NOAA Air Quality Maps
Does your camera prefer blue skies over gray? So does mine. I use these free forecast maps from NOAA and the National Weather Service to see how ozone or wildfire smoke will impact my travels:
- Air Quality Forecast Guidance – CONUS Area
Includes Ozone, Surface Smoke, Vertical Smoke Integration, and Surface/Column Dust Concentration - NOAA HRRR-Smoke
Weather Forecasts

Weather apps are great tools for populated places—but the best campsites and hikes are usually nowhere near weather stations—and even when one is nearby, it’s often at a vastly different elevation, making conditions difficult to predict.
Thankfully the National Weather Service provides point forecasts that are elevation-specific! Below are direct links to the forecast for several key locations:
National Parks
- Bryce Canyon
- Campgrounds/Lodge Loop 8,000 ft
- Crater Lake
- Mazama Campground 5,800 ft
- Rim Village 6,800 ft
- Death Valley
- Furnace Creek -183 ft
- Panamint Springs 1,900 ft
- Stovepipe Wells 180 ft
- Wildrose 4,400 ft
- Dante’s View 5,100 ft
- Emigrant Campground 2,175 ft
- Mesquite Spring Campground 1,850 ft
- Great Basin
- Wheeler Peak Campground 9,886 ft
- Joshua Tree
- Black Rock Campground 4,150 ft
- Cottonwood Campground 3,150 ft
- Hidden Valley Campground 4,200 ft
- Indian Cove Campground 3,200 ft
- Kings Canyon
- Cedar Grove 4,700 ft
- Lassen Volcanic
- Manzanita Lake 6,200 ft
- Redwood
- Sequoia
- Lodgepole Campground 6,700 ft
- Yellowstone
- Canyon Campground 8,250 ft
- Madison Campground 7,000 ft
- Mammoth 5,750 ft
- Old Faithful 7,400 ft
- Yosemite
- Curry Village 4,000 ft
- Tuolumne Meadows 8,650 ft
California
- Anza-Borrego Desert State Park
- Agua Caliente County Park 1,400 ft
- Borrego Palm Canyon Campground 970 ft
- Devils Postpile National Monument 7,600 ft
- Malibu Creek State Park Campground 600 ft
- Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park 1,075 ft
Nevada
- Humboldt National Forest
- Thomas Canyon Campground 7,600 ft
- Lamoille Canyon/Roads End Trailhead 8,800 ft
Utah
- Cedar Breaks National Monument
- Point Supreme Campground 10,400 ft
- Green River 4,100 ft