Cant Get A Campsite In California? Blame Bots

Bots are automatically reserving spots in popular California campgrounds from Big Sur to Santa Cruz, making scarce reservations even harder to get.

Thirty miles north of San Francisco, along California’s winding Highway 1, lies the Point Reyes National Seashore – a vast expanse of protected coastline with extensive trails, grasslands, firs and pine forests.

Chimney Rock Trail at Point Reyes National Seashore

Home to abundant wildlife, with pods of migrating gray whales visible from its shores, Point Reyes’s backcountry campgrounds can only be reserved through the official Reserve America website. While spots are usually secured months in advance, last-minute hopefuls can monitor the Reserve America website for cancellations. But now, even the most prepared adventures are struggling to grab a space – thanks to an army of automated bots.

KQED, a Bay Area NPR affiliate, first looked into the issue of bots and campground reservations last year, when would-be campers noticed campgrounds were nearly fully booked out by 8.01am – just one minute after the registration window opened.

Their investigation revealed that programmers had started using software applications, or bots, to automatically refresh camping reservation websites. When a spot becomes available, the bots send notifications to users, who quickly reserve the spaces.

For Yosemite, one of America’s most popular national parks, the code for a reservation bot has been posted on GitHub, a code-sharing website. Created by Bay Area computer engineer Brian Hansen, the bot can be downloaded and used for free by anyone who understands how it works.

If the bots are used by individuals hoping to reserve spaces for themselves, lawyers told KQED they’re probably not illegal. But for outdoorsy types hoping to get away from it all, the invasion of the bots is just another sign of the digital world becoming inescapable.

About the author

Claire Lancaster

Tech & Entrepreneurship Editor

English-American, Claire has lived and worked in the U.S., South America, Europe and the UK. As Culture Trip’s tech and entrepreneurship editor she covers the European startup scene and issues ranging from Internet privacy to the intersection of the web with civil society, journalism, public policy and art. Claire holds a master’s in international journalism from City University, London and has contributed to outlets including Monocle, NPR, Public Radio International and the BBC World Service. When not writing or travelling, she can be found searching for London's best brunch spot or playing with her cat, Diana Ross.