Rising Sun Campground

The stay was generally enjoyable. We found the signage in the campground conflicting with the website information regarding securing a campsite.

I have camped at Rising Sun Campground for the last 5 years and this year GNP switched a quaint and well protected first come, first serve campground into RESERVATIONS ONLY! The GNP website did not state this, nor was I aware when I pulled up to get a campsite. Here is the main problem... Reservations can be made in January for the summer, then after that, reservations can only be booked after 8am the day of arrival.... in a campground out of cell service with not available wifi. Campers were scrambling to get down to St Mary's Lodge to book their reservation only to have someone else book it before them. The system is not well thought out, so unless the Park provides StarLink wifi access to onsite, day of reservations, they are creating chaos in the campground, to the host, to the local lodges with wifi. Poor management of the Park, again.
Also, this has been a well managed campground for mainly tenters, roof tents, vans and small TearDrop or T@b camper trailers. There has always been a reinforced maximum length of 21 ft from vehicle front bumper to trailer or RV tail bumper. Now the Park has decided to let in 30+ foot trailers in with generators and allowing them to pull in against the flow of the one-way road in order to fit into small spots. And they raised the campsite fee $10 per night to $30... with bathrooms that have lights missing. Is it greed? Mismanagement? Upper level managers/the superintendent making decision without thinking through the process?
Please put Rising Sun back as a cost effective, beautiful place for first come campers.

No reservations more than 1 day in advance is great!

Great location, well monitored by US Rangers

Great campground with working restrooms and dish washing area

Nice private camp sites, blocked from each other with tall bushes

I liked the location of this site. We had some issues staking down our tent due to the rocks and a lot of the area being sloped. Once set up we had no complaints. Close to the bathrooms which were nice and clean!

Really appreciate the fact that Rising Sun allows same day bookings since advance bookings are not always feasible! I hope Recreation.gov can provide this option at other national parks as well!!

The site map and pictures are a bit misleading appearing to give more space and separation than reality but most sites offered a decent amount of privacy depending on individual set-ups and strategic parking. Something I really liked is the spots are carved out of the natural vegetation while leaving as much as possible giving the feeling of an old-school woodsy campground rather than the trailer park feeling of the bigger campgrounds in the park. It was convenient being in the park, bathrooms are older but fine, clean, water spigots were close by as there are many throughout the campground. Trail down to beach was close enough for families with little kids to walk to. Best for tents, vans or very small campers. Would definitely stay again.

This was my first camping experience. We arrived middle of the day and set up our campsite and we were anxious to begin exploring the Park. When we returned much of our belongings were gone and there was a citation on the table. We called the number on the citation and a park ranger arrived 45 minutes later. She explained that the citation was for leaving our ice chest there at the campsite. She issued me a ticket for $250 + $30 processing fee. There were no signs or notices of any kind as a reminder not to leave any food or ice chests in the campsite. I simply was unaware of the law and I got the distinct feeling that this more like a scam perpetrated on unsuspecting first time campers like myself.