Iowa’s State Parks Bureau Chief Kevin Szcodronski is hoping the weather will be better for visitors this year. He says two popular parks are still off limits to campers because of the 2008 floods. That includes George Wyth State Park in Waterloo.
"We’re kind of touch and go for Memorial Day weekend, but we’re hoping that we’re going to get that park open," Szcodronski said. The campground at Walnut Woods State Park in Des Moines also remains closed because of last spring’s flooding and may not reopen until later this summer. The campground at Green Valley State Park near Creston in southwest Iowa is also closed, but not because of Mother Nature.
"We’re renovating that entire campground," Szcodronski said. "It will be off-line for all of this summer. The lake is drawn down too to restore the fisheries. So, give us a year or so for the campground, two or three years for the fisheries and that’s going to become a prime spot." There are still plenty of other campgrounds for Iowans and others to visit.
Szcodronski says Iowa has 87 state park properties covering 60,000 acres.