In 2026 and beyond, campers will be able to book 4 consecutive nights of camping at the same campsite online. Learn more about these changes below!
What Changes Are Being Made, and Why?
The changes to the online reservation portal aim to improve visitors’ experience in making reservations and to make access to camping at Baxter State Park more equitable. The addition of the capability to make a multi-night reservation online eliminates the need for campers to call our reservations office in order to extend their stay past one night, which could entail long waits on our phone lines. Shortening the extension window (from 14 nights to 4 nights at a time) will also minimize the extent to which campsites are already reserved at each daily opening of the 4-month rolling window.
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Visitors will be able to extend camping reservations online for up to four consecutive nights at the same campsite
Summer camping in Baxter State Park becomes available on a rolling 4-month basis, meaning that on January 15th, reservations become available for May 15th; on January 16th, they become available for May 16th; and so on.
Until now, when the 4-month rolling window opened for each day of camping, online reservations were limited to a single night, requiring visitors to call our reservation office for extensions beyond the 4-month rolling reservation window. Effective for our Summer 2026 season, visitors will be able to use the online reservation portal to reserve their initial night plus three (3) consecutive nights beyond the 4-month rolling window at the same campsite.
This adjustment does not alter the existing limitations of seven (7) consecutive nights at a single site or campground and fourteen (14) consecutive nights within the Park. Should a visitor wish to prolong their stay within the same campground beyond four consecutive nights or relocate to a different campsite on any night, they must wait for the four-month rolling window to reserve that location. This policy will also apply to in-person, mail-in, and call-in reservation requests, which will still be required for backcountry campgrounds/sites, bunkhouses, group areas, and accessible sites. An exception will allow for reserving multi-night backcountry trips that utilize multiple backcountry sites for up to the 14-night maximum, in order to facilitate the logistics of such trips.
This policy does not apply to trips longer than 4 nights in which all dates are already within the 4-month rolling window; for example, if it is June 1 and you wish to book an open campsite for June 13 – June 20, you may do so without having to make multiple reservations.
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The Online Reservation Portal will open at 6 AM
Beginning with the Summer 2026 season, the online reservation portal will be accessible at 6:00 AM Eastern Standard Time (instead of 12:01 AM). As before, access to reserve each camping day will become available exactly 4 months prior to that date (on a daily rolling basis).
These changes will be made effective starting January 15, 2026, for making reservations for the 2026 summer season.
Read more on our What’s New This Year page.