Online parks reservations a wondrous improvement

May wonders never cease.

Just when you're about to give up on government in general, and state government in particular, someone comes along and does something to make your life easier.

Today's case in point: the telephone reservation system for Washington State Parks, which outdoor worshippers alternately love and loathe as they set their sights on holiday-weekend retreats to the Evergreen State's most evergreen places — its state parks.

Many times, some of us have heard that busy signal and wondered why, oh why, our state can't be as progressive as, say, Oregon, which allows residents to book campsites online.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, start your browsers.

An electronic reservation system allowing Internet bookings for 45 of Washington's most popular campsites went online Nov. 1.

We tried it out this week and are delighted to report that it seems to work flawlessly.

Online reservations, made at www.parks.wa.gov, aren't just as good as the older (and still-existing) call-in reservation system on a good day. They're better.

State Parks has outdone itself in this case, adding detailed campground maps for each reservation campground: Click on the area of the park you'd like to plant your tent stakes in and a more detailed map will appear, showing the location of individual sites, which are color-coded. Green means available.

If you already know the number of your favorite site, click it, hit "Reserve," and you're on your way.

If you don't know the site you want, use the computer tools to familiarize yourself with the environs. Click on a site, and you get a wealth of details.

Example: According to the Web site, site No. 183 at Deception Pass State Park is a standard, medium-sized site, able to accommodate tents or trailers up to 18 feet. Site dimensions: 30 feet by 10 feet. Shade/Sun: Partial shade. RV pad location: Back-in. Pad maneuverability: Poor. Surface: Gravel. Tent pad: Yes. Tent pad size: 16-by-16 feet. Maximum capacity: 8 bodies. Quality: Excellent. Privacy: Average. Overall rating: Above average. Etc.

It's a wealth of campsite information — far more than has ever been made available in a State Parks data base.

Of course, only experience teaches you which campsites in a given park are the best. But this new service should help warn you away from the truly bad ones. Tenters, in particular, should find the "tent-pad-size" and "privacy" listings most helpful.

Naturally, nothing good comes for free, and with online reservations, you'll still have to pay a one-time, nonrefundable fee of $7 per reservation — and a $4 cancellation fee if you bag out before arrival day. If you wait until your scheduled arrival day to cancel, you'll also surrender your first night's camp fee (generally, $14 per night for standard campsites).

When you reserve a campsite online with a credit card, State Parks will charge you the reservation fee and the first three nights, with the balance due on arrival. Cancel, and you get a refund, minus the reservation and cancellation fee.

Those fees — the same for phone-in reservations — seem downright reasonable when weighed against the convenience and peace-of-mind of a specific campsite reservation.

A survey of some popular campgrounds earlier this week showed a few red (reserved) sites on campground maps, especially for holiday weekends. But plenty of open ones remain.

The moral: Maybe you should be devoting these first, bleary days of winter to logging some computer time and setting up your summertime calendar. You can book as far as nine months in advance — or up until Aug. 8, as of today.

Trust us: We've been around State Parks reservations long enough to learn that if you don't make your plans now, someone else will.

We put the system through its paces with several reservations earlier this week and found it to be a hassle-free, pleasant experience, even with a dial-up modem connection of 56.6 bps.

The final step, pushing the "submit payment" button, summons a screen warning that the final reservation might take up to six minutes to process. But in each case, our requests cleared within about 20 seconds, issuing a printable receipt/confirmation slip.

It's hard to predict how the server will hold up under heavy loads once word begins to spread. But so far, so good. Very good, in fact. It's better service for the same price. How often does that happen?

A few things to keep in mind:

• Campsite reservations for Deception Pass and Fort Canby state parks, as well as cabin, yurt and platform-tent reservations at Dosewallips and Fort Canby, are accepted all year long. Reservations for most of the other reservable state parks are accepted for the summer season, May 15 through Sept. 15. Sites at reservation parks revert to first-come, first-served in the off-season.

• The existing Reservations Northwest telephone reservation system for Washington and Oregon will continue to operate, with a new number: 888-CAMPOUT (888-226-7688). Phone lines are open every day except Christmas and New Year's Day.

So there you go. No reasonable excuse exists for failing to get the yurt you wanted on the day you wanted.

Except, of course, competitors with faster modems and/or more nimble mouse fingers.

You should know before you even begin that we've already reserved the finest campsite in the state for the Fourth of July.

But most of the rest of it is up for grabs. Happy surfing.

Ron C. Judd's outdoors columns appear in Sunday's sports section and Thursday's Northwest Weekend section. Phone: 206-464-8280; e-mail: rjudd@seattletimes.com.