7,500 campsites booked by 1 p.m. as Nova Scotia Provincial Parks launches new registration system

It's shaping up to be another busy year at the province's campgrounds.

Provincial parks are staggering the opening of registrations over three days this year.

At 9 a.m. Tuesday, bookings opened for Blomidon, Ellenwood Lake, Rissers Beach, The Islands, Thomas Raddall and Valleyview

According to the Nova Scotia Provincial Parks Facebook page, by 1 p.m., 7,500 reservations had been made. Almost half of those — 47 per cent — were for the popular Rissers Beach Provincial Park.

Following issues with website crashes in previous years, the Department of Lands and Forestry launched a new online registration system this year.

Those logging onto the Nova Scotia Provincial Parks registration website between 8:40 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. were placed in a virtual waiting room.

Then when reservations opened, they were randomly assigned a unique number to queue up for their turn to book.

Social media posts indicate many found the website upgrade made the process go much smoother, however some still ran into issues.

Wednesday will be the first day for reservations for Amherst Shore, Cape Chignecto, Dollar Lake, Five Islands, Laurie, Porters Lake and Smileys.

Then on Thursday, you can start booking sites at Battery, Boylston, Caribou-Munroes Island, Graves Island, Mira River, Salsman and Whycocomagh.