When can I book my campsite?

01

How rolling booking windows work

BC Parks, Alberta Parks, Ontario Parks, Yosemite Valley campgrounds and recreation.gov sell on a rolling window: bookings for a date open a set time ahead of it, at a set hour in the booking system’s own time zone. Count back from the night you arrive and that is your booking morning. The calculator does the counting. These are the rules it uses, as checked in September 2026.

• BC Parks: 3 months ahead at 7:00 am PT
• Alberta Parks: 90 days ahead at 9:00 am MT
• Ontario Parks: 5 months ahead at 7:00 am ET
• Yosemite Valley campgrounds: 5 months ahead, a month of nights at a time on the 15th, at 7:00 am PT
• recreation.gov: 6 months ahead at 10:00 am ET (most campgrounds, not all)

• How to get a campsite in a popular park →

02

Parks Canada launch mornings

Parks Canada does not roll: it sells each park’s season on a launch morning of its own, in the park’s own time zone. The 2026 launches ran from Jan 20 to Apr 15, 32 of them; the busiest are below, and the Parks Canada guide lists every park. Parks Canada had not posted the 2027 dates when this was checked in September 2026, so no 2027 date is listed and the calculator does not guess one.

• Jasper National Park, frontcountry camping: Jan 27, 2026, 8:00 am MT
• Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, the West Coast Trail: Feb 5, 2026, 8:00 am PT
• Yoho National Park, Lake O’Hara overnight camping: Feb 10, 2026, 8:00 am MT
• Banff National Park, frontcountry camping: Feb 12, 2026, 8:00 am MT
• Banff National Park, the Lake Louise and Moraine Lake shuttle: Apr 15, 2026, 8:00 am MT

• Parks Canada 2027 reservations: launch status →

03

On the morning

Popular sites go within minutes, so the morning is for being ready: signed in a few minutes early, with a second and third choice of site written down. If a date does sell out, this is what each booking system says happens next.

• BC Parks: Sold out? Cancellations return to the same site, most often in the last week.
• Alberta Parks: Sold out? Cancellations return to the same site through the season.
• Ontario Parks: Sold out? Cancellations return to the same site; the reservation system can also notify you when a site frees up.
• Yosemite Valley campgrounds: Sold out? Cancellations return to recreation.gov.
• recreation.gov: Sold out? Cancellations come back onto recreation.gov.
• Parks Canada: Sold out? Cancellations come back onto the same site through the season, and the launch never covers every site.

• Watch a campground for an opening →

04

What the calculator does not do

It does not check which sites are free, and it books nothing: you book on the official site, in your own account. It works out the morning from each system’s published rule as checked in September 2026, and a system can change its rules.

• Most recreation.gov campgrounds open each arrival date six months ahead, most at 10:00 am ET (7:00 am PT), but not all: check the campground’s Seasons and Fees tab.
• Parks Canada launches are listed, not calculated: each park’s morning is the one Parks Canada posted.
• Confirm the time on the official site before the morning. The link under each result goes there.

05

Keep the booking morning beside your trip

On a dated trip, Treader’s Trip check reads these same booking windows against the camping stops on your plan. Add the campground as a camp stop for each night, under its own name, and Trip check lists the morning its bookings open, in the booking system’s time zone, with the official page as the source. It does not check which sites are free, and a night you mark Reserved is skipped.

• Trip check is on every plan, Free included, and the booking rows come with it.
• On Discovery, $9.99 CAD a month, with push turned on, a reminder goes out the day before a matched booking opens.

• What Trip check reads →