The National Park Service just introduced a permanent feature to the Recreation.gov app that’s sure to please last-minute travelers. It’s no secret that getting reservations for campgrounds, permits for popular hiking trails, or even passes to enter national parks can be cutthroat. In most cases, competitive campground reservations open six months in advance, and in some cases, you may need to enter a permit lottery even further in advance. That makes visiting national parks pretty challenging for last-minute travelers or anyone who forgets to book as soon as reservations open.
Photo: mike7/Shutterstock
There's a New Way to Score Popular National Park Permits and Reservations
But that changed this year, for anyone using the mobile app. Now, you can set alerts for your preferred reservations at sites managed by the National Park Service, from national park campgrounds to timed park entries, trail permits, tours at federal recreation areas, and passes to drive on popular roads, like Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park. The feature was tested and trialed in 2023, but was expanded and made permanent in June 2024, per a Washington Post story.
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The feature is free for anyone to use, but you’ll need to be logged into your Recreation.gov account on your phone. Just search for your preferred permit or reservation — for example, Zion National Park’s Watchman Campground or Cadillac Summit Road at sunset in Acadia National Park — and you’ll see a blue bar on the bottom of the app. Click “alert,” and you’ll be taken to a tab where you can input your date (or a date range). Click “save alert,” and you’re set. You’ll get a notification if passes become available. But so will anyone else who set an alert, so if you see a notification, you’ll want book the pass or permit as soon as possible.
The feature is available for campgrounds, timed entry reservations (for parks that require them), and various activities and tours. The caveat is that it’s only available for passes and permits currently available, so you can’t set an alert if campground reservations aren’t yet open or tour tickets aren’t yet on sale. That makes it ideal for picking up last-minute cancellations, but you’ll probably want to set reminders the old-fashioned way (on your phone’s calendar) for dates like lottery openings.
A screenshot showing the useful Recreation.gov feature. Photo: Suzie Dundas
National parks that require vehicle reservations during all or part of the year for at least some sections of the park include Acadia National Park, Arches National Park, Glacier National Park, Haleakalā National Park, Mount Rainier National Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Shenandoah National Park, Yosemite National Park, and Zion National Park. 