IOWA – Campers looking to reserve state park sites for a Friday arrival Memorial Day weekend can do so Sunday, Feb. 27, when the three month reservation window opens.
The Memorial Day weekend marks the start of Iowa’s camping season for many people. Good crowds of park visitors will be enjoying the outdoors throughout the state.
“Choice camping spots, particularly those with electricity, go quickly,” said Sherry Arntzen, with the DNR’s state parks bureau. “And, because we recently made a switch to a new reservation system, I recommend users get familiar with it and set up their account before Sunday. One change with the new system is that if one person makes reservations for multiple people, they will need to have addresses for those individuals.”
The DNR launched its new reservation system for Iowa state park campsite, cabin and lodge reservations on Feb. 17 at http://iowastateparks.reserveamerica.com/. The previous system was shut down on Feb. 3 to make the switch and transfer all 2011 reservations made under the old system. The system will require users to create a new account, unless the user has an account on the national website, Reserve America.
“We worked aggressively to get this new system ready at a baseline level to take Memorial Day weekend reservations. Some added features will be coming later,” said Arntzen.
The online reservation system is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Customers who have bookmarked the previous reservation system website will be redirected to the new site.
Reservations can also be made through a call center 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Central Standard Time, Monday through Friday, and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The new call center has retained the same toll-free number, 1-877-427-2757. |
