So, a friend told you about a great place to camp with your dog. But how do you make reservations? Finding the right campsite can feel overwhelming with so many systems and agencies involved, but once you know where to look, it gets a lot easier. Here are some places to start:

1. Reserve America handles reservations for almost 600 federal, state, private and regional park district campgrounds in California (a dog icon designates those that are dog-friendly). This should be your first stop for state park campgrounds, which tend to book up fastest.
2. Recreation.gov is an umbrella site for reservable activities on federal lands, including camping in national forests. It covers a huge inventory of campgrounds throughout the Sierra Nevada and beyond, many of which are dog-friendly by default since national forest rules tend to be more relaxed about dogs than state parks.

• The East Bay Regional Parks District has campsites in dozens of parks in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Many of these parks have excellent trail systems where your dog can join you for a post-camp morning hike.

• The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Pacific Gas & Electric and the Sacramento Municipal Water District are among other entities that operate dog-friendly campgrounds in our region. County park districts and private campgrounds, such as those operated by KOA and Thousand Trails, present another set of possibilities. KOA campgrounds in particular tend to be very dog-welcoming and often include fenced dog parks on the property.

• “Moon Outdoors California Camping” by Tom Stienstra (Avalon Travel Publishing) is a useful tome for finding descriptions and reservation information for almost 1,400 tent and RV campgrounds, most of them dog-friendly. It is worth keeping a copy in your car for those spontaneous “let’s go camping this weekend” moments.

Be aware that most of California’s coastal campgrounds, as well as most in popular destinations like Lake Tahoe, are booked out six to seven months in advance for summer visits, so snagging a last-minute weekend reservation can take persistence, but it can be done. Some tips:

1. Inquire about the cancelation window at your chosen location (30 days at Yosemite, for example) and call that many days in advance of your preferred dates, hoping a spot has opened up. Set a reminder on your phone so you don’t miss the window.
2. Find out if your preferred campsite has any “first-come” or “overflow” sites in its inventory (most do). Take a risk by showing up at the gates about a half-hour before check-out time. This works especially well on Sunday mornings, when weekend campers pack up early.
3. Some popular coastal campgrounds use a lottery system to distribute sites made available through cancellations. If you’re flexible on dates, this can work.
4. Choose a campground that operates purely on a first-come basis and arrive on a Wednesday or Thursday if you want to stay over the weekend. (Note that it can pay off to pay extra and reserve those nights even if you can’t be there; you can always cancel within the designated time frame and still keep the weekend reservation).
5. Go midweek, or wait until after Labor Day. September and October camping in California is often the best of the year, with warm days, cool nights, fewer crowds, and a happy dog who gets more room to roam.