Reservation rush is on for Alberta campers

Booking system opens Tuesday

Albertans looking for a camping getaway at a provincial park this May long weekend will get their first chance to book a site Tuesday morning as the reservation system opens.

Campers can reserve an individual campsite for the south region starting at 9 a.m., followed by Kananaskis Country two hours later, by logging on to reserve.albertaparks.ca.

Reservations for the central region open at 1 p.m., while campgrounds in the northwest/east regions of the province can be booked as of 3 p.m.

Group camping areas have been available for bookings since Feb. 4.

Last year, Alberta’s reservation system processed more than 164,000 individual campsite bookings, in addition to about 3,200 group camping areas.

It set a record for the most annual bookings in the province’s history, exceeding 2017’s online reservation tally of more than 163,000 reservations.

The system added seven campgrounds, combining 457 individual sites, five comfort camping units and eight new group camping areas, in addition to 17 backcountry campgrounds this year.

New Kananaskis backcountry camping site reservations open Feb. 25.

There are about 250 provincial campgrounds with more than 14,000 campsites in Alberta’s provincial parks.