GRAND LAKE/OAKFIELD: For the second year in a row, Nova Scotia’s provincial parks have broken their record for the highest number of camper nights.
Camping parks hosted 99,304 paid overnight stays in 2022, an increase of nine per cent from 2021. About 1.5 million people visited camping and day-use parks, up by about 200,000 from last year.
“Nova Scotia has a world-class provincial parks system that continues to be discovered by our residents and visitors from around the globe,” said Natural Resources and Renewables Minister Tory Rushton.
“It’s wonderful to see yet another record-breaking year for our parks and that numbers were up despite park closures and cancelled reservations due to hurricane Fiona.”
The Department continued to make infrastructure improvements at both camping and day-use parks:
— an all-gender, accessible washroom opened at Dollar Lake
— an accessible beach mat was added to Ellenwood Lake
— lifeguard storage buildings were completed at Lawrencetown Beach and Clam Harbour Beach
— water system and accessibility upgrades were made at several parks.
Park facilities closed for the season on October 10. There are no services and gates are closed at most parks. However, during the off-season, people can still use parks for activities like walking, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing. Visitors are asked to continue to follow park rules and pack in and pack out their waste.
Department staff continue to clean up parks that were hit hard by the hurricane. For everyone’s safety, Nova Scotians should avoid the following parks until cleanup is complete: Mira River, Amherst Shore, Caribou-Munroes Island, Five Islands, Arisaig, Rushtons Beach, Melmerby Beach and Salt Springs.
Also this year, three more areas were approved to be provincial parks: Owls Head, Dunns Beach and Monks Head are currently in the formal designation process.
Quick Facts:
— there are 20 camping parks and 111 day-use and beach parks in Nova Scotia
— 63 per cent of this year’s camping park visitors were from Nova Scotia, 27 per cent came from other parts of Canada, and 10 per cent from other countries
— campsite bookings for 2023 are expected to open in early April
Additional Resources:
Nova Scotia provincial parks: https://parks.novascotia.ca/
Nova Scotia provincial parks on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NSProvincialParks
Natural Resources and Renewables on Twitter: https://twitter.com/NS_DNRR
