N.S. provincial parks report another record-breaking season for camping

Nova Scotia has had another record-breaking year for the number of campers to its provincial parks.

The province says its camping parks hosted 99,304 paid overnight stays this year -- an increase of nine per cent from 2021.

The number of people who visited the province’s 20 camping and 111 day-use parks is also up, by about 200,000 from last year, for a total of about 1.5 million people.

In terms of visitor numbers, 63 per cent of this year’s visitors were from Nova Scotia, 27 per cent came from other parts of Canada, and 10 per cent came from other countries.

"Nova Scotia has a world-class provincial parks system that continues to be discovered by our residents and visitors from around the globe," said Nova Scotia Natural Resources and Renewables Minister Tory Rushton in a Friday press release. "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 province says department staff continue to clean up parks hit hard by Fiona.

It also says people should avoid the following parks until cleanup is complete:

• Mira River
• Amherst Shore
• Caribou-Munroes Island
• Five Islands
• Arisaig
• Rushtons Beach
• Melmerby Beach
• Salt Springs

While park facilities closed for the season on Oct.10, the province says people can still use parks for activities like walking, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing during the off-season.

Campsite bookings for next year are expected to open in early April 2023.