The Memorial Day holiday signifies the unofficial start of summer, which means lots of people are dusting off their camping equipment and spending time in the outdoors.

For Greene County, Conservation Director Dan Towers says Memorial Day weekend is the single biggest camping weekend of the year, with Fourth of July weekend being the second biggest. He points out that the most popular park in the county is Spring Lake Park, which Towers notes has been on a three-year increase in camping revenue, with last year being an all-time high. However, he says there’s been a slight change in rates for electrical hookup campsites.

“We do have one change. We looked at a survey of other surrounding counties and our rates were about $2 cheaper than the average of the surrounding nine or ten counties. So we upped our rates from $15 to $17 just to stay right where the average of those other counties are.”

The campsites that don’t have electricity are still $10. Towers adds the other two county parks are Squirrel Hollow and Hyde parks.

“We see a fair amount of camping there. They’re both on the Raccoon River. The people that like to be on the river, they enjoy those areas. We don’t see near the crowds, we don’t have as many sites. Those rates are $10 per night with $8 for non-electrical.”

To hear more from Towers about the parks and other outdoor activities people can do this summer, listen to Monday’s Community State Bank in Paton Let’s Talk Greene County program.