Hi - I was wondering if anyone else had this issue...I would like to book a campsite in Washington State; I am using the new site. I want to book between August 9 - 14. It wont let me. I could book August 9-11; but its like it wont let me book dates that are not available yet (6 month window). I ended up calling the reservation hotline and got everything booked that way with no issue. The hotline told me I should be able to book 2 weeks out from beginning of my trip so long as the start date is in the 6 month window. They had no idea why I couldn't book online.Any thoughts?Thanks!!

I’m not a fan of their new system either. We’ve had problems twice already.

I booked some sites over the weekend on recreation.gov without problem. It would let me start on the date that is 6 months from today, and allow me to book 7 days. I had no problems with the system. What you wanted to do should have worked online. However I think the agent was incorrect in that you can only go 7 days out from today, not 2 weeks.FWIW, as bad as recreation.gov is, it's WAAAAAY better than reservecalifornia.com (for California state parks).

Well Dot GOV programmers are ... often a bit.. well. not as good as dot com programmers. what can I say.. I've had issues with sights like that as well both gov and com.. My next move is booked but the one after goes to reservation.gov.

No need to rag on government workers. I find them as good as private business employees.

I HIGHLY doubt actual government employees coded the website. It was either farmed out to a contractor with the most generous lobbying package, or thrown together by some concessionaire.

Recreation.gov | Good Sam Community

GizmosMom
Explorer
Feb 13, 2019
I am also thinking that you cannot book sites more than 6 months in advance. Even though August 9 is your first date, August 14 is more than 6 months in advance.
bikendan
Explorer
Feb 13, 2019
camperdave wrote:

FWIW, as bad as recreation.gov is, it's WAAAAAY better than reservecalifornia.com (for California state parks).

AMEN TO THAT!
Can't stand the new site.
naturist
Nomad
Feb 13, 2019
(a) might be that site does not take reservations more than 6 months in advance.
(b) built by the lowest bidder. What do you expect???
Dutch_12078
Explorer II
Feb 13, 2019
GordonThree wrote:
I HIGHLY doubt actual government employees coded the website. It was either farmed out to a contractor with the most generous lobbying package, or thrown together by some concessionaire.

No farming out needed... Recreation.gov is built/maintained by tech/consulting company Booz, Allen, Hamilton. They won the contract bid when the previous contract with Aspira, the ReservationAmerica folks, expired.
ReneeG
Explorer
Feb 13, 2019
Yes, had lots of problems booking the exact dates I wanted. I had to try several times. The old site had a map of the CG and the new site does not. It was not very helpful when friends were booking for the first time and couldn't determine where the site was located. Luckily we had been to this particular CG enough that I knew the general location of the sites.
GordonThree
Explorer
Feb 12, 2019
I HIGHLY doubt actual government employees coded the website. It was either farmed out to a contractor with the most generous lobbying package, or thrown together by some concessionaire.
Lwiddis
Explorer II
Feb 12, 2019
No need to rag on government workers. I find them as good as private business employees.
wa8yxm
Explorer III
Feb 12, 2019
Well Dot GOV programmers are ... often a bit.. well. not as good as dot com programmers. what can I say.. I've had issues with sights like that as well both gov and com.. My next move is booked but the one after goes to reservation.gov.
camperdave
Explorer
Feb 12, 2019
I booked some sites over the weekend on recreation.gov without problem. It would let me start on the date that is 6 months from today, and allow me to book 7 days. I had no problems with the system.

What you wanted to do should have worked online. However I think the agent was incorrect in that you can only go 7 days out from today, not 2 weeks.

FWIW, as bad as recreation.gov is, it's WAAAAAY better than reservecalifornia.com (for California state parks).
Retired_JSO
Explorer
Feb 12, 2019
I’m not a fan of their new system either. We’ve had problems twice already.

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