What's new
The latest on Camp Finder — updated weekly.
Here's what we've been working on, and why. Great campsites sell out fast — but people cancel all the time — so almost everything we ship is aimed at one thing: helping you reach more places and catch those openings before everyone else. A quick rundown of the recent changes:
Week of August 10 – October 18, 2026
The live cancellations feed has a clearer new home, the national park map now opens availability right here, and the chat got quick-start suggestions so it's easier to know what to ask.
Live feed is now called Campsite Cancellations
The real-time feed of sites opening up has a cleaner name and its own page at /campsite-cancellations. All regional feeds — NorCal, SoCal, Wyoming, and more — are right there together. The old /live-update link still redirects.
National park map now opens availability here
Tap a park on the national park map, or in the A-Z list under it, and you land on its availability search in Camp Finder instead of being sent off to recreation.gov. Useful when you're exploring a region and haven't settled on a specific park yet.
Quick-start chips in the camp finder chat
The camp finder chat now shows suggestion chips so you can see what kinds of questions it handles. Tap one to try searching for a weekend opening, filtering by hookup type, or setting an alert — no typing required to get started.
Held sites now show when they free up
When a site is temporarily held rather than fully booked, you now see the expected release time instead of just "park is full." That helps you decide whether to watch and wait or go ahead and set an alert.
You can now support Camp Finder
A new Support button on the home page lets you chip in to keep the site free. It takes about 30 seconds and helps cover the cost of checking availability across thousands of parks every day.
Week of July 13 – August 9, 2026
A big summer refresh: new tabs make everything easier to find, Live Update is now public, and a first-available-weekend search scans months ahead so you're not stuck checking one weekend at a time.
New tab layout — Weekend, All Camps, and Tools
The home page now has three tabs: Weekend shows this week's open sites, All Campgrounds lets you search any dates, and Tools bundles Live Update, Neighbor Sites, and International into one place. Same features, easier to reach.
Live Update is now open to everyone — including Wyoming
You no longer need to be in a Facebook group to see the Live Update pages. NorCal, SoCal, Wyoming, and more are now public — bookmark your region to see which sites are opening up in real time. Wyoming is a new addition this month.
Filter by hookup type — Electric, Water, Sewer
RV and van campers can now filter sites by the hookups they need. Pick electric-only, water, sewer, or any combination, and when you set an alert, it only fires for sites that match.
Find the first open weekend in the next 3–6 months
Stop clicking through weekends one by one. A new search mode scans forward across months and surfaces the earliest weekend where your chosen park has availability — great for planning a trip without a fixed date in mind.
Week of July 6–12, 2026
Alerts are now real-time — plus dark mode and a much smarter camp finder chat.
Alerts went real-time
We now check availability every 15 minutes and email you the moment a reserved site frees up — not the next morning. National parks are checked hourly in the week before your arrival date. You'll get at most a few emails a day per alert, and your existing alerts upgraded automatically — nothing to redo.
Dark mode
A new theme toggle in the header switches between light, dark, and follow-your-device. Your choice is remembered on this device.
Ask Camp Finder got a big upgrade
The chat can now search live availability at every park in the catalog — all 1,381 across 49 states — and it can set alerts for you. Try: “Any sites at Doheny this weekend? If not, alert me.”
Week of June 9–15, 2026
Group Finder is now Neighbor Sites — same feature, clearer name.
Renamed: Group Finder → Neighbor Sites
The feature for finding campsites next to each other is now called Neighbor Sites — because that's what campers actually say. Same search, same results, new name. The old /groupfinder link still works and redirects automatically.
Week of June 2–8, 2026
Camping with a group got a lot easier, and we added a bunch of new places to search.
Group Finder — book sites next to each other
Camping with friends or family? Group Finder finds campsites that are close together (back-to-back, neighboring, or in the same area) so your group isn't scattered across the campground. Pick how many sites you need and how many nights, and we'll surface groups that are open. Find it at the "Group Finder" link on the home page.
More states & parks to search
We added West Virginia, Alabama, New Jersey, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Washington state parks — plus New Zealand's DOC campsites — and hundreds more campgrounds across the board.
A smarter "Ask Camp Finder" assistant
Ask in plain English ("dog-friendly beach camping near San Diego this weekend") and get more accurate answers — the assistant now double-checks every park it suggests against our real catalog, so fewer dead ends.
Clearer "open this weekend"
The weekend availability view now lists actual site numbers and flags premium sites at a glance, with a one-tap link straight to the booking page.