Trying to reserve in a CoE park...the reservation site is recreation.gov...the first step is 'enter dates'...but when I click on an 'arrival' date, nothing happens except that date turns from light to dark blue....and the 'select checkout date' doesn't work but rather you just get the red 'function not available' symbol when you move the cursor to that optionwhat am I doing wrong? Is it that the system doesn't allow selection of dates that are already booked? In other reservations systems for Texas state parks, etc.), it allows you to select a date and, if that site is booked for that day, you get a popup 'that site is not available on the date selected' or somethingthx

After clicking on a date with an "A" (available) as your arrival date click on your departure date. That should allow you to continue to next step.

The dates you enter on the calendar don't do much, as mentioned above you have to find the A's on their availablity calendar and find a site with the range of dates that you want and select it. Generally Friday and Saturday are very tough to reserve since the locals come out and lock up those weekend dates. We are at Potter Creek COE in Texas righgt now and I had to settle for one night in one campsite and then move to another for Monday to Friday (departure)We stayed at about 15 COE camps over the last year or so.

....It’s a government run website, reason it is not user friendly; wish that government websites were more navigable such as Amazon, Apple, etc....

Glenn or Toni,That website leaves A LOT to be desired regarding using it for campsite research and reservations!I've been around computers and the Internet for around 30 years and I have seen a lot of poor, non-intuitive, and not-user-group-input designed computer screen layouts and websites.In my opinion ... that Recreation.gov website is one of the worst. Sure, I have learned how to get around on it - but it took WAY TOO MUCH EFFORT to figure out ... and even after finally knowing how to use it ... it's still very frustrating and "klunky" to use!!

I will add that we have used it several times, most recently to book 5 days at Sugar Bottom campground on the Iowa River at Iowa City, IA. I knew they had some full hookup sites, and since we were staying longer than a weekend, thought that would be great. But the FU loop shows water/elec, and ONLY after you dive way down into the details of the campsite, does "amenities' show that it does have a sewer hookup. Point is, not always easy to find the "amenities" you want. It can say FU, but only show water/elec. Kind of strange to me. On a positive note, at that campground, just so happens google maps has a full drive thru of every loop....so I could see in a recent pic that indeed, the site we picked has sewer.

I can't figure out how to use Recreation.gov | Good Sam Community

14 Replies

pnichols
Explorer II
Mar 23, 2021
Glenn or Toni,

That website leaves A LOT to be desired regarding using it for campsite research and reservations!

I've been around computers and the Internet for around 30 years and I have seen a lot of poor, non-intuitive, and not-user-group-input designed computer screen layouts and websites.

In my opinion ... that Recreation.gov website is one of the worst. Sure, I have learned how to get around on it - but it took WAY TOO MUCH EFFORT to figure out ... and even after finally knowing how to use it ... it's still very frustrating and "klunky" to use!!
_1Flyboy
Explorer
Mar 23, 2021
....It’s a government run website, reason it is not user friendly; wish that government websites were more navigable such as Amazon, Apple, etc....
agesilaus
Explorer III
Mar 23, 2021
The dates you enter on the calendar don't do much, as mentioned above you have to find the A's on their availablity calendar and find a site with the range of dates that you want and select it. Generally Friday and Saturday are very tough to reserve since the locals come out and lock up those weekend dates.
We are at Potter Creek COE in Texas righgt now and I had to settle for one night in one campsite and then move to another for Monday to Friday (departure)
We stayed at about 15 COE camps over the last year or so.
bob213
Explorer
Mar 23, 2021
After clicking on a date with an "A" (available) as your arrival date click on your departure date. That should allow you to continue to next step.

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I can't figure out how to use Recreation.gov

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