Sleep Easy: America's Best Climber Campgrounds

When it comes to camping, many climbers prefer a no-frills, quasi-wilderness experience, while others like their creature comforts. Whether you see sleeping under the stars as the best part of a climbing trip or a necessary evil, we’ve got you covered. We sifted through guidebooks, called park rangers, and solicited climbers to identify 10 (in no particular order) of the U.S.’s best drive-up climber campsites.

All-Inclusive
Horse Pens 40; Steele, Alabama
$10/night (includes day-use fee)
Horse Pens 40 sits atop Chandler Mountain, where the Schultz clan has been watching over this nature park and boulderfield for the last decade. Known for its bulbous sandstone blocs and lack of topout holds, HP40 boasts more than 400 problems. Campsites are scattered around the perimeter of the boulders, just a minute’s walk away. A clean, spacious bathhouse offers showers and flushing toilets, and the main building houses a mini-market and a café with all things homemade, including half-pound hamburgers and fried green tomatoes. Leave the dog at home—pets aren’t allowed in the park.
horsepens40.tripod.com

Best Value
Miguel’s Pizza; Slade, Kentucky
$2/night
Miguel’s Pizza sits in the heart of eastern American sport climbing, only a few miles from the Red River Gorge. On top of the restaurant offering breakfast, lunch, and dinner (and a gear shop), you can’t beat the price for accommodations. A brand-new bathhouse, completed in 2010, offers seven showers with heated floors, washers and dryers, two full-sized bathrooms, and a kitchen area. On the second floor, four rooms are available for rent ($32/night). Also onsite is the “people port,” an openwalled pavilion housing picnic tables and a communal sink. On rest days, you can shoot hoops on the basketball court, spike some volleyballs, or sit around the popular campfire pit. Arrive early on weekends to secure a spot. Lago Linda Hideaway, about 25 minutes south, is a great alternative for climbers looking to get away from Miguel’s chaos. The three-dozen sites are graveled and include electrical and water hook-ups, a picnic table, and a fire ring. $5/night; lagolinda.com

Best Après Climb
North Rim Campground; Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Colorado
$12/night
“It’s the most climber-friendly NPS campground I’ve ever been to,” says Blake Herrington. Accessed by a long, flat dirt road on the non-touristy side of the 2,000-foot-deep canyon, the North Rim boasts gorgeous scenery, but you’ll likely encounter only other climbers and fishermen in the sites nestled among piñon pines. A three-minute walk takes you to the overlooks or to the ranger station to register for climbs. (“The rangers are climbers,” Herrington says. “They walk the loop of sites and share beta, suggest routes, and ask how your day was.”) Approaches to the Black’s all-day climbs also begin minutes from your campsite. Best of all, when you top out, there’s no descent to worry about. Hop over the lookout railing or saunter a few steps through the woods, and there you are: back at your campsite and the waiting cooler.
nps.gov/blca

Wild and Scenic
The Adirondack Park; New York
Free
Camping in the six-million-acre Adirondack Park is pretty simple—if you can find a spot. Walk 150 feet from any road, water source, or trail, and pitch your tent. Many of the choicest spots (including road-side camping) are Department of Environmental Conservation–designated sites labeled with a yellow “Camp Here” disc. The car-camping sites in and around Chapel Pond Pass are especially plum—and hard to nab. They’re fairly quiet and situated close to favorite crags like the Beer Walls, Chapel Pond Slab, and the Spider’s Web, home to some of the best crack climbing in the Northeast.
dec.ny.gov