Why this exists
Anyone who has tried to book Pfeiffer Big Sur in July knows the drill: everything sold out months ahead, and the only way in is catching a cancellation before the next person refreshes the page. Cancellations happen constantly — someone gives up a California campsite every few minutes — but they get rebooked in minutes, and nobody can sit on ReserveCalifornia all day.
So we built the thing that does the sitting. GetParkAlerts checks ReserveCalifornia around the clock for every reservable state park unit — 297 parks, beaches, historic parks, and recreation areas — and notifies subscribers the moment availability we're watching changes.
Who's behind it
GetParkAlerts is a founder-run product operated by Ketchup Consulting, a California-based web and software studio. It is deliberately small: no investors pushing growth hacks, no ads, no selling your data — subscribers are the only customer we have.
What we are — and aren't
- We are an independent service, not affiliated with California State Parks or ReserveCalifornia.
- We never hold, buy, or resell reservations. When we alert you, you book directly on ReserveCalifornia like anyone else — you're just first in line.
- We charge $9.99/month instead of running a free service, because speed is the whole product — here's the full reasoning.
The data
Park listings, coordinates, and availability come from ReserveCalifornia's public systems, cross-checked against independent geographic data (we hand-verified all 297 park locations — and fixed dozens the source feed had wrong). Found an error? Tell us and we'll fix it.
Contact
hello@getparkalerts.com — or see the contact page. A human reads every message, usually within one business day.