New Mount Revelstoke National Park campground opening July 15

Mount Revelstoke National Park’s new campground is expected to open July 15.

Snowforest Campground is the only frontcountry campground in the park and the first built in the mountain national parks since the 1960s. It’s located at kilometre one of the Meadows in the Sky Parkway, where there used to be staff residences.

Construction of the campground was announced in 2016 and was expected to open last year at a cost of $4.5 million.

Last summer, Parks Canada said the delay was to allow additional time for construction and preparations, such as installing picnic tables, bear-proof food lockers, campsite markers and signs, as well as installing IT infrastructure.

The campground has 65 sites. However, due to COVID-19, capacity will be set at half to allow physical distancing.

Previously, with the exception of national parks in northern Canada and one on an island, Mt. Revelstoke National Park was the only national park in the country that did not offer drive-in camping.

Mt. Revelstoke and Glacier National Parks are the fourth-busiest national parks in Canada after Banff, Jasper, Yoho and Kootenay. In 2018, both parks had almost 800,000 visitors.

For July and August, camping in Mount Revelstoke and Glacier National Park will be primarily reservation based with limited first-come, first-served options available. Online reservations for Snowforest Campground will become available July 7 on Parks Canada Reservation System at 8 a.m.

Camping opened for several national parks on June 22.

Unlike provincial parks this summer, out of province travelers are permitted to make camping reservations in the national parks.

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