Image Credit: Flickr / Government of BC
Camping

B.C. Parks website inundated with thousands of campsite reservation requests Monday

May 25, 2020 | 11:46 AM

VICTORIA — The province says the B.C. Parks website is slowly recovering after it was overwhelmed by a huge number of reservation requests Monday morning.

Reservations opened for camping Monday after they were closed earlier this spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to a statement from the B.C. Ministry of Environment, more than 50,000 people were online at opening.

The statement goes on to say a busy day last year would have seen the site processing 1,100 reservation requests and this morning it processed 800 within the first half-hour.

It notes, as of 11:00 a.m., more than 27,500 reservations have been made at a rate of about ten per second.

Prospective campers will have a two-month rolling window to reserve, meaning new sites will come open for reservations every day. The ministry notes there are still plenty of sites available within the current two-month window.

The ministry apologizes for the spotty web service this morning and thanks members of the public for their patience.