Breakdown of BC Parks' Record Camping Year

BC Parks recently announced that 2013 was a record setting camping season.

As of March, BC Parks included 1,030 protected lands which covers 14.4% of the province.  This system is the third largest in North America, and the largest in Canada! British Columbia also added more than 878,000 hectares to the protected areas system in 2012/13.

BC Parks created a Facebook page in 2011, and are up to over 5,000 likes and have enjoyed the public's input through comments and photos.

While the parks provide great spots for conservation, education, scientific study and a great spot for day-use (which was up 8.34%), we wanted to hone in on how camping faired.

Camping was up 5.2% since last year and backcountry revenue through permits was up 100%. The increase was accredited to better weather, and the removal of parking meters in parks. 35% of all camping shelters were tents.

Nights spent in a campground

It looks like camping is still made up of weekend warriors and those wanting to get away for a week at most. Camping attendance was up in every area except for Thompson Cariboo, which was down slightly by 1%.

We found it interesting that 92% of the traffic comes from British Columbia and Alberta alone, and that more visitors come from the United States and abroad than the rest of Canada (sounds to us like more Canucks need to visit!).

You can learn more and book your visit through the BC Parks Discover Camping website.