Parks Canada reservations to open 3 months earlier than previous years

It's the time of year when many Canadians are musing over which tropical destination would offer the best winterescape.

But Parks Canada wants us to start thinking about next summer.Like, right now.

For visits starting in April all the way through to March, 2017, reservations willopen inJanuary three months earlier than previous years.

• Check out thefull listof new booking dates for Parks Canada campgrounds.

"People are trending towardbooking further in advance," said PattiYoungberg, an operations coordinator with Banff National Park.

"The campgrounds fill up really fast," she added."If we open it earlier,people just have a better opportunity to get the dates that they want."

Campers can start reserving popular sites in Banff, such as Lake Louise, Tunnel Mountain and Johnston Canyon, on Jan. 14.

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Bookings start a day earlier in In Jasper for Pocahontas,Wabasso, Wapiti and Whistlers campgrounds (includingoTENTiks).

Reservations for the Burgess Shale guided hikes in Yoho National Park open Jan. 12 andif you've always dreamed of hiking the West Coast Trail, you can book fornext summer as early as Jan. 11.

In 2015, Parks Canada had a 27 per cent increase in campground reservations over the previous year.

Between April and the end of September of this year, Banff National Park had 2.56million visitors.

That's up seven per cent from 2014.

"If it's a very specific date or a specific experience that you have in mind, like one of our oTENTikstays or an equipped campsite, we really recommend that you make those plans in advance," said Youngberg.

Alpine huts book a year ahead now

Parks Canada isn'tthe only outfit moving in this direction.

The Alpine Club of Canada (ACC) recently extended the advance-booking window for its backcountry mountain huts, too.

As of November, club members can reserve space in an alpinehut a full year ahead of time, up from the previous 60-daywindow.

The change came in response to growing demand from backcountry users, saidACC marketing manager Keith Haberl.

"It seems pretty clear that people are booking further in advance," he said.

"We deal a lot withmountain guides who are organizing a trip for other people and they're looking to book more than a year in advance and they're somewhat disappointed, sometimes, when they can't."

Individualslooking to bookhuts for themselvesalso seem to want to secure their mountain adventures farther and farther ahead of time, Haberlnoted.

"There'smore people recreating and more pressure on them to get the good bookings and not be missing out, by waiting until the last minute."