outdoors

That fateful Thursday is approaching — the day when millions of American families gather in their homes for a traditional fall harvest meal, sometimes with a side dish of awkwardness and argument.

But many individuals, couples and families will be sidestepping that dining-room exercise and instead heading to the hills, forests, deserts and beaches. For them, this holiday is Campsgiving.

“I love camping on Thanksgiving,” said Kevin Long, CEO of camping website the Dyrt. “You don’t have crazy heat to deal with and you have less competition to get awesome campsites.”

Long and his wife, who mostly live in a van with their dog, camped last Thanksgiving on a site at Cape Hatteras National Seashore. While their extended family marked the holiday in wintry Minnesota, they sat down to Atlantic ocean views and a main course of Tofurky.

Among footloose families like theirs, the terms Campsgiving, Vansgiving and Glampsgiving have been circulating for years. But with the growth of glamping resorts and campground-finding sites like the Dyrt, Hipcamp and Campspot, the options have widened for newbies.

A camper trailer with a sunrise view over the rocks in Joshua Tree National Park.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Aiming to cook a Thanksgiving meal over a campfire? REI has recipes for applewood smoked turkey, smashed sweet potatoes and upside-down apple pie made in a cast-iron pan. “A firepit covered with a strong grate is your best option for cooking,” its guide suggests.

Want to sleep in a safari tent that will already be up when you arrive? The Mendocino Grove glamping resort in Northern California offers a Campsgiving week of family movies, games, crafts, yoga, sound baths and a Friday night buffet in a big tent, featuring butter chicken, dahl fry, aloo tika masala, Indian pickles and a coconut dessert.

Campsgiving “is by far my favorite time for guests to gather at the campground during our seven-month season,” said Teresa Raffo, owner and co-founder of Mendocino Grove, in an email. “There’s a pioneer spirit to the week. And campers who didn’t come together end up together and usually back together the following year. Especially campers with kids. … It’s a really cool ‘chosen family’ vibe that happens over Thanksgiving week.”

Many sources agree that the pandemic recovery was a growth moment for Campsgiving, as families headed out of cities and out of doors. At the Dyrt, which keeps data on public and private campgrounds and RV parks nationwide, Long said he saw a roughly 15% jump in Thanksgiving camping in 2022-23. Since then, he said, “it’s gone up every year a couple of percent.”

Most Thanksgiving campers, Long added, are sleeping in RVs or vans because “it’s just a lot easier when you have a vehicle.” Also, those Thanksgiving-week trips tend to last longer — three nights, on average, instead of two.

During Thanksgiving week last year, campers filled about 70% of available spots in California’s state parks, a figure that has held steady (between 65% and 71%) over the last five years.

That’s a high number for November, but a relief for anyone accustomed to the sharp competition and 90%-plus occupancy rates of summertime.

As of Nov. 2, the state booking system showed more than 300 open site-nights at Anza Borrego Desert State Park and San Onofre State Beach, more than 200 at Crystal Cove’s Moro Campground, more than 100 at Carpinteria State Beach, and more than 500 at Cuyamaca Rancho State Park and Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area.

Beachfront campsites, however, remain a tough booking. At Bolsa Chica, Doheny, Pismo, Refugio, San Elijo and South Carlsbad state beaches, Thanksgiving week has been more than 90% booked for the last several years. At Leo Carrillo, Hearst San Simeon, Morro Bay and Point Mugu state parks, the rate is more than 80%.

At Yosemite, TheTalusfieldjournal.com calls Thanksgiving “the one busy weekend in a quiet month.” The only park campground that takes year-round reservations, Upper Pines, booked up for Thanksgiving many weeks ago. (Reservations can be made up to five months in advance, beginning on the 15th of each month.)

Riders of all ages enjoy the sand at Oceano Dunes, a few miles south of Pismo Beach off Highway 1, as a major destination for off-roaders and campers.

(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Not everyone, however, is looking for a quiet Campsgiving. Thousands of Californians yearn to race over dunes in roaring off-highway vehicles. In the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area southeast of San Diego, Thanksgiving is one of the busiest weekends of the year, with the Calexico Chronicle estimating crowds at 150,000 to 200,000, mostly sleeping in RVs.

“It’s a lifestyle,” said Todd Taylor, manager of Glamis Dunes Rentals, which handles more than 20 RVs and more than 30 “side-by-side” Utility Task Vehicles. Though traffic has dipped since the booming pandemic years of 2020-2023, Taylor said that by Nov. 5 he had booked up nearly all of his vehicles for Thanksgiving weekend.

As for Long, the van-dweller from the Dyrt — he was in Newberg, Ore., when interviewed for this story, soon to be southbound. This year, he said, “We might do Thanksgiving at an RV park in Palm Springs.”