Smelt Bay Provincial Park

BC Parks · BC · BC Parks

Smelt Bay Provincial Park cancellation alerts

Smelt Bay Provincial Park is usually sold out. Get a free email when a cancellation opens: pick your dates and we check BC Parks every 30 minutes.

Watch Smelt Bay Provincial Park for free Book on BC Parks · Google Maps

About

Smelt Bay boasts 24 creatively placed campsites in a wonderful forest setting. Many of the sites are multi-level tiered sites, with privately located tent pads. A beautiful cook shelter is located in the middle of the campground for all park users to share. This park is ideal for tenters and also works well for small RV’s. Larger RV’s will fit in a few of the sites or can camp in the day-use overflow area. Located on the southern peninsula of Cortes Island, the park is named for the capelin fish that spawn ashore by the tens of thousands. Females lay up to 65,000 eggs on the shore in late September and early October, which hatch in 2 to 3 weeks. These small silver-green, sardine-sized fish draw a variety of other marine life to the area, including salmon, seals, sea lions, seabirds and otters. Gulls, Bald eagles, cormorants, herons and oystercatchers can also be seen here. This scenic park features a beautiful pebble beach that extends from the park frontage at the south end of Smelt Bay around the shoreline to Sutil Point. The beach is backed by mounds which are believed to have been built by Coast Salish First Nations as a form of defense. Smelt Bay is the only provincial campground on remote Cortes Island.

Availability at Smelt Bay Provincial Park

CampFinder checks BC Parks every 30 minutes, around the clock, and emails you when a booked-up night opens back up. That catches most cancellations, which sit open for hours; at the few campgrounds that refill in seconds it can miss the race. Set up a free availability alert for Smelt Bay Provincial Park.