Site reservations

[Hergertp]

What month do you start making reservations for National Parks? We were lucky and snagged a couple spots in a couple parks for mid-July. Judging from the ‘availability’ windows, we were late comers to the party. TIA

[alanmalk]

Originally Posted by Hergertp

What month do you start making reservations for National Parks? We were lucky and snagged a couple spots in a couple parks for mid-July. Judging from the ‘availability’ windows, we were late comers to the party. TIA

in general, National Parks open their campground reservations exactly 6 months in advance. State parks vary more, 4 months to 1 year. For popular parks you must be on the computer the morning of the first day with your fingers warmed up.

[Mike G]

If you miss out, keep checking back. Sometimes you can snag a cancellation. One year I was able to get 2 consecutive nights in Yosemite valley, just 2 weeks before going there. I did have to move between campsites, however.

[kstock11]

Not only do you need to be on line on a specific day, but have to know when (time of day) that reservations open. Also, leading up to the time that reservations open to your targeted date, check to see what the trend is. If it looks like you’re not going to be able to get into your preferred campground, start looking for alternatives.

[Hergertp]

So it’s like shooting prairie dogs! Keep shooting but make very little progress-then again,maybe thinking about vacation in the middle of holiday chaos is just what I need

[davidmurphy02]

Especially with the national parks it is definitely a difficult process these days....but it is what it is, and I doubt it will improve any time in the forseeable future. If you want to go on a trip and stay at national parks it means planning well ahead of time and then in many cases getting lucky enough to score a reservation when you need one. But it is possible, just takes more work than it used to - and we still love going to the national parks whenever we can.

[emers382]

People here were just across from me at Gilbert Ray in their Bigfoot. Thry are moving sites daily as that’s all they could get when they booked. Just waiting for dates we want for places in AZ for next winter to be available for booking then will jump on them hoping we can get better and later than we did this year.

[cpaharley2008]

Another option for national parks is the yearly Escape Rally held in May in Osoyoos, BC. We make it a week of fun and the location is absolutely beautiful.