October can be some of the best riding of the year in BC. The roads are quieter, the leaves are turning, and in much of the province it's still dry.
But – can you still camp?
We checked the official pages of about 1,300 campgrounds and here's what we learned.
When do campgrounds close?#
Campground closures cluster around a few dates each year:
- The end of September is the big cluster. About 90 campgrounds close on September 30 or October 1; by October 1st about 220 of the campgrounds have closed.
- Thanksgiving Monday (October 12 this year) is the second wave of closing dates: about 70 more close by then.
- Mid-October and Halloween are the closure dates for most of the rest.
So where should I camp in October?#
It depends a lot on where you are. Here's the share of campgrounds on our map, including year-round ones, that are still open after Thanksgiving:
In Northern BC, most campgrounds close early. Only about a third of the ones open on Labour Day are still open on October 1st. After Thanksgiving, about a quarter of the North's campgrounds are open.
Campgrounds on the coast stay open much later. More than three-quarters of campgrounds in Vancouver, Coast and Mountains and on Vancouver Island are still open after Thanksgiving. The southern Interior sits in the middle, with about half its campgrounds open after Thanksgiving and fewer by the end of October.
Campground closures roughly follow the frost. Here's each region side by side: how many campgrounds on our map are still open after Thanksgiving and on November 1st, next to a normal October from Environment and Climate Change Canada's 1991 to 2020 averages.
| Region | Campgrounds on the map | Open after Thanksgiving | Open November 1 | October overnight low | Days with rain or snow | Nights below freezing | Average first fall frost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vancouver Island | 178 | 135 (76%) | 94 | 6 to 8°C | 14 to 20 | about 1 or fewer | Nov 4 |
| Vancouver, Coast and Mountains | 144 | 119 (83%) | 78 | 7°C | 15 | about 1 | Nov 10 |
| Thompson Okanagan | 162 | 86 (53%) | 39 | 4°C | 10 | 6 to 7 | Oct 8 to 12 |
| Kootenay Rockies | 108 | 48 (44%) | 18 | 0 to 4°C | 10 to 15 | 4 to 16 | Sep 23 |
| Cariboo Chilcotin Coast | 55 | 26 (47%) | 7 | -1°C | 13 | 18 | Sep 14 |
| Northern British Columbia | 83 | 23 (28%) | 16 | -1 to 0°C | 16 to 17 | 15 to 17 | Sep 7 to 17 |
Weather towns: Victoria and Cape Beale on the west coast (Vancouver Island), Vancouver, Kamloops and Penticton, Nelson and Cranbrook (the frost date is Cranbrook), Williams Lake, Prince George, and Smithers. "Days with rain or snow" counts any day with at least 0.2 mm.
What's the weather like?
In October in BC you're mostly choosing between rain and frost.
On the coast the nights stay mild, around 6 to 8°C, but expect rain on about half your days, and a lot more than that on the west coast of the mainland or the Island. In the Okanagan and around Kamloops, October is dry (about 10 wet days, and about a fifth of Vancouver's rainfall), the days are just as warm as the coast, and the nights drop to around 4°C with a frost about one night in five. In the Cariboo, the North, and around Cranbrook, about half of October nights go below freezing.
Early October can be lovely in the dry Interior, provided you're equipped for freezing nights. Later in the month, you'll find more open campgrounds and milder nights on the coast.
What about after Thanksgiving, or winter?#
About 230 campgrounds on our map say they're open year-round, though "open year-round" can mean very different things. Some parks offer hot showers; others are unplowed, with little more than a pit toilet. Some private parks that stay open all winter take only RVs or monthly stays in the off-season. So we looked for ones that explicitly allow tents. We found 16 places that say on their own page that they take tents in winter:
Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands
- Fillongley, on Denman Island
- Goldstream, near Victoria
- Jordan River (a Capital Regional District park)
- Narvaez Bay and Shingle Bay, in Gulf Islands National Park Reserve. Open in winter but not maintained, so you're on your own.
- North Park at Horne Lake (gravel road)
- Pedder Bay RV Park, Metchosin, near the Galloping Goose. Winter tent sites from about $48.
- Quinsam, at Elk Falls near Campbell River. About $11 a night, cash.
- Rathtrevor Beach, Parksville
- Sproat Lake, near Port Alberni
- Upper Campbell Reservoir (BC Hydro). Free, first-come, first-served. Snow is possible.
Vancouver, Coast and Mountains
- Willingdon Beach, Powell River. In town, right on the beach, with a winter tent rate of about $27. Of everything we checked, it had the clearest winter tent policy.
- Shelter Point, on Texada Island (the gate is locked at night)
- Grace Lake (gravel forest road)
- Lone Duck One, in Manning Park. This is snow camping, at about 1,200 m.
Thompson Okanagan
- Moon Shadows RV Park, Merritt, which keeps 19 tent sites open all year
Services get thin in winter. Water may be shut off and the flush toilets closed, even where the campground is open. Call ahead about water so you are prepared.
Wait, that one closes when?#
A few campgrounds close for reasons that have nothing to do with the weather, and one is open only in winter.
- Gwe Da Ts’ih, in Ts’ilʔos Park in the Chilcotin, closes in September and October for spawning salmon. It's open the rest of the year, November through August.
- Taylor Meadows, in Garibaldi Park, also closes in September and October, for bears.
- Cambie Creek, near Manning Park, is open only in winter, from early December to late March.
- Chute Lake Lodge, above Naramata on the Kettle Valley Rail Trail, says it closes in March and April.
Can I still camp after a campground “closes” for the season?#
Surprisingly, it is hard to know! We found some season information for 858 campgrounds, including ones too uncertain to map. Only 239 of them (28%) said anything about what happens after closing. Of those, 90 let you camp without services, 89 keep some services going, and 60 say no camping at all. Some leave the gate open and the taps off, but others lock them. You’re taking your chances.
What's not on the map?#
Lots of campgrounds aren't on the map because we couldn't find a clear season for them.
Many of these are Recreation Sites and Trails BC sites. Most Rec Sites don't post a season at all. They're unstaffed, and you can use them while the road is open and there's no snow, which in practice can mean well into fall. About 430 campgrounds in the directory have no posted season, and most of them are Rec Sites.
We also left off about 90 places where the information we found was weak or contradictory.
Tent calling?#
Check the campground's own website before you go, especially if you're travelling after Thanksgiving. And if you find a closure date we've got wrong, let us know so we can improve the directory for the next rider.
You can find campgrounds along your route in the BC Bike Stops directory.
Information checked in October 2026.