Camping at Snowforest Campground in Mount Revelstoke National Park

Looking for more to explore during your stay at Snowforest Campground?
Head to the the summit of Mount Revelstoke to hike the trails. Further east, check out the Rockgarden Trail at Glacier National Park.

AMENITIES

• Flush toilets
• Free hot showers
• Sinks for dishwashing
• Drinkable water
• Picnic tables and fire rings at all sites
• Free firewood available (unless there is a fire ban)
• Some cell service (we use T-Mobile)
• Visitor centre located at the campground
• A covered picnic shelter in case of bad weather

ABOUT THE SITES

• Important note: It’s not uncommon for Snowforest Campground to limit camping to hard-sided campers only due to concerns about bears. This means no tents, tent trailers, or soft-sided pop-ups. If you made an advance reservation and this requirement will be in place during your visit, you’ll receive an email notification and be given the chance to cancel if your camping equipment doesn’t meet this requirement. Tent-only campsites will be closed
• Snowforest Campground has a total of 14 unserviced sites, 18 sites with electrical service, and 27 walk-in sites. Unfortunately, when the campground is closed to tents, this means the walk-in sites are closed.
• Unserviced campsites cost $30.50 CAD per night, while sites with electricity cost $36.00 CAD.
• Snowforest Campground also rents three MicrOcubes, which are tiny cabins, for a nightly fee of $133.25 CAD.
• An additional nightly campfire fee of $11.00 CAD will be added when booking a site with a fire pit. This charge includes unlimited firewood, which is available at the campground, and will be refunded if there is a fire ban.

• Snowforest Campground is open from roughly mid-May through mid-October.
• Be bear aware. Never leave any food, coolers, or scented items out at your campsite unattended, or in tents.
• The sites on the B loop (really more of a “B line” in this case), are partially shaded. The walk-in tent sites are located in the forest and also nicely shaded. Most A loop campsites are sunnier with fewer trees.
• The sites on the B loop also offer the most privacy. The A loop offers large pull through sites, but with less privacy between sites.
• Our campsite, #A14, was one of the pull through sites. It was spacious and had a nice cluster of trees on one side of the site, and we thought it was one of the best sites in the A loop.

HOW TO RESERVE YOUR SITE

• Advance reservations are highly recommended. Snowforest Campground is fairly small, so can fill up well in advance.
• Campgrounds in the Parks Canada system open for advance reservations by location on variable launch dates each year. In 2024, for example, campgrounds at Mount Revelstoke National Park (including Whistlers) opened for reservations on January 19th. Check the Parks Canada website for launch dates.
• On the official launch date, reservations for the entire camping season will become available.
• Create an online account with Parks Canada ahead of time so you are ready to reserve.
• On launch day, anyone logged into the reservation system in the 30 minutes leading up to the official launch time (8am local time) will be randomly assigned a spot in the reservation queue. In my experience, this relieved the pressure of having to log in at exactly the right moment, and the queue moved faster than I expected, but it can still be nerve-wracking. I literally booked the last available campsite at Snowforest Campground for my travel dates!
• Don’t worry if you missed launch day. Spaces may still be available, especially if your dates are flexible. Consider other campgrounds in the area as well.

FUN STUFF

• Take a hike. It’s possible to hike from Snowforest Campground to other areas in Mount Revelstoke National Park, such as the “Nels’ Knickers” sculpture above a former ski jump. Find more information at the visitor centre.
• Check out the visitor centre. The visitor centre for Mount Revelstoke National Park is conveniently located at Snowforest Campground. You can buy national park passes here and pick up a wide range of brochures, including Xplorer activity booklets for kids (the Canadian version of Junior Rangers). There is also a small exhibit area and restrooms (washrooms). Check the park schedule for activities such as guided hikes.

NEARBY & NOTABLE

• The Mount Revelstoke Summit Trails offer many short, easy trails with beautiful views. Drive the winding, scenic Meadows in the Sky Parkway 24 kilometers from Snowforest Campground to the summit.
• The Nels Nelson historic area is just a short drive up the Meadows in the Sky Parkway from Snowforest Campground. You can hike here from the campground as well. Check out the place where a ski jump once stood and the legendary Nels Nelson set world records in the 1920s. Bonus: The “Nels’ Knickers” sculpture makes for a really fun photo op.
• The town of Revelstoke is only a ten-minute drive from Snowforest Campground. While best known for winter sports, Revelstoke is a beautiful place to visit any time of year. The small town center is home to a number of good cafes and restaurants (La Baguette was our personal favorite), and a beautiful park along the Columbia River.
• The Revelstoke Railway Museum features full size train cars and engines, as well as memorabilia and a fun model railway. The railway is the reason the town of Revelstoke exists today, and the museum provides a good introduction to this history. They also offer a scavenger hunt to keep kids engaged.
• Glacier National Park (no, not the one in Montana, but the lesser known one in British Columbia) is less than an hour’s drive east of Mount Revelstoke National Park. You’ll drive right through it if you’re heading from Revelstoke to Yoho National Park. While much of Glacier National Park consists of backcountry, there are some fun, very short trails right off Trans Canada Highway 1. We loved our stop at the Rockgarden Trail. Be sure to check out the Rogers Pass Discovery Centre for a fascinating look into avalanche control and exhibits on the local fauna.

THE VERDICT

Snowforest Campground is beautifully situated within Mount Revelstoke National Park. Despite being only a stone’s throw from Trans Canada Highway 1 and the town of Revelstoke, the sights and sounds of the highway disappear once you arrive. As a newly built campground, the facilities are top notch. It’s glamping on the cheap! Well, almost. The beautiful washroom had the best hot showers of our entire trip, and that’s saying something, considering both Kicking Horse and Whistlers Campgrounds also include free hot showers. And yes, the washroom itself is simply gorgeous. The dishwashing sinks are excellent, too.

The campsites at Snowforest have varying degrees of privacy. Our campsite, #A14, was one of the pull through sites in the center of the campground, which are more exposed. Despite this, we enjoyed our site. It had a nice picnic area, and several tall trees on the upper side of the site made it feel more secluded. For those who prefer more privacy, the B loop is best, especially those sites at the far end of the campground.

The main downside to Snowforest Campground is the fact that it is so often closed to tent camping due to bears. It’s sad to see all those lovely walk-in campsites left vacant. I don’t know if this will be addressed in the future (maybe a perimeter fence, which some campgrounds in Banff employ?), but it would be great to open the campground up more frequently for those without RVs or trailers.

Ultimately, we highly recommend Snowforest Campground as an easy home base from which to explore Revelstoke and its surroundings. This beautiful area of British Columbia is well worth your time.

Snowforest Campground was our first stop on our two-week Canadian Rockies road trip, and it was a good one. We pulled into our campsite, #A14, in the evening and quickly set up camp before making a simple dinner. Since we were only staying two nights, there was no need to get fancy, and we opted to forego the canopy and string lights.

This gave us time to explore the campground. The visitor centre was still open, so we stopped in to buy a national park pass, check out the exhibits, and pick up Xplorer booklets for the kids (the Canadian equivalent of Junior Rangers). The exhibits are small, but well done. There’s also a covered picnic shelter attached to the visitor centre, which is a great boon during bad weather.

Fortunately for us, the weather was glorious. We awoke to more sunshine the next morning and headed into Revelstoke for breakfast at Dose Coffee, then spent a leisurely few hours at the Revelstoke Railway Museum. After lunch at Terra Firma’s Kitchen, we headed up the Mountains in the Sky Parkway to the summit of Mount Revelstoke, where a maze of fun, short trails await. On the way back down, we stopped for a quick hike (more of a forest walk, really) to “Nels’ Knickers”, the fanciful sculpture where you can pose as if you are about to ski jump right into Revelstoke.

After a fun full day exploring, we settled in for dinner at Snowforest Campground, and made good use of the dishwashing sinks outside the washroom. A fire ban was in place, but luckily we could still use our propane fire ring. The campground felt small and cozy, which was no surprise considering there were only 32 total usable sites, and a few of them were empty. Sadly, the ban on soft-sided camping equipment, such as tents and tent trailers, meant all of the walk-in sites were closed. Since many of the other sites include electricity, noise from generators was rare.

All too soon, it was time to pack up and go. We left Snowforest Campground in the morning and headed into Revelstoke one last time for a delicious breakfast at La Baguette. It may not be traditional when camping, but it sure is fun to splurge on a few meals out at the start of a big trip, and Revelstoke is the place to do it. Good food and awesome natural beauty — Revelstoke has it made. With Snowforest Campground as a home base, it’s easy to experience it all.