I had been keeping an eye on that week because way back in January I noticed that it was blocked off for the 1/15 buy date. I contacted NPS and they said they had blocked it off due to scheduled road work. They also said that they would put it back on the system if they got the road work done earlier. I never saw any type of notice that they were going to put it back on but I was keeping an eye on that week and then on 3/15 that week (5/8) for Lower Pines opened up. A lot of nice sites sat unreserved for hours that morning becasue most people were looking at the 6/15 to 7/14 time frame for reservations. Upper Pines still shows closed until May 16, but they now have a blurb on the reservation site showing that they will post info on 4/13 regarding the opening date of those April/May sites, (probably making them avaialble on the 4/15 buy date).
Tom