Campground sites at most California State Parks are already booked through Labor Day

Reservations for campground sites at California State Parks became available for Labor Day weekend today, but making those reservations is not an easy task. The reservations are made through Reserve America either online or over the phone. Representatives said that the entire month of September is already booked.

Campers at Seacliff State Beach said making a reservation is like trying to win tickets on the radio.

“On a laptop or your phone and when that 7:59 goes to 8, you have to hit a booking, from this day to this day and hope that it says ‘yes you get that’,” said Ron Smith from Modesto, California.

“But if you’re not on within the next 15 seconds, you’re not going to be able to get a reservation,” said Don Schroeder from Elk Grove, California.

According to the California State Parks and Reserve America, Seacliff State Beach is one of the most popular campgrounds along the Central Coast. But with only 26-spots available and hundreds trying to reserve a spot, things get real hectic real quick.

“Their servers get like, they like blow up. Its craziness, because in 30 seconds it’ll say it’s already booked, ‘well how did somebody do that?’.” said Smith.

Reserve America said that on the first of day of every month campers can make reservations for 7-months in advance. That means most campers have to be flexible with their schedules. Now the trick might just be to look for reservation cancellations, but even that is tough.

“It’s pretty difficult to do that, you got to be on the internet really everyday looking to see if there are any spaces, because as soon as someone cancels somebody else is going to pick it up.” said Schroeder.

All reservations are made on a first come first served basis and are limited to a maximum of seven days.