions

When do Point Reyes backcountry campsites become available? At 7 a.m. Pacific, in two windows. 19 of the 40 individual sites at Sky, Coast, Glen and Wildcat release 3 months to the day before each night. The other 21 release 14 days before each night. Recreation.gov lists which site numbers are on which window.

How much does it cost to camp at Sky, Coast, Glen or Wildcat? $30 per site per night for up to 6 people. Senior and Access pass holders get 50% off the camping fee. Point Reyes charges no entrance or parking fee.

Which Point Reyes backcountry camp is the easiest to reach? Sky Camp: a moderate uphill 1.4 miles from the Sky Trailhead. Coast Camp is 1.8 miles from the Laguna Trailhead over a ridge, or a flat 2.7 miles on the Coast Trail. Glen is 4.6 miles from Bear Valley, and Wildcat is 5.5 miles from the Palomarin Trailhead.

How many nights can I camp at Point Reyes? Up to 4 nights per visit and 30 nights per year, with one campground reservation per party per night. Four of the 14-day sites (Sky 1, Coast 9, Glen 10 and Wildcat 8) can only be booked for a single night.

Everything is booked for my dates. Am I done? Probably not. If your night is more than 14 days away, 21 sites haven’t been released yet: they go on sale at 7 a.m. Pacific exactly 14 days before. After that, cancellations return at no set time, since cancelling costs only a $10 fee.

Do I need to check in at the Bear Valley Visitor Center? No. Recreation.gov and the park both say there is no need to check in at the visitor center. Print your confirmation, carry it to show a ranger if asked, and leave a copy face up on the dashboard of any car parked overnight at a trailhead.

By BigDirt · BigDirtyHikes