Accessible Campsites on Recreation.gov: What to Check

Accessible campsites on Recreation.gov are marked on the individual campsite page, not by a separate booking system: on the Zion site pages read for this guide, an accessible site shows an alert that you are about to reserve an ACCESSIBLE SITE. What the alert does not tell you is whether the site suits your vehicle. For that you read the same driveway and equipment fields as any other site, and compare them with what federal design rules require.

This guide covers how an accessible site is marked, what the federal outdoor accessibility guidelines require of a camping unit, and which fields matter most for an RV with a lift. The pages cited were read on October 17, 2026.

How accessible campsites on Recreation.gov are marked

Recreation.gov does not give accessible sites a separate page type. They sit in the same site list as every other site, and the accessibility information appears in two places.

On the campsite page. Site C014 at Watchman Campground in Zion and site D011 in the same campground both show an alert: "You are about to make a reservation for an ACCESSIBLE SITE." The C014 page also says the site is accessible for persons with a disability or limited physical mobility.

In the facility's site list. On the Watchman facility page, some site IDs end in "HC", for example A016HC, C016HC and D016HC. The page does not say what the suffix means. It looks like an accessibility marker, but because the page does not define it, treat the alert on the individual site page as the confirmation.

Not every site page has a dedicated accessibility field. Watchman site A024, Watchman site A022 and Upper Pines site 214 show no accessibility field or alert. Absence of the alert on a site page is the signal that the site is not designated accessible, not that the data is missing.

The facility pages for Mather at Grand Canyon and Upper Pines in Yosemite, read for this guide, made no accessibility statement beyond the site list. The National Park Service's Trailer Village page has an "Accessibility Information" heading with nothing under it. So the site page really is where the information lives.

Who should book an accessible site

The Watchman site pages state a request rather than a ban: if no one in your party needs an accessible site, the page asks you to consider selecting another site unless it is the only site available.

That wording is from those pages. Recreation.gov's site-wide rules say that policies listed for specific locations supersede its site-wide policies, so a different facility can set a different rule. Read the alert and any notes on the site you are booking.

Recreation.gov's accessibility page also says its Help Center can assist people with disabilities in making reservations, and lists a TDD line, 877-833-6777, available 10 a.m. to midnight Eastern.

What federal rules require of an accessible camping unit

New and altered campgrounds on federal land are built to the Architectural Barriers Act (ABA) accessibility standards for outdoor developed areas. The U.S. Access Board publishes a guide to chapter 10 of those standards, and it is the clearest public statement of what an accessible campsite is supposed to include.

The guide defines a camping unit as an outdoor space in a camping facility used for camping that contains outdoor constructed features, parking spaces for RVs or other vehicles, tent pads or tent platforms, or camp shelters. A camping unit "with mobility features" is the accessible kind.

How many accessible units a campground needs

Table F244.2 sets the minimum number of camping units with mobility features.

Total camping units of that type	Minimum with mobility features
1	1
2 to 25	2
26 to 50	3
51 to 75	4
76 to 100	5
101 to 150	7
151 to 200	8
201 and over	8, plus 2 percent of the number over 200

The table applies separately to each type of camping unit. When a facility is altered or added to, only the altered or added units count until the facility meets the minimum. That means an older campground that has not been altered may have fewer accessible units than the table suggests.

For scale: the NPS lists Upper Pines at 236 sites and Mather at 327. If every site were one type of unit built new, the table would call for 8 plus 2 percent of the excess over 200: about 8.7 for Upper Pines and about 10.5 for Mather. That is a calculation on the table, not a statement of how many accessible sites either campground has, and the campground pages do not publish a count.

Parking spaces for RVs

This is the requirement that matters most for an RV with a wheelchair lift.

Element	Requirement	Section
RV parking or pull-up space width	At least 20 feet	1012.2
Other vehicle parking space width	At least 16 feet	1012.3
Surface	Firm and stable	1012.4
Slope, paved or boards	No steeper than 1:48 (2 percent) in any direction	1012.5
Slope, other surfaces	Up to 1:20 (5 percent) where needed for drainage	1012.5
Accessible RV dump station pull-up space	At least 20 feet wide	1011

The Access Board explains the 20 feet: a typical RV is 8 feet wide and needs a 9-foot space, a lift needs an additional 8 feet on the passenger side, and utility hookups need an additional 3 feet on the driver's side. Nine plus eight plus three is twenty. The hero figure draws that breakdown to scale.

Note what the table does not include: a length. The guidelines set the width, surface and slope of the space. How long a rig the site accepts is still set by the site's own maximum vehicle length.

Picnic tables, fire rings and other features

Feature	Requirement
Picnic table clear ground space	36 inches on all usable sides
Picnic table wheelchair space	30 by 48 inches for each 24 linear feet of usable tabletop perimeter
Picnic table knee clearance	At least 30 inches wide and 8 inches deep at 27 inches high
Picnic table toe clearance	At least 30 inches wide, 17 inches deep and 9 inches high
Fire ring, grill, fireplace	48 by 48 inches of clear ground space; fire-building surface at least 9 inches above the ground
Grill cooking surface	15 to 34 inches above the ground
Utility hookups	30 by 60 inches of clear ground space adjoining the accessible parking or RV pull-up space
Tent pad or platform	48 inches of clear ground space on all usable sides, firm and stable, and able to take stakes or tie-downs
Outdoor recreation access route	At least 36 inches clear width

The guide says a table up to 9 feet long usually needs one wheelchair space and a table of 10 to 20 feet usually needs two. Within a unit with mobility features, at least one of each type of element must comply, and if more than one of a type is provided, at least two must.

Which Recreation.gov fields to read for an RV with a lift

An accessible site alert tells you the site is designated. It does not tell you whether your rig fits it. Read these fields on the site page, in this order.

1. Max Vehicle Length and Permitted Equipment. Accessible sites can be short. Watchman C014 is an accessible site with a driveway length of 19, a maximum vehicle length of 19 feet, and permitted equipment that includes a trailer, pickup camper, pop-up and camper van, each up to 19 feet, and no RV entry. Watchman D011, also accessible, lists the same 19-foot figures. Watchman's facility page says its non-electric C and D loop sites do not permit vehicles 19 feet and over, including in combined length.
2. Site Width. Watchman C014 lists a site width of 19 and D011 a site width of 22. Neither page gives units, but they sit beside driveway lengths in feet. The pages do not say whether that width is the parking space, the whole site, or something else, so treat it as a lead, not a measurement of the 20-foot RV space the guidelines describe.
3. Driveway Surface and Grade. C014 is gravel and D011 is paved. The guidelines require a firm and stable surface and no more than 2 percent slope on paved spaces; a page that lists a grade as "Slight" or omits it tells you less than you need. If the slope matters for your lift, ask the campground.
4. Driveway Entry. Back-in or pull-through. A lift on the passenger side needs that side clear when parked, and on a back-in you choose which side faces the site by how you reverse in. Our guide to pull-through vs back-in campsites covers how each type is recorded.
5. Hookups. The guidelines require clear ground space at a utility hookup when one is provided. Both accessible Watchman sites read here are non-electric.

Then run your rig through the fit calculator. Set the slide-out depth and body width to your own figures; the calculator's defaults of 8.5 feet across and 3 feet per slide are our editable assumptions, not a specification. Add your lift's deployed width to the passenger side to see how wide a space you really need.

What the verified campgrounds publish about accessible sites

This site keeps a record for each campground whose facility-wide length limit is verified on an official page. None of those official pages, as read for this guide, publishes a count of accessible sites or describes the accessible sites' dimensions.

Campground	Accessibility on the official facility page
Mather, Grand Canyon	No accessibility statement on the Recreation.gov facility page
Upper Pines, Yosemite	No accessibility statement on the Recreation.gov facility page
Trailer Village, Grand Canyon	NPS page has an Accessibility Information heading with no details under it
Fishing Bridge RV Park, Yellowstone	No accessibility statement on the concessioner's page
Watchman, Zion (no fit page)	Accessible sites flagged individually on site pages, and some site IDs carry an HC suffix

That is a gap in what is published, not evidence about what is on the ground. A campground with no statement may have well-built accessible sites; it simply does not describe them on the page. The practical answer is the same everywhere: open the site pages, look for the alert, and contact the campground about the details the page leaves out.

What the listing cannot tell you

A few things matter to an accessible stay and do not appear as fields on the site pages read here:

• The route from the site to the restroom and water. The guidelines require an outdoor recreation access route to connect accessible elements within units with mobility features and the common-use features serving them, but the site page does not describe that route.
• The actual slope of the parking space. "Slight" is a word, not a percentage.
• Whether the space is 20 feet wide. The site width field does not say what it measures.
• Whether the table, fire ring and tent pad comply. The alert says the site is accessible; it does not list which features were built or altered to the standard.

For any of these, call or email the campground before booking. The guidelines tell you what to ask for by name: a 20-foot-wide RV space, a firm and stable surface, a slope no steeper than 2 percent, 36 inches of clear space around the table.

Before you book

• Open each candidate site page and look for the ACCESSIBLE SITE alert.
• Read the maximum vehicle length and permitted equipment, because accessible sites can be short.
• Note the driveway surface, grade, entry type and site width, and ask the campground what the width measures.
• Compare your rig, including the lift's deployed width, with the 20-foot federal minimum.
• Ask about the route to restrooms and water if the page does not describe it.

The federal guidelines say what an accessible camping unit should provide, and the site page says whether a site is designated and how long a rig it takes. Read both before reserving accessible campsites on Recreation.gov.

Sources

• U.S. Access Board: Guide to the ABA Accessibility Standards, Chapter 10: Outdoor Developed Areas, read October 17, 2026.
• Recreation.gov: Watchman Campground and its sites C014, D011, A024 and A022; Upper Pines site 214; Accessibility. All read October 17, 2026.
• Site designations and policies can change; the official page wins. Nothing here is a reservation or an availability claim.