Recreation.gov

What is Recreation.gov?

Recreation.gov is, and always has been, a government service. It is the trip-planning and reservation service for 14 participating agencies, nine of which offer reservations for a range of recreation opportunities. From camping to whitewater rafting to backcountry/wilderness hiking to a ranger led cave tour, Recreation.gov helps agencies and thousands of federal recreation locations across the country manage recreation resources and visitation by providing access to secure and compliant technical solutions as well as dedicated resources and support with training, communications, technical help

How and when did Recreation.gov get started?

The initial concept of Recreation.gov emerged from the desire of several agencies to provide a centralized reservation service for the public to discover and experience federal recreation destinations. In 1995, following a nationwide outdoor recreation study, the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers defined plans to provide one source for visitors to find and reserve campsites. They determined that the government did not have the capacity nor the expertise to build and manage a reservation system and turned to private industry through a competitive bid process to develop and de

Are all agencies or facilities required to use Recreation.gov?

All the agencies and facilities that use Recreation.gov are voluntary participants. There is no federal mandate requiring that agencies use Recreation.gov and all participating agencies have chosen to be part of the program. Agencies rely on the platform’s flexibility to accommodate and enforce complex and unique requirements necessary to welcome visitors and support federal land management. Individual locations often choose Recreation.gov for the tools and solutions provided for visitation management, staffing and resourcing, securing financial transactions, and/or the opportunity to deliver

Why is an account needed to make most reservations?

A: Accounts are required for most reservations as they serve as the unique identifier to enforce length of stay and number of active reservation policies set by the agencies. Requiring an account is also an important safety precaution for receiving critical reservation related updates and closure information. Recreation.gov collects only the information necessary for these communications and protects visitor account information. Recreation.gov does not share account or reservation information including personal information, credit card, or financial information with other organizations, except

When making a reservation, what is a booking window?

A booking window tells you when certain dates will be available to make a reservation. The booking window is essentially the number of days, weeks, or months prior to the first reservable date that you can make a reservation for that location. Booking windows are determined by each individual facility, and different types of facilities and activities have different booking windows. You can find information about the booking window for a specific location under the Seasons & Booking tab on the facility page. Visit the Help Center article "Booking Window" FAQ for more details.

Who is responsible for setting the policies for reservations?

The participating agencies set all policies for campgrounds, sites, permits, and activities featured on the Recreation.gov platform. The individual facilities that choose to use Recreation.gov set their own booking windows and update content, fees, reservation details, and business rules based on agency guidelines and their own local needs. Visit the Rules and Reservation Policies for more details about fees and other reservation-related information.

How does Recreation.gov manage site traffic especially during reservation periods for high-demand locations?

There are a number of technical approaches the Recreation.gov team employs to support scaling for system infrastructure and manage the flow of traffic, especially when significant competition exists for a given location or experience. The team routinely scales resources up and down in response to planned, or unplanned, surges in activity. During a particularly high-demand on-sale, the visitor may encounter a “spinner” or a message that the system is processing their request. This happens as back-end processes work to ensure users are accessing inventory in a systematic way such that access is

What is Recreation.gov doing to prevent bot activity?

The Recreation.gov platform does experience attempted bot activity; it is impossible not to given ever-evolving technology and advancements in AI. However, Recreation.gov has multiple defenses in place to detect, prevent, and mitigate the variety of bots that attempt to take advantage of the system. The primary targets of bot mitigation efforts are large-scale bot attacks on the stability of the site or bots seeking to capture multiple reservations. There is no evidence or examples of widespread abuse by bots across the platform impacting system stability, bots securing dozens of reservations,