How this planner works

Add each stop on your route: national parks, state parks, or a state you’re passing through. The planner doesn’t keep its own copy of park rules. It sends you to the page that does: the official National Park Service page for each national park, and our state-by-state guides, which are checked against each state park agency and dated. Alerts come from recent DogRoute 109 stories, show the date we last checked the source, and drop off after about six weeks or when the event ends.

Items marked Must-do are the checks that most often cause trouble when skipped: official rules, ID, records, an emergency vet, safe restraint, and your airline’s and lodging’s pet policies. The other items are good practice.

Your trip and ticks are saved only in this browser on this device, so you can close the page and pick up where you left off. They aren’t sent to us. “Clear saved data” removes them. “Copy trip link” puts your choices (not your ticks) into the link itself, so only the people you send it to can see them. We count anonymous uses of the planner, such as which buttons are clicked, to improve it.

What it doesn’t do

It doesn’t book hotels, plan driving routes or check live closures. Park rules, fees and trail access change with the season, so open the official pages linked in step 1 before you leave. For lodging and rest stops we link to outside services such as BringFido and Love’s Travel Stops; we don’t control their listings.

General information for dog owners, not veterinary or legal advice. When an official source differs from this page, follow the official source.