BC Parks prepares to roll out campsite reservations in 4-month window

Barely two weeks into winter, and British Columbians are preparing months ahead as camping season approaches.

As of 7 a.m. on Jan. 3, people will be able to book spaces in campgrounds operated by BC Parks up to four months in advance.

Unlike with its previous Discover Camping site, which was known to crash when the server was overloaded, the province isn’t anticipating any issues on its new reservation system.

“When we switch to the four months in advance timeframe for campsites, the reservations will be available up until May 3, 2023 arrivals,” a BC Parks spokesperson wrote to CTV News on Monday. “Since they will be released on a rolling basis, there aren’t any dates that are expected to have too much traffic.”

The new BC Parks reservation system was launched in March 2022—a year that saw more than 317,000 bookings at campsites across the province. According to B.C.’s ministry of environment, that’s an increase of 26.5 per cent since 2019.

While Jan. 19 is expected to be a busy day on the website, since that’s four months in advance of the May long weekend, BC Parks says its servers should be stable for that date.

Prior to 2023, camping reservations were only available in a two-month rolling window.

"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," Environment Minister George Heyman said in a release last November.

Camping hopefuls can find a complete list of campgrounds and available reservations on the BC Parks site.