Camping at State Parks increasingly popular

The number of Wisconsin campers staying in state parks is on the rise this year.

The state Department of Natural Resources says camping reservations in state parks are up nine percent from the same time last year. The number of walk-in campers without reservations has increased by 80 percent.

DNR Spokesman Landon Williams says one of the big reasons the jump in numbers is this year’s early warm spring, which got campers eager to get outside sooner. With these numbers, Landon says 2012 is shaping up to be the state’s busiest camping season yet, “We’re on pace to beat, or very slightly exceed the [numbers from] 2010; we’re very pleased interest the folks are showing, the support they’re showing for Wisconsin state parks.”

Williams says the number of campers in Wisconsin have steadily increased by 5 percent each year from 2005 to 2010. He says the number was down slightly last year due to wet weather.