Interested in booking a campsite in Alberta’s mountains? Parks Canada has some tips | 24CA News

Parks Canada has begun opening up bookings for nationwide parks in Alberta utilizing its up to date on-line reservation system.

“The updated platform that we’re running with functioned very well and as expected,” mentioned Pamela Clark, who runs customer expertise for Jasper National Park. “The queuing, the site selection and the payment process operated very smoothly, even with the increased volumes that we experienced.”

Demand for campsites continues to extend and has been going up considerably for the final three or 4 years.

“When we launched (the Parks Canada online reservation system) back in 2015, we had about 1,800 reservations on launch day,” Clark mentioned of Jasper. “Now, fast-forward to 2023, we’re over 20,000 reservations on launch day.

“People know we have a reservation system. They understand it’s the best way of ensuring that they have a site that meets their needs,” she mentioned.

“What we’ve seen in the last four or five years, when it really started to pick up in 2019 and 2020 — even the use of our national parks — is people are gravitating towards the outdoor opportunities and just the natural escapes.”

For Jasper National Park, reservations for front-country (serviced) websites launched March 16. Bookings for back-country websites launched March 20.

“When users logged in at 8 a.m. last Thursday morning, there were about over 22,000 people in our waiting room but we were able to manage those volumes, and the average wait time was about 30 minutes,” Clark mentioned.

The phased method to web site bookings reduces total quantity and helps the reservation web site function extra easily. Clark mentioned Parks Canada uncoupled backcountry reservations for Banff and Jasper as a result of the mixed volumes created points within the reserving system.

“The older system really wasn’t able to keep up with the volumes that we’ve been experiencing, especially in the last three or four years, volumes have increased substantially,” Clark mentioned. “Even from last year to this year, we experienced a volume increase for reservations of over 6,000.”

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For Banff National Park, reservations for front-country websites launch on Thursday, March 23. Back-country bookings opened Wednesday morning.

As different areas open up, Clark has some ideas for folks seeking to guide a spot.

“They should get onto our website — Parks Canada reservations — and look through all the tips on there. They should open up a profile if they don’t have one yet or update their profile if they’ve been on the system before. And they should get acquainted with the areas they want to be camping in.

“Have a plan. Have a couple backup plans, that’s really important.”

Jasper National Park has greater than 2,000 campsites, the second-largest stock of campgrounds managed underneath one park in North America, Clark mentioned. Together, the mountain nationwide parks have about 5,000 campsites. Despite an “abundant” stock, there’s simply a lot demand in July and August.

Serviced, front-country campsites in Jasper National Park for dates in these peak months get snapped up inside hours.

“After our launch day, there really is no availability in July and August, but there’s still lots of availability in May, June, September for campers who are looking and can be a little more flexible in their departure dates and aren’t looking for serviced sites.

“At this point, for service sites, you’re looking at October. There’s really no availability in serviced sites from May until September,” Clark mentioned. “They’re really popular.”

If you had been unable to guide a campsite within the space you need on the time you had been hoping for, Parks Canada suggests taking a look at less-peak instances or staying simply exterior the nationwide parks.

“There are also campgrounds on the outskirts of the (Jasper National) park — in Mt Robson Provincial Park, also in the Hinton area.”

Alberta Parks opens provincial campsite bookings 90 days earlier than the scheduled keep. For occasion, on March 22, reservations can be open for a late June tenting journey.

“And, if you really have these dates in mind, you can check back to see if there are cancellations because from time to time there are, and you might be the fortunate one who gets a cancellation.”

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For the extra adventurous camper, backcountry websites are an possibility too.

“There’s still availability along some of the lesser-known backcountry trails,” Clark mentioned. “The ones that quickly get booked up are the iconic classics — so Skyline and Maligne — there is no availability left for the summer. But there is availability in almost all the other trail areas that we manage.”

And yet another nice tip for anybody visiting a park in Alberta?

“When they’re coming to a national park, they take on the stewardship of these areas, they follow the special rules, they put the garbage where it belongs and they follow that wildlife-watching etiquette,” Clark mentioned.

“It’s really super important that we all share in taking care of these wild spaces.”

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