Help
Questions, answered.
How Tarn finds you a spot — and what it does and doesn’t do.
Getting started
→What is Tarn?
We watch Recreation.gov permits and campgrounds around the clock and alert you as soon as a spot opens — usually a cancellation — so you can go and book it before it’s gone.
→How does it work?
Create a tracker: pick a permit or campground, the zones or sites, and the dates you want. We watch Recreation.gov continuously, and the moment a matching spot appears we alert you on your chosen channels. You open the link and book it.
→Can you watch campgrounds too?
Yes. Alongside wilderness permits we watch individual Recreation.gov campgrounds — track a whole campground or specific sites, narrow to a site type (tent-only, RV, electric) or your party size, and hear the moment a night frees up. Under Browse, switch to the Campgrounds tab and search for one.
→Which permits and campgrounds can you watch?
Wilderness permits and individual campgrounds that take reservations through Recreation.gov. (Lottery-only permits are the exception — there is no cancellation inventory to watch — and Tarn doesn’t cover tours or timed-entry tickets.) See what’s already in the catalogue under Browse — and if your trip isn’t there yet, ask (the invite-request note or the Feedback button) and we’ll usually add it within a day.
→Can I add Tarn to my phone?
Yes — open tarnpermits.app in your phone browser, then Share → “Add to Home Screen” (Safari on iOS) or the browser menu (Android). It installs with its own icon and opens full-screen, like an app — handy for checking your trackers on the go.
→Do you book the permit for me?
No — we alert you, you book it yourself in your own Recreation.gov account. We point you straight at the open spot; the reservation is always yours to make.
→How fast are the alerts?
Usually within a minute of Tarn spotting a matching opening. Most alerts go out straight away; if the availability looks suspicious, Tarn checks it again a few seconds later before alerting, which filters out Recreation.gov’s false openings. Recreation.gov can also be slow or rate-limit us, which costs a little more time.
→How do you know an opening is real?
Because Tarn looks twice. Recreation.gov occasionally flashes availability that isn’t bookable — a whole zone briefly reading as wide open. So when a batch of spots appears at once, or a zone flips to fully available, Tarn waits about fifteen seconds and checks again, and alerts you only on what is still there. A real opening that’s still available survives that check. It costs a few seconds on a surge and saves you a sprint to a spot that was never there.
→How often do you check?
Seconds, not minutes, around the clock — and more aggressively as a scheduled release approaches. How often we look is what decides whether you hear about a short opening at all: over the last 30 days, the median Mt. Whitney opening Tarn recorded lasted about four minutes. The measured numbers are here.
→Why did I get several alerts for the same night?
Because the spot really did open several times. Recreation.gov holds a spot for fifteen minutes once someone starts checking out, and if they don’t finish, it goes back on sale. So one night can open, vanish and reopen a few times in an evening — and each of those is a real chance at it. About one opening in five that we recorded over the last 30 days was a spot coming back this way.
→Will I definitely get the permit?
No guarantee — popular cancellations go fast and other people are watching too. What we can promise is our side of it: when Tarn spots a matching opening, we get the alert out fast. The rest is your speed and a little luck.
Alerts & channels
→Where can I get alerts?
Telegram and email. Mix and match under Account → Notification channels.
→Which channel should I use?
Telegram is instant push — best for “drop everything.” Email is the slower fallback. Most people run Telegram plus email.
→How do I connect Telegram?
Open Account → Notification channels and hit “Open Telegram & link automatically.” It starts a chat with our bot and links your account in one tap — no chat IDs to copy.
→Can I set my party size?
Yes, wherever availability is counted in people: tell us how many and we only alert when there are enough spots — or opt into partial alerts to hear about smaller openings too. A few national-park permits are issued per group instead, so the field doesn’t appear on those.
→Can I track several permits or trips?
As many as you like — different permits, zones, and date ranges, each with its own alerts.
Access & privacy
→How do I get in?
Tarn is in closed beta right now — invite-only, and free. Request an invite and we’ll be in touch.
→What do you do with my data?
Run your trackers and send their alerts. Nothing is sold, there are no ads and no analytics. What’s stored is your email, your trackers, a log of the alerts we sent you, and a security record of sign-ins. Every field, who processes it, how long it is kept and how to delete it is in the privacy policy.
→Who’s behind Tarn?
One person — Nick. Who that is, where the availability data comes from, and what Tarn will never do: About.
Still wondering something?
Request an invite and ask us anything — we read every note.
Request an inviteNot affiliated with Recreation.gov or any land agency — an independent tool that reads public data. You book on Recreation.gov yourself.