Maple Ridge campers who want some first-come, first-serve to use Golden Ears Provincial Park‘s campgrounds complain that the campsites are not being used, a report said.
Michael Babor is one of three “unhappy campers“, who lobby for at least some camping in one of the most popular parks in the province. Only peak season camping is permitted in the park, which runs from May through September.
The unhappy campers have started an online petition at Change.org that now has more than 11,000 signatures, calling for first-come, first-serve access to the park in their home community.
Babor was admittedly disappointed that he couldn’t camp in the park in his hometown. He visited his family camping in the park and saw many empty sites.
Babor drove for two hours through the campground on Wednesday night between 7 and 9. He took photographs of the empty spots.
He found three camping areas within the park. There were 29 vacant sites in Gold Creek, while another 37 were in Alouette. Although he didn’t make it to North Beach, he estimates that he could have reached 100 vacant sites if he had more time.
Despite the fact that the campground entrance and signage at 232nd Street indicate it is full.
There are 432 campsites with vehicle access and 20 walk-in sites.
Babor wanted to give a “snapshot of campsite vacancies” on Wednesday nights during the summer. He believes this illustrates a continuing problem. He claims that people who wish to camp can’t, despite being able to, and the system isn’t working.
But Stu Burgess, the operations manager at Golden Ears said that the park was fully booked.
He explained that just because a campsite is empty one night does not mean it hasn’t been used. He said that campers can show up until 11 a.m. on the following morning before their reservation is lost. They can extend the deadline by calling the park operators to inform them of late arrival.
Burgess stated that they enforce BC Parks‘ no-show policy and that campsites can be booked through discovercamping.ca. Burgess advises that people check the website at 7 AM to verify if sites are available in the park due to cancellations and no-shows.
Golden Ears, which is located close to Vancouver, is one of the most popular parks in the province. It hosts around 132,000 campers.
B.C. Parks manages 10,700 campsites in the province. 55 percent of these are reservable while 45 percent are first come, first served. Golden Ears is among 10 campgrounds that are 100% reservable.