Record high traffic leads to ‘bumpy start’ for Banff reservations

A record number of people booked camping trips to Banff National Park for this summer as reservations for the popular destination opened Wednesday.

But the high level of traffic jammed Parks Canada’s online reservation system as it opened at 8 a.m., leaving 7,000 people stuck waiting.

More than 16,000 camping reservations were made by the end of the day, despite “a little bit of a bumpy start,” said Greg Danchuk, visitor experience manager at Banff National Park.

“They took some steps to improve the server capacity and after about 15 minutes it was back up to speed and things ran quite smoothly after that,” Danchuk said.

“We don’t believe that there were a lot of people inconvenienced in that. The queue stayed the same.”

Danchuk said he expects the 2,400 campsites in Banff to stay busy throughout the summer.

With campgrounds closed at Johnston Canyon for most of the year and Tunnel Mountain Village 1 until June, he said that puts more strain on the rest of the park’s available spaces.

Whistlers, the largest Parks Canada-operated campground in Jasper National Park, where reservations opened Tuesday, is also closed this year for upgrades.

“We have less inventory but we had more people make reservations,” said Danchuk.

“It’s best to plan ahead, make a reservation, know that you’ve got a site, and we’ve been trying really hard to impress that on people.”

He said Banff will be full all summer long, especially from late June until early September, considering that the past five years have seen a major upswing in the number of visitors.

“Every campsite is full every night and so if you don’t have a reservation in advance, it’s very unlikely that you’ll get a place,” he said.

“It’s a busy place. It’s a bucketlist destination for all the international people but also for Canadians...

“People know it’s busy. We’ve impressed upon people to come in maybe June and September, come in May and October even, come during the week.”

Reservations for Kootenay and Yoho national parks open Thursday.

Despite spots filling up fast, Danchuk said it’s not too late to book a site.

“There’s still lots of sites left,” he said.

“You might not get your prime spot on a prime weekend anymore because there’s a lot of reservations having been made, but there’s still lots of opportunity for people to make a reservation (Thursday) and in the next few weeks.”