No California State Park Reservations?

[Rob]

I recently heard from a camp host that due to the California budget issues and the potential for state park closures they will no longer be accepting reservations for the parks. Apparently, since they don't know which parks will be open they don't know which ones to allow for reservations so they won't be allowing ANY reservations. This camp host told me ReserveAmerica was going to stop the reservation system August 1st, but has held off. Anyone else hear this rumor? Again, it is just a rumor from one person. Personally, each December we start planning our summer camping trips and the first week of January we are on line making reservations. Can anyone put in a word with the state park system on behalf of the T&TTT owners?

[jeep_bluetj]

It's a crock/scare tactic.

Standard political stuff to get more $$$$ by killing popular/useful/cost effective programs.

Reserve america makes waaaay too much $$$ to not take the reservation. Even if all they do is sit on the $7 + the site fee and generate interest before they refund it (And because they're reservebastardAmerica, I bet they won't refund the $7) they'll be ahead.

[jhb]

I've solved the reservation problem by not camping anywhere you need them. We've done a number of trips where it was all planned out, reservations every place, and that's ok, but the past 3 years we've done 'follow the end of your nose' planning and wound up in some awesome places that we'd never expected and it so much more fun.

But that might not work out as well for a weekender.

[S. Heisley]

I just got back from a camping trip where some other campers told me that State Parks on the west coast are charging $35 and $45 a night for campsites and people are paying the price without much complaining. Based on that, I imagine ReserveAmerica will be reserving sites for California state parks again, come January. On my last camping trip, I stopped by a closure-threatened state park and asked if they were going to be okay. The ranger said they wouldn't know until some time after Labor Day. As soon as California finishes deciding which parks will close and what the site prices will be for each of the remaining camps; and, when the state has published the decisions, I suspect things will get back to as normal as they can be. But, ReserveAmerica may need to make some computer program changes, both for closures and prices, before they can put California back on line. ...We should know a little more by the end of the month.

[doug hodder]

Does anyone know the relationship between recreation.gov and Reserve America? They took my money on Aug 26 for a site in 2010. Doug