How it works

Campsites don’t all come back the same way. Some are cancellations, some are scheduled releases, and some are sitting in a cart that never gets checked out. We watch for each one differently.

Three ways a campsite opens up

01
Cancellation alerts

Someone cancels and the site goes back up for grabs. We’ll tell you which campground, which site, and which dates opened.

We can’t predict cancellations. We just catch them when they happen.
02
Release Radar

Some state parks put returned campsites back up on a schedule. When we can see what’s coming, we track it and tell you when it opens.

Not every state system works this way.
03
Cart Watch

Sometimes a campsite sits in someone else’s cart while they check out. If the system shows us when that hold ends, we watch it and tell you if the site comes back.

Only works on systems that show us the hold.
THE RELEASE CLOCK
Cancelled campsites go back on sale
--:--:--
California's clock: tomorrow, 8:00 AM PT.

Not every campsite comes back the same way. Recreation.gov cancellations can pop up all day. Some state parks release them on a schedule.

EXAMPLE
What an alert will look like
Upper Pines, Yosemite
Site 041, loop A / 2 nights from Fri Sep 18 / seen 04:12:06 AM PT
Open nowOpen Recreation.gov, set Sep 18 to Sep 20
San Mateo Campground, San Onofre SB
Site SM43 / 3 nights from Fri Sep 04 / held until 8:35:43 AM PT
Hold endingOpen ReserveCalifornia, set Sep 4 to Sep 7
Carpinteria SB
Site C233 / 2 nights from Fri Oct 10
Releases tomorrowOpen ReserveCalifornia, set Oct 10 to Oct 12
Read directly from the reservation system’s hold data.

Not just “something opened.”

Every alert tells you the park, loop, site number, check-in date, and exactly when we saw it become available.

We don’t rank sites or add pricing. We tell you what opened and give you the link to go get it.

We're still building.

We’re not live yet, so we don’t have success rates to show you. What we can show you is the alert we’re building and the information we’re already able to read.

A preview of the alert screen in dark mode: a countdown to the next release, open sites with loop and site numbers in mono, and a panel for a hold that is expiring.
A PREVIEW, NOT LIVE YET