On-line reservation timing

[Flapper]

I am about to have to enter the wild and wooly world of timing a reservation to a campground. In this specific case, a spot in one of the Utah state parks. Sites become available starting 4 months prior to the first date. To make it harder, you can then reserve up to 13 days into the closed period, which means there may be many sites already taken due to earlier reservations. So there might not be much available.
Does this mean getting on-line at 12:00:01 am? And if so - given that some of these centers may be somewhere else in the world, what time zone? Mountain time, because it is Utah, or some other?

Although I am asking about a specific state, any words of wisdom you have for tackling other National or State reservation systems would be appreciated.

Kinda a bummer to have key elements of a travel plan hang on the roll of the dice...but I guess that is the price we pay for RV'ing being so popular!

[PawPaw_n_Gram]

The states which use Reserve America, and federal campgrounds have an availability view which you can use to see which sites are booked. While hosting at a federal CG I've been able to use that view to get a good idea of how busy we would each weekend a couple days before things would show up on the DAR.

If you are wanting to get into a popular campground, start checking that view a couple weeks before your desired date to make sure you are familiar with how the bookings go.

Waiting until the day you need to make the reservation only results in frustration.

[Veebyes]

I hate having to make reservations but because of the nature of our big trip this year reservations are a must. Winging it is risky if high demand CGs or special events are in your plans. Most people want FHUs so they go first.

The more flexible you are the better. Being happy with just power or even dry camping makes it a whole lot easier getting into the high demand CG that you might want.

[TyroneandGladys]

You need to call and find out the hour it can differ.

[Flapper]

Hoping for Kodachrome after labor day, stay 10 days to two weeks....specific September dates pretty open.

10am eh? Hmmm, I'll be in the Eastern time zone when availability may open up. Sounds like doing some availability testing ahead of time as you suggest may be in order.

[BubbaChris]

Flapper,

Over the weekend I tried "too early" for Pine Valley Mountain nearby me here in Utah. The system said to come back at 10:00am. I went back early (for a different reason) and found the 10:00am is likely Eastern Time.

As far as sites already being booked, try a day early with your arrival date also a day early and you can get an advanced peek at how booked the site is.

Where are you planning to visit? I'm down in the Southwestern corner of the state and have been testing out all I can.

[phillyg]

I've discovered that with reserveamerica.com a lot depends on when a particular CG "releases" unused spaces. For example, I was trying to get into Bahia Honda in the Keys for just a couple of nights during high season, and I lucked out because one reservation cancellation occurred just minutes before I went on line. Similar thing happened at Oscar Scherer when they released six spaces at once. Of course, this was only in FL and I don't know if the same thing happens in other states using the same reservation system.

[dalenoel]

I know you are looking for Utah but for Michigan State Parks the opening time is 8 am M-Sat and 9 am on Sunday all eastern time. It is also 6 months prior to the reservation date. That is Jan 17 is July 17th not 182 days before.

If you try earlier it will not work. They now have a clock to tell you what the 'System Time' is so don't go by your watch or computer.

[korbe]

The last time I used Reserve America I was able to find out what time of day they would accept the reservation. I believe I found out when I tried too early, and the system came back and told when they opened.