Frequently Asked Questions

Campsite Hawk watches sold-out campgrounds on Recreation.gov and sends you an instant alert the moment a cancellation frees up a site that matches what you want. Set your campground, arrival date, number of nights, and site type, and we take the night shift.

Browse our campground directory, pick a campground, and tap "Create Alert." Choose your arrival date, how many nights you want, the site type (Tent, RV, Standard, and so on), and your notification preferences. Once saved, we start watching for openings automatically.

We monitor campgrounds on Recreation.gov, covering thousands of sites across national parks, national forests, and federal recreation areas — places like Watchman Campground in Zion, Upper Pines in Yosemite, and Kirk Creek on the Big Sur coast. If your campground isn't listed yet, let us know from the support page and we'll look into adding it.

Yes! Your first subscription starts with a 7-day free trial with full access to your chosen plan. A card is required at signup, but you can cancel any time before the trial ends and you won't be charged.

Unlimited plan members get 15-second checking, meaning we look for freed-up sites every 15 seconds. Starter plan members get 60-second checking. As soon as a matching site opens up, you'll get a notification within seconds — because a cancelled campsite can get re-booked fast.

It happens all the time. People cancel trips, plans change, and campers check out early — and any held reservations that aren't paid for get released back into the pool. Every one of those turns a "fully booked" campground into an open site, usually for just a few minutes until someone else grabs it. That's the window we watch for you.

No — we never book on your behalf. When a matching site opens up, we send you an alert with a direct link straight to that campground on Recreation.gov, so you can book it yourself in a few taps. Booking always happens on Recreation.gov, where the reservation and payment are handled.

We support text/iMessage, email, and push notifications. You can enable or disable each channel in Settings. iMessage requires a US phone number and an Apple device. Push notifications require installing the app to your home screen.

Not on new alerts. Campers plan discrete trips, so we build around one-time alerts and date-range alerts — if you're flexible, a date range watches every arrival in a window instead. Recurring alerts created before we retired them keep running: your dashboard still lists their upcoming dates, and you can tap one to skip it.

That's up to you. Every alert has a "Start watching" setting (30 days by default): we stay quiet until that many days before your arrival date, then start checking and text you the moment a site frees up. Prefer to only hear about last-minute openings? Set it to 7 days.

This lets you control when we start checking for openings. "Immediately" means we start looking right away. Other options delay watching until closer to your arrival date. For example, if your arrival date is March 15 and you choose "1 week," we won't start checking until March 8. This is useful if you're a last-minute planner and don't want alerts weeks in advance, or if you're not sure you can make the trip until closer to the date.

Starter ($4.99/mo) gives you 2 active alerts with 60-second checking. Unlimited ($7.99/mo) gives you unlimited alerts, 15-second checking, and priority notifications. Both plans include all notification channels and every campground we cover.

Go to Settings and click "Manage Plan" next to your current plan, or visit the Pricing page. You'll be taken to our billing portal where you can change your subscription at any time.

Yes. You can cancel your subscription at any time from the billing portal. Your access continues through the end of your current billing period. No questions asked.

On iPhone (iOS 26+): open campsitehawk.com in Safari, tap the ••• menu in the address bar, tap the Share icon, then "Add to Home Screen." On Android: tap the browser menu and select "Install app" or "Add to Home Screen."

Push notifications require installing the app to your home screen first. After installing, go to Settings and enable push notifications under Notification Channels. Make sure notifications are also allowed in your device settings.

The live view shows real-time availability for a campground on a specific date. It refreshes every 15 seconds and lets you filter by site type and number of nights. Sites shown as "Open" have availability right now. You can click "Book on Recreation.gov" to go directly to the reservation page.

This usually means the campground is fully booked for that date, or hasn't opened its reservation window yet. That's exactly what alerts are for — set one and we'll text you the moment a cancellation frees up a matching site.