BC Parks announces new, additional $20 fee out-of-province visitors

Visitors to B.C. can expect to pay an additional fee when camping at provincial parks this summer.

Beginning in May 2026, the $20 non-resident fee will be charged in addition to the base camping fee, for frontcountry and backcountry camping, cabin rentals and the use of mooring buoys and docks, says BC Parks.

“With growing visitor numbers and expectations, the pressures are pushing trails and facilities beyond what they were designed to handle,” announced BC Parks via social media on Jan. 29. “The gap is widening between what people expect from outdoor recreation and what our system can sustainably deliver.”

While welcoming “a record 27 million visitors every year,” BC Parks is also seeing “increasing damage from climate events like heat domes, atmospheric rivers, and wildfires.”

“Increased fees are reinvested directly back into parks. They support the care of lands and waters, visitor safety, and the experiences people come to enjoy.”

BC Parks says its also updating camping fees in some high-demand parks for the “first time since 2016.”

Those updated fees will come into effect for “the peak summer season at 59 high-use frontcountry parks, and in four iconic backcountry areas…”

Frontcountry (areas within one-kilometre of a highway or park road) camping fees at BC Parks will be increased from between $5 and $35 per party per night to up to $51 per night, while the backcountry fee is going up from $5 to $10 per person per night to up to $25 per night.

Non-resident fees will be applied to frontcountry camping per party per campground, backcountry camping per trip within a park (multiple nights in one park are considered part of the same trip), cabins per rental, and per vessel for use of mooring buoys and docks, says BC Parks, explaining the non-resident fee does not apply to children or youth. It also doesn’t apply in 2026 to group campsites or picnic shelter rentals, the Bowron Lake Canoe Circuit, or the Berg Lake Trail at Mount Robson Park.

For more information, visit bcparks.ca.