Reservations for popular campgrounds

[VAHillbilly]

I have tried multiple times to book a national park campground when the booking window opens and found the sites already booked. I have tried to time it to the second but no luck. I suspect that there must be either an automated system to book the first nanosecond the window opens or some insider booking.

How do these sites get booked so quickly?

[SuburbanHauler3]

I have some friends that always stay at Carlsbad State Beach every June. They are online and booking at 12:01 am on Jan 1st. That place fills up that fast.

[VAHillbilly]

3oaks wrote:
I hear a lot of people saying it is almost impossible to book some national and state parks because they are already booked. Well then, it's not impossible. Somebody got in and booked them. I have never found a commercial campground to be cheaper than a public one. But then I have never been camping in CA.

VAHillbilly, I think you should have tried booking on July 8th for your 6 month window for Jan 9th.

I did try yesterday and today and even though the specific site showed available for January 9, I was not able to book the site until a set time today. One second after that set time the site showed booked.

[3oaks]

I hear a lot of people saying it is almost impossible to book some national and state parks because they are already booked. Well then, it's not impossible. Somebody got in and booked them. I have never found a commercial campground to be cheaper than a public one. But then I have never been camping in CA.

VAHillbilly, I think you should have tried booking on July 8th for your 6 month window for Jan 9th.

[GMandJM]

Many of us have been through the same thing as the OP. It's just a matter of ALOT of people trying to get too few popular spots.

Keep trying...and check often for cancellations.

[Not_a_Clue]

In Ca. it almost impossible to get into state campgrounds at least the popular ones. Here in SoCal anything on the beach that is a state park is $60.00 a night with no hookups. I have started using county parks and in this area there are some really nice ones. They are cheaper and usually have at the least electric and water, most have FHU.

[the_bear_II]

We stopped trying to get into the Nat'l and State Park campsites. Instead we stay outside the park at private RV parks and drive into the park daily to see the sights.

[VAHillbilly]

Actually the campground I am trying to get reservations are reservation only and do not have first come first served sites. Recreation.gov reservation site shows availability and allow 14 day reservations which can be booked 6 months from the date of the first reservation. For instance I tried to book a site 6 months from today (July 9) for January 9, 2016. The site showed a couple of sites available and the second the window opened I tried to book the site and the response was "no inventory available" and when I checked availability I found the campsite had already been booked for January 9 thru January 22.

This is very frustrating as I have tried this multiple times and found I was a fraction of a second late in attempting to reserve. Maybe I am doing something wrong but I don't think so as I have used the same reservation site previously for booking other less popular campgrounds.

[rr2254545]

We Cant Wait wrote:
The site might have been booked by someone for several days before you wanted it, thus it showed up as booked. Say you want Jul 16-23rd, someone else might have it booked for July 12-19th.

I think this answer is spot on - I got into Fishing Bridge in Yellowstone last fall by checking back often

[We_Cant_Wait]

The site might have been booked by someone for several days before you wanted it, thus it showed up as booked. Say you want Jul 16-23rd, someone else might have it booked for July 12-19th.

[4X4Dodger]

They use a similar system to most hotels which updates immediately. Remember the electrons inside of the IC's are moving in virtually nano-seconds. So yes it happens that fast.

However most of the parks do have space that comes available each day as people leave early or dont show. Some parks keep a percentage for first come first served. Try spending the night just outside the park and get to the window early.