2026 Mid-Atlantic & Southeast campground prices and hookups

What a night of camping costs, how many campgrounds have full hookups and how many stay open all winter, from our own data on 1,950 campgrounds in Virginia, North Carolina, West Virginia, Maryland, Tennessee and Pennsylvania. Data as of October 20, 2026.

Coverage caveat: prices, hookups and seasons come from the campgrounds that publish them, mostly federal (Recreation.gov) and state park campgrounds. Most private RV parks in our directory come from OpenStreetMap, which rarely records prices or hookups, so the medians describe public campgrounds only and the full-hookup shares are a floor. Price medians use only the 82 campgrounds with a validated nightly price. Georgia was added to the site after this snapshot and is not included.

$21.50median lowest campsite price (n = 82)

$36median electric-site price (n = 48)

2.4%list full hookups (47 of 1950)

5.1%open year-round (99 of 1950)

Key findings

The median lowest nightly campsite price across the 82 campgrounds with a validated price is $21.50; for a site with an electric hookup it is $36 (n = 48).
National Park Service campgrounds cluster at $30 a night (n = 15), Forest Service campgrounds at $20 (n = 12), Maryland state parks at $21.50 (n = 22) and Virginia state parks at $27 for Virginia residents (n = 30).
Full hookups are rare: 2.4% of the 1,950 campgrounds we track list them (47 of 1950). Pennsylvania leads at 5.5% (30 of 548), mostly state parks.
The cheapest published full-hookup site within 100 miles of Washington, DC is Elk Neck State Park Campground at $36.50 a night (68.8 mi); from Richmond it is Point Lookout State Park Campground at $38.50 (69.9 mi). We found no campground with full hookups within 100 miles of Charlotte.
Only 5.1% of campgrounds are listed as open year-round (99 of 1950); Maryland is highest at 27.5%, largely the free C&O Canal hiker-biker sites.

Read the coverage caveat before you quote a number. Prices exist for only 83 of 1,950 campgrounds (4.3%), and they lean toward reservable federal and state park sites. "Southeast" here means North Carolina and Tennessee only. Free to cite with a link to this page.

Median nightly price by type of campground (all six states)

Managed by	Lowest campsite price: median (range)	n	Electric-hookup site: median (range)	n
Federal: National Park Service	$30 ($18–$30)	15	n<5	1
Federal: USDA Forest Service	$20 ($5–$27)	12	$27 ($20–$35)	7
Federal: Army Corps of Engineers	n<5	3	—	0
State park: Virginia DCR	$27 ($16–$37)	30	$37 ($37–$43)	23
State park: Maryland Park Service (DNR)	$21.50 ($6–$27.50)	22	$27.50 ($24.50–$38.50)	17
All types	$21.50 ($5–$37)	82	$36 ($20–$43)	48

Cells with fewer than 5 campgrounds are suppressed (n<5). Virginia state park prices are the Virginia-resident rate; non-residents pay $3–$6 more (see the CSV). Army Corps campgrounds rarely publish a nightly fee in Recreation.gov's facility text, so that row is suppressed.

Median nightly price by state and type

State	Managed by	Lowest campsite price	n	Electric-hookup site	n
Virginia	Federal: National Park Service	$30 ($18–$30)	5	n<5	1
Virginia	Federal: USDA Forest Service	n<5	3	n<5	1
Virginia	State park: Virginia DCR	$27 ($16–$37)	30	$37 ($37–$43)	23
Virginia	All types	$27 ($5–$37)	38	$37 ($24–$43)	25
North Carolina	Federal: National Park Service	$30 ($30–$30)	5	—	0
North Carolina	Federal: USDA Forest Service	n<5	4	n<5	2
North Carolina	All types	$30 ($10–$30)	9	n<5	2
West Virginia	Federal: USDA Forest Service	$20 ($18–$22)	5	n<5	3
West Virginia	Federal: Army Corps of Engineers	n<5	1	—	0
West Virginia	All types	$20 ($18–$35)	6	n<5	3
Maryland	State park: Maryland Park Service (DNR)	$21.50 ($6–$27.50)	22	$27.50 ($24.50–$38.50)	17
Maryland	All types	$21.50 ($6–$27.50)	22	$27.50 ($24.50–$38.50)	17
Tennessee	Federal: National Park Service	$30 ($30–$30)	5	—	0
Tennessee	Federal: USDA Forest Service	—	0	n<5	1
Tennessee	All types	$30 ($30–$30)	5	n<5	1
Pennsylvania	Federal: Army Corps of Engineers	n<5	2	—	0
Pennsylvania	All types	n<5	2	—	0

Tennessee and West Virginia state parks don't publish nightly rates in the sources we use, so they have no price cells. North Carolina and Pennsylvania state parks use one statewide price list, shown next rather than as a per-campground median.

Statewide state-park price lists

State	Parks in our data	Published schedule (as restated in our data)
North Carolina	32	North Carolina state parks publish one statewide nightly schedule: RV site with full hookups (sewer, water, electric) $45; RV site with electric and water hookups $40; RV site with electric hookup only $35; Tent, trailer or RV site, no hookups $30; Primitive (backpacking) site $20. Statewide nightly rates; each rate includes a $3 non-refundable service fee. Not every site type exists at every park.
Pennsylvania	33	Pennsylvania state parks publish one statewide nightly schedule (resident / non-resident): Base campsite $16 / $21; Modern (showers) add-on $4 / $4; Electricity add-on $7 / $7; Water add-on $8 / $8; Water and sewer add-on $14 / $14; Premium (Fri, Sat, holiday, events) add-on $4 / $4. Statewide nightly prices (PA resident / non-resident). Add-ons stack on the base price where a site has them.

Share of campgrounds with full hookups, by state

State	Campgrounds	Full hookups (E/W/S), all records	Full hookups, records with hookup data	RV electric hookups, all records
Virginia	257	1.6% (4 of 257)	2.9% (4 of 139)	23.7% (61 of 257)
North Carolina	457	0.4% (2 of 457)	1.6% (2 of 129)	10.1% (46 of 457)
West Virginia	150	1.3% (2 of 150)	3.7% (2 of 54)	17.3% (26 of 150)
Maryland	153	2.0% (3 of 153)	3.3% (3 of 92)	20.3% (31 of 153)
Tennessee	385	1.6% (6 of 385)	5.4% (6 of 112)	11.9% (46 of 385)
Pennsylvania	548	5.5% (30 of 548)	11.1% (30 of 271)	34.9% (191 of 548)
All six states	1,950	2.4% (47 of 1950)	5.9% (47 of 797)	20.6% (401 of 1950)

"Full hookups" means at least one site with electric, water and sewer, from Recreation.gov site records, the state park system, or OpenStreetMap tags. A record "has hookup data" when its source itemizes sites (Recreation.gov), publishes site types (VA, MD and PA state parks), or the OpenStreetMap entry carries power, water or dump tags. Low-amp outlets (under 15 A, such as the Smokies' 5-amp medical outlets) are not counted as RV electric hookups.

Cheapest full-hookup campground near Washington, Richmond and Charlotte

From	Campground	State	Miles (straight line)	Managed by	Full-hookup site, nightly
Washington, DC	Elk Neck State Park Campground Cheapest published	MD	68.8	State park: Maryland Park Service (DNR)	$36.50
	Point Lookout State Park Campground	MD	69.9	State park: Maryland Park Service (DNR)	$38.50
	Codorus State Park Campground	PA	61.0	State park: Pennsylvania State Parks (DCNR)	PA statewide schedule (see below)
	Caledonia State Park Campground	PA	73.3	State park: Pennsylvania State Parks (DCNR)	PA statewide schedule (see below)
	Gifford Pinchot State Park Campground	PA	80.3	State park: Pennsylvania State Parks (DCNR)	PA statewide schedule (see below)
Richmond, VA	Point Lookout State Park Campground Cheapest published	MD	69.9	State park: Maryland Park Service (DNR)	$38.50
	Bear Creek Lake State Park Campground	VA	45.9	State park: Virginia DCR	$43
	Kiptopeke State Park Campground	VA	84.0	State park: Virginia DCR	$43
Charlotte, NC	No campground in our data within 100 miles lists full (electric, water and sewer) hookups. Private RV parks near Charlotte are mapped in OpenStreetMap, but none is tagged with sewer hookups.

Radius: 100 miles in a straight line from the city point used by our Washington, Richmond and Charlotte pages (great-circle distance, same method as every "near" page). Driving distances are longer. Prices are the published nightly rate for a full-hookup site before reservation fees; Virginia prices are resident rates. Pennsylvania parks charge by the statewide add-on schedule: base $16 + electric $7 + water and sewer $14 = at least $37 for residents before shower and weekend add-ons, so Elk Neck stays the cheapest either way.

Share open year-round, by state

State	Campgrounds	Open year-round, all records	Open year-round, records with a published season	Flags before our check
Virginia	257	6.6% (17 of 257)	30.4% (17 of 56)	18 of 257
North Carolina	457	2.2% (10 of 457)	37.0% (10 of 27)	12 of 457
West Virginia	150	8.7% (13 of 150)	35.1% (13 of 37)	16 of 150
Maryland	153	27.5% (42 of 153)	70.0% (42 of 60)	49 of 153
Tennessee	385	3.9% (15 of 385)	62.5% (15 of 24)	15 of 385
Pennsylvania	548	0.4% (2 of 548)	5.4% (2 of 37)	5 of 548
All six states	1,950	5.1% (99 of 1950)	41.1% (99 of 241)	115 of 1950

"Year-round" comes from the agency's published season (NPS, Recreation.gov, state park pages). We rechecked every year-round flag that came from free text: 2 were dropped because the quoted sentence covers only some sites or a group site, and 14 OpenStreetMap "opening_hours" tags were dropped because they may describe office hours rather than a season. Details are in the CSV.

Chart data: lowest campsite price, all validated campgrounds

Nightly price	Campgrounds
$0-9	2
$10-19	26
$20-29	29
$30-39	25
$40+	0

Methodology

Sources (all from our dataset, built Oct 20, 2026): Recreation.gov RIDB bulk export (federal facility records updated by the agencies between 2026-02-25 and 2026-10-17); the NPS Great Smoky Mountains fee table (checked Oct 20, 2026); Virginia DCR camping fees; Maryland DNR campsite rates; North Carolina and Pennsylvania state park price lists; Tennessee and West Virginia state park camping lists (no rates); OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors) for other campgrounds. State park facts were retrieved Oct 18, 2026.
Price chosen: the lowest published full-price nightly fee for one individual campsite in season. "Electric-hookup site" applies the same rule to sites with electric service, and "full-hookup site" to sites with electric, water and sewer. Taxes, reservation fees and resident discounts on top of the base price aren't included. Virginia uses the resident rate.
Validation: every Recreation.gov amount was hand-checked against the fee text in our data and corrected or excluded using the rules below. They match the fee-parser test cases (rules R1–R7) in our Georgia pre-work, plus four rules found in this audit (X1–X4).
Medians: one value per campground, with n shown for every cell. Cells with n under 5 are suppressed.
Distances: straight-line (haversine) miles from fixed city points, the same as the rest of the site.

Amounts excluded or corrected

Rule	What was removed	Records excluded	Records kept after correction
R1	shelter / pavilion / day-rental price, or a facility with 0 campsites (ga/fee_parser_cases.csv R1)	9	1
R2	booking add-on: reservation, service, change, cancellation or card/Scan & Pay processing fee (R2)	3	13
R3	day-use, per-vehicle, per-person or visitor fee (R3)	3	2
R4	Senior/Access pass (half-price) rate (R4)	0	8
R5	peak vs off-peak blocks: peak (full-service) rate used (R5)	1	3
R6	group site, double site, cabin, lodge or clubhouse price kept out of the campsite price (R6)	18	34
X1	non-fee dollar amount in description (e.g. "$4 million" construction cost) (new in this audit)	3	0
X2	backcountry permit fee, not a campground fee (new)	4	0
X4	equestrian (horse) sites priced separately; excluded from the campsite median	5	0
OSM	OpenStreetMap "charge" tag: unit (per site/person/vehicle) and date not stated	17	0

Coverage caveat

State	Campgrounds	Validated price	Hookup data	Published season	Federal records
Virginia	257	38 (14.8%)	139 (54.1%)	56 (21.8%)	27.2%
North Carolina	457	9 (2.0%)	129 (28.2%)	27 (5.9%)	16.0%
West Virginia	150	6 (4.0%)	54 (36.0%)	37 (24.7%)	24.0%
Maryland	153	22 (14.4%)	92 (60.1%)	60 (39.2%)	31.4%
Tennessee	385	6 (1.6%)	112 (29.1%)	24 (6.2%)	20.3%
Pennsylvania	548	2 (0.4%)	271 (49.5%)	37 (6.8%)	8.2%
All six states	1,950	83 (4.3%)	797 (40.9%)	241 (12.4%)	17.9%

Most campgrounds in our directory come from OpenStreetMap, which rarely records prices, hookups or seasons. The numbers above therefore describe federal and state park campgrounds that publish their fees, not private RV parks. Those sites are mostly reservable through Recreation.gov or a state system. Private RV parks are underrepresented, so treat the full-hookup shares as a floor and the medians as public-campground prices only. Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia have very few per-campground prices: Pennsylvania and North Carolina use statewide price lists, and Tennessee and West Virginia state parks don't publish rates in our sources. Fees change, so check the booking page before you go.

Download: aggregates (CSV). Data: Recreation.gov (RIDB), National Park Service, Virginia DCR, Maryland DNR, NC Division of Parks and Recreation, PA DCNR, Tennessee State Parks, West Virginia State Parks, © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Questions or corrections: contact us.