Joffre Lakes to go w/ backcountry reso's
 

Joffre Lakes set to be available on BC Parks backcountry reservations system in 2014:

http://www.newsroom.gov.bc.ca/2014/0...-march-15.html


Nice try by BC Parks but I doubt this will curb the numbers that are camped at the Upper Lake. Only BC trails that actually enforce backcountry camp quotas I believe are Berg and Bowron. Not sure I will go again to Joffre unless it's mid week or early/late in season. Last time there - coolers, lawn chairs and a lot of trash were fixtures along with the lake and glacier...

Seemed to work in Desolation sound, once the sites went in, folks only camped at those spots and not all over the place. The reservation system will help even more there I suspect.

Hey don't get me wrong - I hope it helps. Not a ton of faith for it's success on popular trails.

A friend and I made reso's at Og Lake on way in to Assiniboine. Lucky we got to camp relatively early as it was nearly full...and then a group of 20 showed up. Needless to say, they camped wherever they could/wanted all over the alpine.

Joffre Lakes can be a zoo on a July or August weekend, but is it any worse than Garibaldi Lake, Cheakamus or Elfin Lakes? Or Buckhorn in Manning, or two or three Kokanee Glacier Park sites? All of them need control as much as Joffre does,

this is a good thing
i watched this place get out of control over the last 15 years

Hope it helps, I think it will. With investment in the upgraded trail, access will only increase. Fine, as long ad its managed

It won't make any difference at all and will likely end up with a bunch of hard feelings on all sides. Unless they have some kind of camp host there to ensure that those people who are camping have made a reservation, what will happen is that hordes of people will still descend on that place, without reservations, and those with them will have to "battle" for a spot. Which I'm sure will end up with hard feelings on all sides.
Really without some means of enforcing this it's pointless.

Sadly, even though the article has the word "reservations" in the title, Joffre Lake P .P. has only been added to the backcountry "registrations" system.

For more adventurous campers, new parks will be added before the May long weekend to the backcountry registration system: Desolation Sound and Joffre Lakes Provincial Park. Backcountry permits for most parks can be purchased two weeks prior to your arrival date.

Which only means that BC Parks will take your money in advance for camping fees, but paying does not mean you will get a spot. In fact, I'm not even sure the system will prevent you from paying when the amount of campers "registered" exceeds the number of sites available on a given day.

The registration fee allows for overnight camping in back country areas but does not guarantee that a campsite in a specific area will be available.

I assumed, like desolation sound, they will put in pads with site numbers for tents. For the spaces in Desolation, this effectively removed some spots that we had used prior. Although it is also quite busy, when there are no pads left, there really wasnt a choice but to move on.

If all the pads are gone and the sign at the lake says full...may help with the overcrowding.

The increase in demand is good. It's great that more people are getting into the woods to appreciate nature and get exercise. Joffre Lakes is a great place for people to be introduced to backcountry camping and is one of the best ways for city folks to get to see a glacier.

Instead of spending a bunch of money trying to enforce reservations, I would like to see them put in some more camping spots to meet the demand. It's a little tight at the far end of the 3rd lake but there are other spots where extra camping pads could be added.

They could just hire ubishops to collect fees from campers on site, he's there every morning anyways.

Exactly the problem...

but they usually collect at the end of the day

ubishops, however, would be fast enough to chase down ski tourers, from all accounts.

Also, the RCMP would be able to build Gigapixel images of any infractions from his photo dumps.