If you’ve been looking forward to a time when you didn’t have to sleep in your RV in a long line outside Sleeping Bear Dunes campground in order to get a campsite, you will have to wait a bit longer. The new reservation system you’ve been waiting for is being delayed, reports mlive.com.
Since last year, the popular park has been planning to convert 100 percent of its campsites in the D.H. Day and Platte River campgrounds to spots reservable online through Recreation.gov. But the plan to switch over to the new system by November will likely be delayed until early 2019.
“The park has just learned that the contractor overseeing Recreation.gov is still working to add the National Lakeshore campsites to their reservation system, and will have to delay the original November ‘go-live’ target by a month or two.”
Under the current system, sites at the rustic D.H. Day Campground are not reservable online. They are available on a first-come, first-served basis. In the past, this has led campers to line their vehicles outside the park – sometimes sleeping there – while they wait for a spot to open.
When the switch to Recreation.gov happens, all of D.H. Day’s sites will be reservable online for the window of May to mid-October 2019.
Also coming online will be the rest of the sites at the National Lakeshore’s Platte River Campground. This year, about two-thirds of those sites were available to reserve online. Beginning with the 2019 upgrade, all of its sites can be booked online.
“Although the actual ‘go-live’ date for making reservations remains uncertain, the system will be in place well in advance of the May 1 start for reservable camping dates. Campers interested in making reservations should check the National Lakeshore website often for up-to-date information.”
