When To Book Your 2023 Camping Trips
Car camping, backcountry camping or glamping? We've got you covered
It always feels strange thinking about camping while there’s snow on the ground. But if you want to ensure a spot at any of Alberta’s popular campgrounds, you’ve got to plan ahead. In fact, group and comfort camping reservations in Alberta Parks open 180 days in advance — meaning, if you’re reading this on January 10th, reservations for early July are already underway.
It can be confusing keeping track of what opens when (especially when it continually changes based on the success or failures of the previous years bookings.) Here’s what we know, so far, about the 2023 camping season:
Camping at Provincial Parks in Alberta
Group camping reservations can be made 180 days in advance
Comfort camping reservations can be made 180 days in advance (from yurts to cabins, this is a great way for families or people new to camping to get outside!)
Individual frontcountry camping reservations can be made 90 days in advance
Backcountry camping reservations can be made 90 days in advance
More details and links to book can be found here.
Camping at National Parks in Alberta and British Columbia
To be determined….
Parks Canada hasn’t yet released dates for when reservations will be open. The government agency told us via Twitter: “as for the later launch, the delay is due to an update of the Parks Canada Reservation Service.” (We are keeping our fingers crossed that this update means trying to snag a booking this year will be smoother than previous years.)
Camping at Provincial Parks in British Columbia
Frontcountry and backcountry reservations can be made four months in advance (a big change from the previous two-month booking window.)
More details and links to book can be found here.
Note that most of the 23-kilometre Berg Lake Trail in Mount Robson Provincial Park (a fav of ours!) will remain closed for the 2023 season, after it was damaged by extreme weather in 2021.
More Camping Content from Go Outside
If the thought of planning now for something that may or may not occur six months from now is overwhelming to you, trust us, we get it. There are other options. We’ve detailed before Where and How to Camp in Alberta Without a Reservation, as well as everything you’ve ever wanted to know about Crown Land Camping in Alberta & B.C. And if you have any other camping-related questions, please leave a comment or join us in the Substack Chat! We’ll answer your queries in a future newsletter.
Did you really think we’d get through an entire camping newsletter without a photo of Betsey, our beloved boler!?
