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Comment by throwaway5752 | Hacker News Reader

Recreation.gov has been around for years and it doesn't seem to have been updated substantially recently. It's a great resource and I hope people use it to visit US wildlife areas, but I am curious why it has been submitted.

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I don’t know why it's posted, but Booz Allen won a contract a few years ago to take it over. It makes boatloads of cash, like literally hundreds of millions of dollars in profit. Because of that, there was a long procedural battle for control of it between Booz and the incumbent, which kept the new site from going live. But, because of its profitability, it’s one of those types of government contracts that you could ride out for an entire career.

I'm also curious as to why it was submitted, but since this website is new to mew, I'm very glad it was submitted.

My hypothesis was that a lot of folks (myself included) have started going hiking/etc on Black Friday instead of participating in the commercial aspects of the day? Anyways, I upvoted. Our parks/wilderness are one of the really great things about America.

That is a fantastic idea.

I really respect REI for closing their doors on Black Friday. https://www.rei.com/opt-outside

Outside of southern states, a lot of us are well past the hiking/camping season this time of year, except for folks well experienced and equipped for winter recreation or just heading to local city parks.

If you're day hiking (and not camping or backpacking), this time of year is still great for hiking even in the northern states. Most people I know that go hiking in the local parks won't stop doing that until a few weeks from now.

Further, it's the start of hunting season in a lot of places, which means lots of people are out hiking and camping to hunt.

Ironically, there are probably just as many regular hikers that stay in because of hunting season also. Or find trails on non-hunting lands during this time of year.

I found it recently and thought it's a great resource for booking govt. recreational properties in US. I wish something like this exist for our country.

I work in the tourism industry and I try to stay up to date with other countries practices. What is your country ?

India

Is there a lot of recreational properties managed by the government in India? The only time I went there O mostly stayed at guest houses and hotels.

There are definitely enough properties maintained by Indian and State governments here. Each state government has a tourism website where we can book some of these properties.

Thanks, I'll make sure to have a look at those, state by state!

I didn't know about it so I'm glad it was

has the site not been updated at all?

https://web.archive.org/web/20160401023052/http://www.recrea...

Looks very different from a few years ago.

karma

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