GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Campsites at Wisconsin’s state parks are going to be buzzing this weekend.
It’s not out of the ordinary to see every campsite in the state park system booked for Memorial Day weekend, and that appears to be once again ringing true.
“[We’re] really busy, which is a great thing! But for this coming weekend, for Memorial Day weekend, we basically are essentially 100% booked,” said DNR Property Services Section Chief Chris Pedretti. “If you want to go camping this weekend, keep checking the reservation website because people do cancel. Things come up, there are cancellations made, so you may be able to find something.”
And that’s not a COVID-restricted capacity. Every campsite, other than a few horse campsites, is booked going into the holiday weekend.
Pedretti says they’ve been busy at camping properties for the past month, including a huge swing in capacity for this past weekend.
“In 2019 for the same weekend, we were at about 46% occupied. This year, we were 83% occupied,” Pedretti told WTAQ News.
Electric campsites were also 98% booked last weekend. Pedretti says that means they’ll be tough to come by at all this summer.
The increase in interest for camping also doesn’t appear to be exclusive to weekends surrounding holidays this year either.
“Basically every weekend throughout the summer, and even during the week, it’s much more reservations being made, and more reservations being made well in advance of stays,” Pedretti said. “I think the industry trends point to that direction as well with the increase in sales in RVs and camping equipment in general, as well as the demand that we’ve seen.”
For more information on camping in state parks, head to the DNR’s website.
