Smoky Reservations

[Grunt]

What information do you have to supply to get reservations? And, can you make reservations for all additional hikers in your party? I need to call next week and was just wondering.

[TNhiker]

http://www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/backcountry-camping.htm



this will answer all your questions............

[HooKooDooKu]

Only the group leader needs to obtain reservations.

To purchase your permit, you will be prompted for the following information once you have successfully selected your itinerary:
Name (First/Last)
Mailing Address
Telephone Number
Email Address (Once you pay for the reservation, you will be emailed a link to where you will be able to go and print your permit)
Emergency Contact
Vehicle(s) Information (Make/License Plate)

[madgoat]

It's pretty easy and painless to get reservations. Just put in your group size and start date, then use their map interface to select campsites. The interface will even show you how many spots there are at each campsite/shelter, and how many are already reserved by others. Pretty slick.

The only pain in the process is having to go to an external site to make payment, and then having to come back to the reservation site and input a bunch of information about your trip so that it can find your permit. It would be much better if they just emailed you your permit after making payment, instead of having to search for it on their site. But its the government, and that would just make too much sense.

[FlyPaper]

It's pretty easy and painless to get reservations. Just put in your group size and start date, then use their map interface to select campsites. The interface will even show you how many spots there are at each campsite/shelter, and how many are already reserved by others. Pretty slick.

The only pain in the process is having to go to an external site to make payment, and then having to come back to the reservation site and input a bunch of information about your trip so that it can find your permit. It would be much better if they just emailed you your permit after making payment, instead of having to search for it on their site. But its the government, and that would just make too much sense.

I just booked shelters and the permit was emailed to me. Not sure why you didn't get yours.

One other piece of information I would have found very useful, but I didn't see in the instructions...

You can book shelters up to 30 days in advance. I was worried about this because for a multi-day hike I wanted to book the first night's shelter as soon as the day was available. But the second night of the hike was still 31 days off. So there appears to be a trade off between booking as early as possible and waiting until all nights of your hike can be booked. But what I didn't know is that when you are booking, after you select the shelter for your first night, all other shelters can now be booked for an additional 7 days into the future. So for example, when I booked, the nights I booked for were 30, 31, 32, and 33 days into the future.

Also, the servers seem to be on Pacific time. So if you're waiting until midnight to book your shelter, you have to wait until 3:00 am eastern time.

[HooKooDooKu]

I just booked shelters and the permit was emailed to me. Not sure why you didn't get yours.
If you make or change your permit via telephone, they email you a PDF copy of the permit.

If you do it all on your own via the website, they email you a link to allow you to retrieve a PDF copy.


One other piece of information I would have found very useful, but I didn't see in the instructions...

You can book shelters up to 30 days in advance. I was worried about this because for a multi-day hike I wanted to book the first night's shelter as soon as the day was available. But the second night of the hike was still 31 days off. So there appears to be a trade off between booking as early as possible and waiting until all nights of your hike can be booked. But what I didn't know is that when you are booking, after you select the shelter for your first night, all other shelters can now be booked for an additional 7 days into the future. So for example, when I booked, the nights I booked for were 30, 31, 32, and 33 days into the future.

Also, the servers seem to be on Pacific time. So if you're waiting until midnight to book your shelter, you have to wait until 3:00 am eastern time.
The instructions say

Reservations/Permits may be obtained at any time up to 30 days in advance of the first night of your trip.
and that Permits are good for 7 nights (so you can't plan a 10 night trip and book sites as much as 40 days in advance).

[FlyPaper]

The instructions say

and that Permits are good for 7 nights (so you can't plan a 10 night trip and book sites as much as 40 days in advance).

Looks like a skimmed right over that in my reading. Nice that they have it in the instructions.

[barich942]

Modern technology is great when it works.