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jasper

Jasper National Park campground reservations open next week

Jan 5, 2020 | 7:00 AM

Registrations for Jasper National Park campgrounds will open to the public starting on Tuesday, January 7.

Registrations will open on January 7 at 8:00 a.m. Last year almost 6,000 reservations were made in the first hour, with many of the long weekend dates selling out quickly.

“If you haven’t used the reservation system before, it’s always good to go out and get an account in advanced, it (the online system) works just like Ticketmaster. The more things you already done it’ll make things flow a lot better,” said Steve Young, the Public Relations and Communications Officer for Jasper National Park.

For the second year in a row, Whistlers campground is closed for the year due to renovations. That means 781 campsites are out of use.

While people may think that demand might be higher due to the closed campground, Young says last year’s numbers were pretty similar to years past.

“Even though we had fewer sites available, our reservations made in the first hour were pretty similar compared to when we had Whistlers available. People realized we were going to have a challenge with Whistlers closed last year, and they’ll realize were going to have a challenge this year and they’ll make sure that they get their sites at Wapiti, Wabasso and Pocahontas as quickly as they can on the first day.”

Young also tells EverythingGP that you can always hold off on getting out on the first weekend after the year. The park tends to have lots of open sites open usually throughout the summer.

There have also been some big improvements to the overflow campgrounds in the region. Usually, it is on a first-come, first-serve basis, but some of the sites have been put up for reservations to make some room for some spots.

Reservations for backcountry camping in Jasper will open on January 22.

Reservations are also soon to be open for campgrounds across the country, with more information available here.