Parks Canada says camping will be available at Jasper National Park this upcoming summer despite the wildfire that ravaged the destination last year.
This week, 2025 camping reservations for Jasper National Park will open at 8 a.m. Tuesday (Jan. 28) for frontcountry camping and 8 a.m. Wednesday (Jan. 29) for backcountry camping.
“The vast majority of the park is reopened, and so people can experience all the same type of recreation that they could pre-fire, and we are encouraging people to come and visit Jasper,” said Graham Wylde, visitor experience manager for Jasper National Park. “The economy of Jasper relies heavily on tourism and coming and staying in campgrounds, and contributing to those overnight stays in Jasper helps with the economic recovery that the town needs.”
With the Jasper wildfire impacting multiple campgrounds, Parks Canada has been spending the winter assessing them. Wylde reported around 75 per cent of their existing inventory will be open for the 2025 season.
Whistlers Campground will be almost fully open, except for some loops that will be held back as part of interim housing for Jasper residents.
“Basically, it will be the same application process as to get into interim housing,” Wylde said. “People will just have the opportunity to camp, and it'll be for the duration of the camping season.”
Around a third of the campsites at Wapiti Campgrounds will be open, whereas Wabasso Campground and the Whirlpool Group Campground will remain closed due to extensive fire damage.
Wylde cautioned that campsite photos on Parks Canada’s website may not reflect actual on-the-ground scenery.
“Both Wapiti and Whistlers were impacted by the fire, so there'll be burned trees,” he said. “There will be more open sight lines as a lot of trees had to be taken down and removed, so it'll just have a little bit of a different look than it typically would.”
All of Jasper’s backcountry sites will be open since none of them were impacted by the wildfire, although a couple of trailheads will be closed.
In addition, Parks Canada has moved the overflow campground onto the reservation system for the entirety of the season, which will give people more opportunity to reserve campsites ahead of time, and it has extended the camping season with some sites opening earlier and closing later.
Wylde noted they were anticipating Jasper would be as busy as usual, and camping would be near or at capacity, as is typical for the park.
“We're not expected to see a decline in camping whatsoever for the season,” he said.
Parks Canada advises campers to plan their trip ahead of time and reserve their sites.
