Set up an emergency contact
Set up an emergency contact in Parks Manager from a saved trip. Open Edit, add their email, and pick whether they get a link you copy or an email Parks Manager sends.
Settings does not hold emergency contacts. They belong to one trip so a contact for a weekend hike does not keep a link to every later plan.
- 10contacts per trip
- 7 daysitinerary link lifetime
- 2permissions: view or email
- Editwhere you add them
What you need first
Sign in with an email address and the six-digit code Parks Manager sends. Create a trip under Add trip, then save it. Emergency contacts live on that saved trip, not on an empty editor.
Owners and members who can edit the trip can add contacts. Onlookers can read the board and cannot add one. You cannot add your own sign-in email as a contact on your trip.
Add the contact
On the trip page, open Edit. The Emergency contacts block is empty until you add someone. Parks Manager labels the empty state “No emergency contacts yet.”
- Tap Add emergency contact.
- Enter their Email. Name is optional and can be a short label such as Mom or Jess.
- Set Permission to View itinerary (link only) or View + email access link.
- Tap Add contact. Parks Manager saves the row on that trip and mints a fresh access link.
Which permission to pick
View itinerary (link only) gives them a read-only, print-friendly copy of the plan: days, parks, stays, and the route. You copy the link yourself with Copy link after adding. Parks Manager does not email them.
View + email access link does the same view, and Parks Manager emails them the link when you add them or later tap Send email. Email is the higher permission because the app may write to their inbox.
The link opens /emergency/… with no sign-in. It expires after 7 days. Removing the contact, rotating the link, or deleting the trip revokes it immediately.
What happens after you add them
If the trip has a real return date, Parks Manager emails every emergency contact the night you are due home and asks them to confirm you are back. The first send is 8:00 PM Central Time on the return day, or 7:00 AM the next morning if that evening window was already missed.
Each contact gets their own confirmation page. The first person who taps Confirm they're home stops mail for everyone. Parks Manager keeps emailing once a day until someone confirms.
Field check-ins on the trip page need at least one emergency contact before Start check-ins will run. Past trips keep existing contacts for the record and hide Add emergency contact.
What it does not do
This is a person you named, not a monitoring desk.
- Nobody at Parks Manager reads these messages or watches for a missed return.
- There is no SOS button and no search-and-rescue hook.
- A trip holds at most 10 emergency contacts.
- The public itinerary link is not a live map of you. Check-in locations on that link are rounded to about a kilometre.
Common questions
Where do I set up an emergency contact in Parks Manager?
On a saved trip, open Edit and use Add emergency contact. Settings has no emergency-contact list.
Does Parks Manager email the emergency contact automatically?
Only if you choose View + email access link. View itinerary (link only) means you copy the link yourself.
How long does the emergency itinerary link last?
Seven days from when Parks Manager mints it. Remove the contact or rotate the link to revoke it sooner.
Can I add myself as an emergency contact?
No. Parks Manager refuses your own sign-in email so the “are they home?” mail cannot go only to the traveler.
All Parks Manager features are indexed in one place.