For the third time in three years, visitors planning to park on Mount Seymour will have to first snag one of a limited number of day passes.
Starting Dec. 15, BC Parks will require visitors to first secure either a morning (7 a.m. to noon) or afternoon (noon to 4 p.m.) pass before parking in either the main P1 or lower P5 lots.
BC Parks, which operates under the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, started the pass system in the summer of 2020 as a means to manage crowds. That year, Mount Seymour Provincial Park saw 1.1 million visitors, a 20 per cent increase from 2018.
The passes are free and they can be booked two days in advance. Those with lift tickets for the Mt. Seymour Resort will have their parking pass included.
In previous years, the pass system has drawn criticism from backcountry users who argued the province’s time constraints wouldn’t allow them to safely reach farther flung destinations and get back without getting ticketed. This year, the province is allowing visitors to book both a morning and afternoon pass when planning longer stays.
Cell signals on the mountainside are spotty, or worse, so BC Parks recommends downloading or printing the pass rather than relying on internet connection.
The passes are available at reserve.bcparks.ca/dayuse/.
