This Land, Your Land

Rental cabins at Cape Lookout National Seashore can now be reserved online, the National Park Service announced Monday.

The 20 cabins at Long Point Cabin Camp on North Core Banks and the 25 cabins at Great Island Cabin Camp on south Core Banks are available from March 16 to November 30 next year. Reservations open at 10 a.m. January 5 through the federal recreation.gov service.

Park Superintendent Pat Kenney says in a news release the move to recreation.gov is in response to input from visitors about the current telephone-based reservation system.

Recreation.gov is the federal government's central reservation system for thousands of recreation sites. It requires upfront payment through a credit card and charges a fee for a cancellation.

The Smoky Mountain Hiking Blog reports today that Great Smoky Mountains National Park is considering a proposal to require reservations for all backcountry camping permits through the government's recreation.gov site.

Great Smokies camping permits, which are now free, could cost anywhere from $4 per person per night to $10 per reservation plus $5 per person, depending on which proposal is adopted, the proposal says.

Recreation.gov is the centralized reservation service for camping at U.S. Department of Interior and U.S. Forest Service recreational areas.

The blog quotes a Backpacker magazine forum that publishes the proposal and a report by WBIR TV in Knoxville, Tenn., that confirms the existence of the proposal but provides very little information. It wasn't on the park's page or the NPS new release page at mid-morning today.

Moving Great Smokies backcountry camping permits to the recreation.gov system will speed the process of obtaining permits and free park staff to do other things, the proposal says. The online service is available 24 hours a day.

Comments on the proposal will be accepted until August 26 at grsmcomments@nps.gov or Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 107 Park Headquarters Road, Gatlinburg, Tennessee 37738.

Public hearings have been set for 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. August 16 at the park's Old Oconoluftee Visitor Center, and 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. August 18 at the park headquarters lobby.

Campers at Great Smoky Mountains National Park will be required to reserve sites at Cataloochee Campground beginning with the season that opens March 11.

Reservations are available up to six months ahead of time through the federal government's Recreation.gov website, or at 877-444-6777. The camping fee will be $20 per night, which includes the contract costs for the reservation system and is the same as several other campgrounds in the park with similar amenities, a news release says.

The reservation page for Cataloochee Campground became operative February 9. The campground has 27 sites.

The park already requires reservations for the large frontcountry campgrounds at Smokemont, Elkmont and Cades Cove, a smaller outlying campground at Cosby, and at all drive-to horse camps, group camps, and picnic pavilions.

"Cataloochee Campground is one of the park’s most sought-after camping experiences, particularly since elk arrived in the valley in 2001," park Superintendent Dale Ditmanson says in the news release. "During peak season and off-season weekends, the campground often fills to capacity. Frequently campers would arrive after driving a long distance along a very narrow, gravel road to find no campsites available. We feel that the reservation system will provide a more efficient process to secure an overnight stay at Cataloochee and will eliminate unnecessary travel time and effort to try and obtain a site.”

Great Smoky Mountains National Park will require campers to have advanced reservations for Cataloochee Campground beginning next spring, the National Park Service said this week.

The 2011 season begins March 11. Reservations will be available through recreation.gov or at 877-444-6777. The reservation system typically allows reservations to be made up to six months in advance, but the reservation database for Cataloochee is not expected to be active until February 1.

The 27-site campground is popular, but remote, and campers have had no way of knowing whether a site would be available before they got to the campground, a news release says.

"Cataloochee Campground offers one of the park’s most sought-after camping experiences, but getting there involves a 30 to 40 minute, 11-mile drive off I-40, with much of that along a very-narrow and circuitous gravel road,” park Supt. Dale A. Ditmanson said. “There is no cell or landline phone service and no regularly assigned staff assigned at the campground, so there is no way for anybody to check to see if sites are available. The reservation system will eliminate the frustration of finding no campsites left after having made the difficult drive to the campground.”

The fee will also go to $20 per night from $17.