New Campsite Availability Notifications From Washington State Parks

Parents know that camping is hard work. And we’re not even talking about the packing, driving and setting up your tent.

We’re talking about finding a campsite: For the weekend that’s sunny, for when your friends can go, for the time your kids don't have a soccer tournament. These are hard things to know months and months in advance!

Washington State Parks is throwing schedule-juggling families a helping hand with a new campsite availability alert system.

That’s right, using the Washington State Parks’ reservation website, you can set up to five alerts to get a ping when a reservable campsite pops up that matches your parameters.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Go to the Washington State Parks’ reservation website and log in to your account. (Set one up if you don’t have one already).

2. Click on “Create reservation.”

3. Select “Camping” for campsites or “Roofed” for cabins.

4. Select the park you want, your desired arrival and departure dates, the equipment you’ll be using, such as a tent or RV, and the number of people in your party. Click “Search.”

5. If you find a campsite, reserve it! If you don’t find a campsite that fits your choices, click the “Notify Me” button in the upper right of your screen.

6. A pop-up message will ask you to confirm that your details are correct. Select to save your notification. 

7. You can set up to five notification alerts with various search criteria. Select “My Notifications” from your account page to change or delete your notifications.

Pro tip: If you want a campsite in August 2022, reserve this month. You can reserve campsites in state parks up to nine months in advance, so this means reservations for the weekend of Aug. 6–8, 2022, will open up on Saturday, Nov. 6, at 7 a.m. Set your alarm to reserve and you won’t even need a campsite alert! (But it’s still tricky to plan this far in advance.)

Happy camping, everyone!