Would-be B.C.’s campers should get ready to fire up their computers tomorrow morning if they want a good spring camping spot.
BC Parks Reservation Service opens its four-month rolling booking window for front-country and backcountry reservations Tuesday morning, meaning reservations will be available for arrivals up to May 3. On Jan. 4, May 4 arrivals will be available and that’s how it will carry on throughout the year.
“Through our ongoing visitor engagement, we’ve heard the majority of campers prefer a four-month rolling window, allowing people to book a site well in advance of their visit,” George Heyman, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, said in a December press release.
The province said that campgrounds are being added to the new reservation service for the 2023 season, including Gwillim Lake Park near Chetwynd, Yahk Park near the Kingsgate border crossing and Allison Lake Park near Princeton. All these campgrounds will maintain a balance of reservable and first-come-first-served sites.
Additionally, reservations for the popular Bowron Lake Canoe Circuit in Bowron Lake Provincial Park opened for the entire 2023 season at 7 a.m. on Dec. 1, 2022. People need to be prepared and self-sufficient for this backcountry experience that involves 116 kilometres of paddling across 10 lakes with several portages that require transporting canoes and gear over land.
Most of the 23-kilometre Berg Lake Trail in Mount Robson Provincial Park will remain closed for the 2023 season, except for 14 sites at the Kinney Lake Campground. Located seven kilometres from the parking lot, Kinney Lake will open for reservations on a four-month rolling window at 7 a.m. on Feb. 27. The rest of the trail, which was damaged by extreme weather in 2021, remains closed for repairs.
The four-month booking window does not apply to group sites and picnic shelters. Group site and picnic shelter reservations remain on the 12-month booking window.
B.C.’s much-maligned Discover Camping reservation website was phased out last year.
BC Parks announced last January it was launching a new camping reservation system in response to “visitor feedback” collected over the past two seasons relating to website crashes or trouble finding sites on the system’s opening day.