B.C. residents generally find public campgrounds clean and secure, but when it comes to the reservation system and user fees, not everyone is a happy camper.

The Vancouver Sun obtained visitor satisfaction survey results for 129 B.C. Parks campgrounds through a Freedom of Information request. On cleanliness, facilities, noise control and sense of security, most parks do fairly well, with satisfaction scores in the 80- and 90-per-cent ranges (this indicates the percentage of respondents who gave a rating of “excellent” or “above average”).

Cleanliness of restrooms varies widely from park to park. Campers rated the bathrooms at the Okanagan’s Kettle Valley campground as the cleanest in the province, while Chilliwack Lake ties with Paul Lake in the Interior and Kikomun Creek in the Kootenays for dirtiest washrooms.

Golden Ears Park in Maple Ridge, one of the closest campgrounds to Vancouver, had some of the lowest scores in the province on cleanliness of grounds, condition of facilities and noise control. It is also, however, one of the biggest and busiest in B.C.

The survey results suggest, however, that park visitors are frustrated with the Discover Camping reservation system and ever-increasing user fees. Visitor satisfaction scores on these measures are much lower across the board, typically ranging between 30 and 70 per cent.

Victoria resident Shelley Travis said the fees she paid on a recent camping trip were high enough that she will be looking into private campgrounds for her next trip.

“I like the provincial parks for their maintenance and family friendly environments, but I am tired of paying the extra fees to reserve in a park that is mandatory reservation only,” Travis said in an email.

Travis was angry that she was charged the $6 reservation fee not just for one night, but for each of the three nights of her stay. When a friend arrived from Edmonton to join her, they were charged an additional $12 per night for an extra vehicle. This meant a site that had been listed at $30 per night became $48 per night, which Travis described as “ludicrous.”

The online reservation system is convenient in that it allows users to see the photos of the campsite when booking and where it is in relation to amenities such as restrooms, but reservation fees are too high, Travis said.

“I could see the $6 fee as a one-time overall reservation fee, although $2 or $3 seems more reasonable, but when you must pay it for the first three nights, that is not acceptable,” she said. “I have spoken to a few people lately about this and they are all saying they are going back to private campgrounds due to the extra fees.”

Veteran camper Braden O’Donnell of North Vancouver said the $6/night reservation fee usually constitutes about a third of the cost of camping, “which is not horrifying, but on the expensive side.”

But even with the fees, camping is still one of the most budget-friendly getaway options available, especially for families, he noted.

It is increasingly difficult to camp in a public campground over the summer without a reservation. BC Parks makes sites available online three months in advance of the arrival date, starting in mid-March. O’Donnell said his family wanted to go camping almost every weekend this summer, but because sites were snapped up so fast, they were only able to reserve four weekends.

“It’s like getting concert tickets,” he said. “If you’re not online at that particular moment, you just don’t get dates.”

Comments on The Sun’s Facebook page suggest some B.C. residents are taking their tents and camper vans south of the border, attracted by what they say are better facilities and lower fees in U.S. state parks.

“Most parks in neighbouring Washington state are far superior to anything here in B.C., which is why our family has taken B.C. off the destination list and only vacations in the States,” wrote Don McEachern. “BC Parks are primitive, poorly administered, the reservations system is a joke (3 months is stupid).”

O’Donnell said he appreciates the peace of mind the reservation system affords. One of his family’s favourite places to camp is at Nairn Falls near Pemberton, a two-hour drive. After travelling that distance with a small child, you want to know you have a site, he said, noting that campgrounds within shooting distance of Metro Vancouver “are pretty few and far between.”

Campsites in the Fraser Valley, Sea to Sky corridor and Golden Ears park tend to be hot commodities on summer weekends precisely because they are a manageable drive from Metro Vancouver and do not require a ferry trip.

But the “rush reservations” means it is almost impossible to decide on a sunny summer morning to go camping and expect to find a site in a public park.

“You can’t really decide on a whim that you want to go camping a week or two away,” O’Donnell said. “You have to kind of know that months and months out.”

tcarman@vancouversun.com

twitter.com/tarajcarman

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How the information was compiled:

The Sun recently obtained visitor satisfaction reports for 129 public campgrounds. B.C. Parks surveys a quarter of provincial campgrounds each year, so The Sun requested all reports between 2010 and 2013. This means some parks were surveyed last year, but results for others may be as much as four years old.

Park users were asked to rate campgrounds on six measures: cleanliness of grounds, condition of facilities, sense of security, control of noise, cleanliness of restrooms and ease of making an advance reservation. In 2011, a seventh category, value of camper fee, was added.

The numeric scores refer to the percentage of survey respondents who rated the park "excellent" or "above average" on a given measure.

The Sun did not include in its analysis results from campgrounds flagged by government officials as having small sample sizes (fewer than 40 respondents).

B.C. Parks Campers Survey 2010