Guadalupe Mt N.P. and my reservation system rant !!!!!!!!!!

Before I begin my reservation rant, I’ll fill you in on the events since my last blog. 

I did in fact drive the 381 miles to Guadalupe Mt National Park. I arrived at 1pm local time and saw signs that the campground was full. What the hey, it’s a holiday, so I drove 30 miles north, towards Carlsbad, NM, to a free BLM campground, Sunset Reef Campground. I stayed here a number of times last winter when I was at The Ranch so no big deal. It is actually a very nice boondock campground with covered picnic tables, fire rings, trash and clean vault toilets. If you have been following my blog, you have seen pics of this place before, so I won't bore you.

The next day, Friday, I drove the truck back to GUMO and hiked 6.8 miles round trip on the El Capitan Trail to Guadalupe Springs. It was a very pleasant hike through the desert and only saw a total of 5 people. Plus, it was a hike I had not previously done. The spring was dry, but looking up at El Capitan from below was impressive.

El Capitan on the left with Guadalupe Mt Ridge on the right

Saturday, I hiked McKittrick Canyon to the Pratt Cabin and then to the Grotto, 7 miles RT. This is a very popular hike in the fall and one I have done numerous times. But for the first time in all my visits, the cabin was open. It was in great shape and looked like it could be lived it today, sans electricity, which was removed years ago and sans plumbing. But, I sat in the rocking chairs on the porch for an hour and enjoyed lunch and conversation with other hikers, including a group of Rhodes Scholars. Go figure. The fall colors were pretty and even with the crowd, it was a beautiful hike. 

Sunday, I realized I was more out of shape than I thought. I had considered repeating  Guadalupe Peak, but settled for a very short hike to Smith Spring near the Frijole Ranch, 2.4 mile RT. I arrived at the spring around 11:30, had lunch and just sat on the stone bench for 45 minutes listening to the sound of the water. I had the whole place to myself. Walking out I met 5 people heading up the trail. This is probably the most beautiful place in the park and it gets very few visitors. The first two photos below are looking out from the spring, the third is the spring itself. It's hard to believe this is West Texas.

                                                                 Smith Spring

MY RANT

It appears that the entire federal campground system is being converted to reservation only camping and there will no longer be first-come, first serve sites available. If you recall, I first encountered this at the Army Corp park near Texarkana at the beginning of my trip. But GUMO, which has always been entirely first come, first served is now 100% reservation only. I know the campground hosts. Last year we often chatted during my numerous visits and they remembered me. They informed me that the change occurred on October 1, 2021 and many nights, there are no-shows, but they have to turn people away because they can’t give a site away unless the reservation is cancelled and often times people don’t bother to cancel. Even Dog canyon, which gets very few people is reservation only. The people working at the park, don’t think it's the best process, the cost of camping has increased, and recreation.gov is paid a fee both by the camper and the park. WTF!!!!. This is public land

Here is an except from an article online:

"We do see recurring complaints about how the system is overrun by bots," said Rick DeLappe, a Park Service employee who manages recreation.gov for the federal land management agencies that use the site for everything from reserving front country and backcountry campsites to tickets for scaling Half Dome at Yosemite National Park or going underground at Mammoth Cave National Park.

"We have a very active security team," DeLappe continued. "We have eyes on the screen watching for suspicious activity. We’ve incorporated the CAPTCHA features for making reservations. There are algorithms that they use to recognize people who may have built a bot or something to improve their access. We’ve got an extensive security plan to protect against this and all the other factors of security that you would think of for protecting private information.”

But more than a few people who use the site believe it's been taken over by bots or some other nefarious blueprint for dominating the reservations platform.

"I am so sick of trying to plan trips and make reservations in our national parks!!! It is a totally ridiculous situation," Rick Leroux wrote in a comment to a Traveler story back in January 2020. "They spend paragraph after paragraph describing the parks and all that you can do, but good luck when it comes to making an actual reservation."

More recently, on February 12 of this year, "rb2" vented his/her irritation with the reservation site in another Traveler comment:

"This is a totally frustrating situation. I have tried for weeks to reserve at spot at Many Glacier in Glacier. I've hit 'Book' a second before the time, two seconds before, right at that the time, and all the available campsites are reserved within five seconds, and there could be up to 20 available."

"I'm done with this reservation system and national parks," Rick Weber added in a comment on February 21. "Only the federal government could screw this up so bad with a multi-million dollar contract. I do not make the foregoing statement without cause. ...You see, I'm a federal employee. I'm rather convinced that savy PC hackers have a backdoor into the system."

Quoted from: Rush To The Outdoors Has Challenged Recreation.Gov 

By Kurt Repanshek - March 3rd, 2021

Maybe we need to organize a camp-in at every federal campground, where hundreds of campers all show up on the same day and just camp in the middle of the road and block access beginning at midnight when the parks have minimal staff on duty and stay there until we get forcibly removed. If someone has a reservation, we will let them into their site, I don’t want to infringe on their rights, of course they might have trouble leaving once the tow trucks show up.

Okay, maybe we should start by writing to our ineffective, elected representatives. If nothing else, they should develop a system, such that if you make a reservation and don't cancel, you either pay a fine before you can make another reservation or maybe you are just blocked for a year or LIFE!! 

Maybe this is the issue that unites both the Left and the Right. GIVE US BACK OUR FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED CAMPSITES !!!!!!! 

WARNING

If you plan to camp at any federal campground, be sure to check the website, Don’t assume your little piece of heaven will be available.