The snow is gone, the grass is getting greener, and Iowans are apparently anxious to get into the great outdoors. Iowa Department of Natural Resources State Parks Bureau chief, Kevin Szcodronski, says that’s pretty evident in the on-line campground registrations.
Szcodronski says the system lets you make reservations up to three months in advance, and the Memorial Day sites are all booked up.
The reservations for the Fourth of July just opened up and he says the same thing is happening. Szcodronski says half of the sites are made available through the on-line reservation system, so there is still hope you can get a place. But he says you’ll have to plan ahead.
He says if you don’t get a reserved site, you still have a chance to get one of the remaining “first-come, first served” sites.
Szcodronski says people have learned to get to the parks as early as the Tuesday before a holiday and his advice is to forget about trying to pull up the night before a big weekend to get a spot. Szcodronski says on-line reservations have been brisk since the system started.
Szcodronski says the major holiday weekends have always gone quickly, and he says the overall camping numbers have been up. Szcodronski says camping has become an activity that’s allowing people to forget their cares. He says people who are hard pressed and have lost their jobs look at the parks as a way to get away and relieve stress. Szcodronski says with no entrance fees, the parks are somewhere people can go and do something pretty inexpensively.
To see cabins, campsites or to check for their availability go to: www.iowadnr.gov, and click on the green “Online Campground Reservations” button on the right side.