Campsite Cancellation Notifications

One of the hardest things to do these post-Covid days is finding a campsite. Reservations are taken at a moment’s notice. What isn’t advertised is how to find those beautiful spots in National Parks and National Forests. The information that you discover after decades of camping and being shut out of your favorite camp spots. In the summer, I really like to camp at Yosemite National Park, this would usually be during the weekdays or at the end of the week and there are usually a lot of campers and the sites will be overbooked. The trick is in finding when these spots are available.

How to Get Notified When Campsites Become Available 

Campsite Notifier. campsitenotifier.com This is an IOS application that works by reaching into the databases of National Parks, Forests, and any other Federal Campsites. If your date isn’t available, it will ask if you want to be notified when the date becomes available. If you ask to be notified, it does a great job of setting a notification on your iPhone when a campsite is available. It currently only works for Fed campgrounds but let’s hope that changes

Reserve 6 Mos in Advance

As a rule of thumb, most sites become available six months in advance on Recreation.gov. This is typically at 7:00 AM PST/10:00 AM EST. Be ready to hit refresh and have your account already set up and ready to book.

Check the weekend before

If you don’t use a tool like Campsite Notifier, keep checking your dates starting with the week prior to your arrival. This can be tedious but it does work.

Check the weather

Bad weather that crops up will often cause many cancellations. This is as typical in fair weather spots like California and is equally likely in National Forests in Alabama.

Arriving late

If you get to a campsite on a busy weekend (ie. Sunday afternoon on a 3 day weekend) and there is nobody in the spot then ask around. If the spot was reserved for multiple days and this is the last day then there is a good chance they have left and there is a free spot. Do not report this to the rangers. They will not let you camp there. But trust me, this works and works well.

Ask around

Talk to fellow campers. See if anyone is leaving early or knows of any open spots. This works especially well when you see a tent camper who has packed up and their tag still shows they have the site for more days. I have never seen a tent camper pack up and then come back a reset their tent. They have left. go ahead and take the spot.  Hey, maybe unorthodox but I have used this multiple times.

Double Up

Ask someone if you can be the second car at their site. This can work out especially well if there are large sites and you only have a tent.