Auto-cart — how it works

Finding the cancellation is only half of it. The other half is getting the site before somebody else does — and CampHawk can do that part for you on Recreation.gov and on ReserveCalifornia. They work differently, because the two booking systems do, so they are explained separately below.

What you need first

• A CampHawk account on the Auto-Cart plan, with at least one watch set up.
• An account on the site you actually book on — Recreation.gov, ReserveCalifornia, or both.
• Nothing else. Each lane takes one setup step, once.

Recreation.gov — automatic carting

Cancellations on Recreation.gov happen at any hour, so this lane is a standing setting: once it is on, when a watched site frees up we alert you and, at the same moment, try to add it to your cart, whatever time it is.

1. 1Set your watchesSearch for a campground, pick your dates, and tap Start a watch on any booked campground. Auto-cart only acts on sites you're watching.
2. 2Turn on auto-cartGo to Settings and, under Auto-cart, pick Recreation.gov in Connect a site and tap Connect. Once it's connected the same block gives you a Turn on / Turn off switch.
3. 3Sign in to Recreation.gov onceYou enter your Recreation.gov email and password once. They're saved, encrypted, so auto-cart signs back in by itself if Recreation.gov signs you out. They never reach CampHawk's web servers or database.
4. 4You're doneFrom now on, when a watched site opens, you get your normal CampHawk alert and we try to add the site to your cart at the same moment. If we got it, a second message says so: open Recreation.gov on your phone and check out. If we didn't, book it from the alert as you normally would. The alert never waits for the cart.

More on Recreation.gov auto-cart.

ReserveCalifornia — a hold at the 8am release

California is different in a way that matters. When somebody cancels a ReserveCalifornia site, it usually does not go back on sale immediately — it is locked until the next morning's release, and then a lot of people are refreshing at once. So instead of watching for it all day, CampHawk spots the site the night before and offers to be there at the moment it frees.

1. 1Watch a ReserveCalifornia campgroundThere is nothing to switch on, and that is deliberate — see below. Just watch the park you want.
2. 2The evening before, we offerWhen we see a site that is about to be released, you get an alert with a Hold it for me button. Nothing happens unless you tap it.
3. 3At the release, we cart itAt 8am, within a couple of seconds of the site actually freeing, our bot puts it in a cart — so it is off the market while you get to your phone, instead of gone to whoever refreshed fastest.
4. 4You take it overOpen the claim link, sign in to ReserveCalifornia, and tap hand it over. We release the site and your own session carts it, about two seconds later. Then you check out as normal.

State parks — in beta

We also try to cart in eight state park systems and in Canada. It is a beta: it has carted on real openings and it can still miss, so book from the alert if it does.

• Washington, Michigan, Wisconsin and Mississippi. Nothing to connect. We add the site to that park system's cart and you sign in with your own account at checkout. The site stays in your cart for about 20 minutes.
• Louisiana and South Dakota. Nothing to connect. We add the site to that state's cart, and it stays there for about 20 minutes while you check out.
• Canada: Parks Canada, Ontario, BC, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon and the Northwest Territories. Nothing to connect, as in Washington. You sign in with your own account at checkout. The site stays in your cart for about 15 minutes.
• Ohio and Minnesota. Connect your account once in Settings, under Auto-cart. We keep you signed in and cart into your own account.
• These carts need the CampHawk app. The cart opens there, from the Cart button, and you check out in the app. Without the app you still get every alert at the same moment.

Each has its own page: Minnesota State Parks, Ohio State Parks, Washington State Parks, Michigan State Parks, Wisconsin State Parks, Mississippi State Parks, Louisiana State Parks, South Dakota State Parks, Canadian parks.

Good to know

• Why California needs the hand-off. A ReserveCalifornia cart belongs to the browser session that made it — a second session on the same account reads that cart as empty. So we cannot simply cart a site and leave it for you the way Recreation.gov allows; we hold it, you take it over, and the gap between those two is about two seconds.
• Holds are California only. CampHawk watches twelve state park systems that run on the same booking software — Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Virginia and Wyoming alongside California — and only ReserveCalifornia gets holds. For the others your alert carries a direct booking link: tap it on your phone and finish there (Ohio and Minnesota also get a beta cart, see State parks above). We would rather say so than offer a button we cannot honor.
• No standing setting on California, on purpose. A hold takes a real campsite off the market for everybody else watching it. That is not something to authorize weeks ahead in a settings screen, so it is authorized one release at a time, by you, the night before.
• It doesn't win every race. A popular site can be booked within seconds of opening, and Recreation.gov sometimes asks for a check only a person can pass, which our bot never answers. That is why you get the alert at the same moment rather than after the cart: you can always book it yourself.
• Recreation.gov signs accounts out on its own. When it does, we sign back in from your saved login, usually within half an hour, and you don't need to do anything. Settings says “Signing you back in” meanwhile. You're only asked to sign in again if that keeps failing.
• One cart per stay. Once a site is carted for you, it won't be re-added, and while it sits in your cart (about 15 minutes) we don't cart or alert a second site for the same dates. After that, other sites that open alert as usual.
• Cancellations move fast. Getting it into your cart buys you time, but a cart is only held for a matter of minutes — check out promptly.
• This automates your own account for personal use. Keep your watches current so it knows what to grab.