Manitoba camping registration opens on Monday. Here's what you need to know

Birds Hill Provincial Park

Manitobans will be able to begin making reservations for provincial park campgrounds, yurts, cabins and group-use areas starting on Monday, and the province has made some changes to this year’s reservation system.

Earlier in the week, Environment, Climate and Parks Minister Jeff Wharton announced this year’s system includes staggered launch dates and technical improvements.

“Our government understands that in previous years individuals have had challenges with the reservation system,” he said.

“We recognize that having easy, accessible operations to the parks reservation service is an important part of the overall experience.”

The province is working to implement a new system by 2023, but has made some technical improvements to the existing system to ensure users have a better experience this year.

This year’s improvements include adding computing resources to increase the system performance, increasing the stability of the queue and reducing the chance that people lose their place in line, and providing immediate confirmations at the time of booking through web page messaging and a confirmation email.

Manitoba has also scheduled additional launch days to spread out the amount of people using the system at once. This year, instead of three launch days, initial bookings will be spread across five days.

These five phases are as follows:

• April 4 at 7 a.m. bookings open for cabins, yurts and group-use areas;
• April 6 at 7 a.m. campsite reservations open for Birds Hill, Falcon Beach, Falcon Lakeshore and West Hawk Lake;
• April 8 at 7 a.m. campsite reservations open for parks in the western and northern regions, including Asessippi, Bakers Narrows, Clearwater Lake, Duck Mountain, Manipogo, Paint Lake, Rainbow Beach, Rivers, Spruce Woods, Turtle Mountain, William Lake and Wekusko Falls;
• April 11 at 7 a.m. campsite reservations open for Grand Beach, Nopiming and all the remaining White Shell campgrounds, including Caddy Lake, Big Whiteshell, Brereton Lake, Nutimik Lake, Opapiskaw, Otter Falls, Betula Lake and White Lake; and
• April 13 at 7 a.m. bookings open for the remaining locations such as Birch Point, Camp Morton, Hecla, Hnausa Beach, Lundar Beach, Moose Lake, St. Malo, Stephenfield, Watchorn and Winnipeg Beach.

Manitoba has reduced the maximum stay at a cabin or yurt to seven nights. Cabins, yurts and group-use areas are limited two reservations per session on opening day, while campsites are still limited to three reservations per session on opening days.

The province is informing people that despite this year’s changes, people might still experience waits and delays.

To accommodate the high demand on April 4, Manitoba is opening online and call centre services at 7 a.m. The province recommends that people check the website for the call centre hours on other days, and that those who are making online reservations check their user IDs and passwords beforehand.

The province notes that online and call centre reservations are preferred, but Manitobans can make walk-in reservations and in-person payment arrangements at 200 Saulteaux Cres. in Winnipeg from Monday to Friday between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. beginning on April 4.