At the end of the month, Colleen MacDonald and I are presenting at the Active Transportation Summit in Victoria. Come say hi! Details are under Talks and appearances.
This map shows every campground we could pin down, coloured by when it closes. The lighter the dot, the earlier in the fall it closes. The darkest dots are campgrounds that say they're open all year.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Directors Heather Piwowar and Colleen MacDonald are presenting at the BC Cycling Coalition's Active Transportation Summit: Thursday, October 29, 4:10 to 5:00 pm, in the Oak Bay Room at the Victoria Conference Centre, 720 Douglas St. The summit runs October 28 to 30, and you need to register to attend. Come to the talk, or find us in the hall and say hi. Program →Summit →
Jan 19
Attending in January
The Vancouver, Coast & Mountains Industry Forum, Destination BC's yearly gathering for tourism businesses in the region, has moved from October 15 to January 19. Heather Piwowar will be there. Reach out so we can find each other at a coffee break.
In September we asked when your touring season ends. Half of you ride until the campgrounds close, and the other half own fenders and keep going. If you're in the first group, this month's feature shows when campgrounds close across BC.
Weigh in on this month's question:
News from the field
Oct 7
Still time to join the Active Transportation Summit
Registration is still open for the BC Cycling Coalition's Active Transportation Summit in Victoria, October 28 to 30. Bursaries are still available and take 50% off registration for all three days. If cost is a factor, you're eligible. When you register, you can also ask to be matched with others to carpool, share a taxi, or cycle in together. Day 1 is half-day workshops, $59 each, on topics like walking and biking to school and the Motor Vehicle Act, and they're filling up fast. BC Cycle Tourism Society (Colleen and Heather) are presenting on Thursday afternoon. Bursary →Workshops →Register →
Sep 30
More room for bikes on the Vancouver–Seattle train
Amtrak Cascades has started running its new Airo trains. Each one has racks for 18 bikes, some of them in the passenger cars, so you can keep your bike near you rather than only in the baggage car. Two Airo trains are running so far: one arrives in Vancouver from Seattle at 12:30 pm, and one leaves Vancouver for Seattle at 4:45 pm. The rest of the fleet switches over by early 2027. You still need a bike reservation, and Amtrak's booking system may cap them at six per train until it catches up. E-bikes are allowed under 50 lb, with tires no wider than 2". Amtrak →
Oct 2
Free bikepacking gear in Nelson
Building Momentum Bikepacking runs a free gear library for women and gender-diverse riders: bikepacking bikes, bags, tents, and other camping gear, borrowed for up to a week (two with a renewal) and picked up in Nelson. Since it opened in late July, 35 people have borrowed 67 items. Gear library →
Oct 6
Adventure Cycling's new members-only chats
Adventure Cycling Association (ACA) is a US non-profit, but a few of its routes run through BC, including the Vancouver Crossing Loop, the start of its Pacific Coast Route, and part of the Great Divide Route. (This month it also launched an Eastern Canada Route, 1,500 km from Toronto to Québec City, roughly two-thirds car-free, swoon!) ACA members get Adventure Cyclist, a beautiful touring magazine, in print or digital. New this year are Campfire Chats, small monthly online conversations for members. October's is about eating on tour (Oct 21, 4 pm Pacific). Campfire Chats →
BC Trip Reports
People keep writing about riding BC. A few recent favourites.
Sep 9
Gravel riding and a bike hotel in Clinton
Not a trip report exactly, but a lovely ten minutes of riding in the South Cariboo. Kelly Servinski and Erin Yeo sold everything to open the Tutti Gravel Inn in Clinton, which they call Canada's first gravel bike hotel. The film follows them and a few riders out on the gravel roads around town. It was made with support from the region's tourism association and two bike brands, it's a polished look at what a stay built around bikes can be like. Since filming, wildfires have hit the area hard, with an evacuation order and homes and businesses lost. The inn came through fine, but the community has a hard road ahead. It's a great time to consider making the trip and supporting local businesses along the way. Video on YouTube →
Oct 2
Around the Little Slocan
Nine riders from Building Momentum Bikepacking rode from Winlaw along the Slocan Valley Rail Trail to lunch in Slocan, then climbed to camp at the Little Slocan Lake rec site. They hung their food in a tree. Ride report on Substack →
Sep 28
Babines to Terrace
A northern BC rider linked the Babines loop to Telkwa Pass: 205 km over three and a half days, including 30 km of purpose-built alpine singletrack. Cronin Pass still had snow in mid-July. Their tip: if you time it right, you can take VIA Rail from Terrace back to Smithers. Trip report on Reddit →
Sep 11
Victoria to Sombrio Beach and back
Eden Sun's second bikepacking trip: 400 km over four days, along the Juan de Fuca coast to Sombrio Beach and back through Lake Cowichan. Three crashes and two falls along the way, and a bus to get past a stretch closed to bikes. Trip report at the UBC Varsity Outdoor Club →
Sep 22
Up the Koch Creek road in the Valhallas
A photo trip into the Valhallas near McKean Lakes, then down to Burton on a recently decommissioned ATV road. No bears, though lots of bear scat. Trip report on Reddit →
Sep 18
A week of hub-and-spoke riding from Penticton
Twenty-four Cross Canada Cycle Tour Society riders based themselves in Penticton for a week of hub-and-spoke riding: Summerland backroads past the Trout Creek Trestle, Oliver and Okanagan Falls, and a last ride through the Little Tunnel to Naramata, just after the Bald Range fire. Trip report in the CCCTS Newsbrief →
Aug 12
Victoria to Elk Pass
Kate Bradley rode about 2,190 km of the Great Northern Bikepacking Route in 43 days, through Nelson and Fernie. Her rear hub failed at Elk Pass, on the Alberta border, and that ended the trip. Trip summary on Substack →
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