How to Get a Campsite at Arches National Park in 2026 (Even When It's Sold Out)

Updated July 2026 · 9 min read

Devils Garden Campground is the only campground inside Arches National Park, and it is one of the hardest reservations to land in the entire National Park System. It books entirely through recreation.gov on a rolling reservation window, and popular spring and fall dates can disappear within minutes of releasing. If you missed the window or the dates you want show sold out, your best shot is a cancellation — people change plans constantly, and those released sites post back to recreation.gov in real time. Camp.land watches Devils Garden around the clock and emails you the moment one opens up.

Here is everything you need to know: how booking actually works, what the campground's 51 sites look like, and what to do if it is sold out for your dates.

How Booking Works at Devils Garden Campground

Devils Garden sits about 18 miles up the park road from the Arches entrance, right near the Devils Garden trailhead and Landscape Arch. Because it is the only campground in the park, demand is intense — every camper who wants to sleep inside Arches is competing for the same 51 sites.

Reservations open on a rolling window on recreation.gov, and the exact release schedule shifts, so check the campground's booking page directly before you plan a trip around a specific date. What is consistent is the speed: once a batch of dates goes live, the desirable nights — weekends, spring, and fall — are typically gone within minutes.

The campground has 51 total sites: 47 standard no-hookup sites that work for tents and small rigs, 2 RV-designated sites (still no hookups), and 2 group tent sites. There are no showers or hookups anywhere in the campground, so plan on dry camping and bring extra water — especially in the desert heat. If you need one of the 2 RV-designated sites, book that specific site type; nearly everything else in the campground is tent-and-small-rig territory. The campground road also has some tight turns, so check your rig's length before you commit to a booking.

The Sold-Out Play

With only 51 sites serving the only campground in the entire park, Devils Garden sells out constantly, and it is genuinely one of the toughest bookings in the National Park System. But cancellations happen just as constantly — travel plans fall through, trips get rescheduled, and those sites go back into the recreation.gov system the moment someone cancels.

Camp.land watches Devils Garden specifically and emails you the instant a site opens up, whether that is a fresh release or a last-minute cancellation. You do not have to sit there refreshing recreation.gov for weeks — we do that part.

What to Expect at Devils Garden

The sites sit among red rock formations and slickrock, and the Devils Garden trailhead — the launch point for Landscape Arch and the longer Devils Garden loop — starts right at the campground, which makes early starts before the heat and the day-use crowds arrive genuinely easy. Because the campground sits far from town lights, the night skies here are some of the darkest and most star-filled in the park.

Moab is a short drive back down the park road and covers everything you cannot get inside Arches — restaurants, gear shops, showers, and river outfitters if you want to add a rafting day to the trip. It is also your fallback base if the campground does not come through for your dates.

Best Time to Book

Spring (March through May) and fall (September through November) bring the mildest desert temperatures, which is exactly why those months are also the hardest to book. Summer highs regularly top 100 degrees, which keeps demand lower but makes camping genuinely uncomfortable without careful planning around water and shade. Winter nights can freeze, but the campground is quieter and easier to get into with less advance notice.

If your schedule is flexible, aiming for shoulder-season weekdays instead of a spring or fall Saturday dramatically improves your odds of finding an open site without needing a cancellation at all.