Parks Manager features
Parks Manager features fall into four groups: getting a campsite after it sells out, building the trip, staying in touch while you are out there, and keeping a record of where you have been.
Each page gives the real mechanics — how often something is checked, what the caps are, where the data comes from — and ends with what the feature does not do.
Parks Manager is free. Signing in is an email address and the six-digit code sent to it, and a new board starts empty, with no sample trip and no park scratched on your behalf.
- 9features documented here
- Freeno paid tier
- Email and a codehow you sign in
- Emptyhow a new board starts
Getting a spot after it sells out
Recreation.gov shows a campground as full long before the trip is impossible. These two features are about the supply that opens up afterwards.
- Campsite and permit alerts
Watch a Recreation.gov facility for the nights you want and get emailed when a cancellation appears.
- Campground bathroom reports
A 1-to-5 rating, tagged problems, and the toilet kind that was actually there — separately for bathrooms, water, and showers.
Building the trip
The drive order, the gear, and the people you are going with. All three live on the same trip and can be edited by anyone you share the board with.
- Trip routes
Order up to 60 stops and get a real routed distance and time on every leg, with the estimate labelled when it is one.
- Packing lists
A 29-item suggested list you opt into, copied only after you accept items, with a private list per person.
- Crew boards
Share a board with up to eight people across three roles, and settle competing edits with a vote instead of a last-write-wins overwrite.
Once you are out there
What Parks Manager sends while a trip is running: closures, forecasts, dark-sky windows, and the check-in someone at home is waiting on.
- Emergency contacts and check-ins
A read-only itinerary link for someone at home, GPS check-ins from the trail, and an email asking them to confirm you got back.
- Weather and park conditions
Forecast, park closures, and severe-weather warnings for the parks on a trip, pushed by email before they matter.
- Night sky planning
Milky Way core windows, moon brightness, and meteor shower peaks for each night of a trip, computed on the device.
Keeping the record
Where you have already been, and what it took to get there.
- Scratch-off park map
244 parks across eight countries under a foil layer, with a separate board for you and for each crew you share with.
Research pages that need no account
Two other parts of this site are public and need no sign-in: a planning guide for every park tracked here, and a way to find which parks are within reach of a given town.
- National park planning guides
How campsite releases, permit lotteries, and timed entry work, plus a guide for each park in the catalog.
- Explore parks by place
Which national parks are near a town, with distances, drive-time bands, and what has to be booked ahead.