The line up for the campground began with your computer

The relaunch of the Province's Campground registration program proved to be a bit too popular yesterday, that as the Discover Camping website crashed within seconds of its 7 AM opening.

The prospect of being able to put some social distance between the days of staying home during the early stages of the COVID pandemic and a chance to head outdoors, seemingly sent tens of thousands of us to the computer on Monday, seeking to save a little patch of grass in a favourite provincial park.

The volume of applications for campground space at provincial parks seemed to overwhelm the computer registration system on Monday, leaving more than a few British Columbians rather frustrated at the troubled launch.

The British Columbia government was looking forward to celebrating the re-opening of the provincial parks and recreation sites for June 1st, posting an update on their plans at 7:30 yesterday, with George Heyman, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change highlighting the access that British Columbians would have to the network of parks in the province.

“Spending time appreciating nature is one of the best things we can do for our health and well-being. Camping provides the ideal opportunity to connect safely with family and friends in BC Parks beauty. We want to ensure British Columbians have access to summer vacation opportunities close to home, so we are limiting new reservations to B.C. residents. Our plan is to safely open as many parks as possible so that B.C. campers and day visitors can rediscover the wilderness beauty close to home.”

However, as the reports came out through the day of the ongoing troubles residents were having in accessing the registration system, the Minister was apologizing for the situation by the end of the day, vowing that the issues would be corrected.

Some of the accounts of those frustrations can be found below:

BC Parks reservation site crashes after 50,000 people try to book at once
BC Parks website crashes due to massive demand for campsite bookings
BC Parks overwhelmed as thousands try to reserve campsites
Frustrations rise as BC's campground reservation website crashes on opening day

As we outlined last week, this year, only British Columbians will be allowed to register for space in the provincial campgrounds, that is, if they can get through to the registration system.

Lakelse Lake Provincial Park is a popular Northwest destination in the
summer, the park opens for the season on June 1st

Those looking to book some space in the provinces great outdoors can hopefully access the site here, the campgrounds and recreation sites open for the season on June 1st.

More notes on provincial themes can be found from our Legislature archive page.