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The number of campers at the Goose Island Campground “has been very typical” this summer, campground manager Ida Christenson said Friday. “I think we had a great summer,” she said.
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“There definitely have been a lot of locals, and not as many travelers,” Christenson said. She attributes that to high gasoline prices.
The number of people camping there Friday was normal for a Labor Day weekend, Christenson said. All of the campground’s sites with both electricity and water, or with electricity only, have been booked for more than a month but tent sites remain available. The campground has more than 400 sites, Christenson said.
The peak camping season is from Memorial Day to Labor Day, Christenson said. Goose Island Campground is officially open from April 15 through Oct. 31, but plans to offer winter camping for the second consecutive year.
“I assume it will start Nov. 1,” Christenson said. “We still have duck hunters who like to come out and camp.”
“It’s been very good” this summer, with typical numbers of campers, said Darlene Guinn, co-manager of Veterans Memorial Campground near West Salem.
Guinn said this year’s campers include more local people than usual. “With the gas prices, people are just staying close to home,” she said.
The campground has 114 spaces and will be almost full this weekend, Guinn predicted. “We’re filling up fast,” she said Friday morning.
The number of people camping this summer in Wisconsin “has been pretty typical,” said Lori Severson, executive director of the Wisconsin Association of Campground Owners.
“We’ve had a cluster of campgrounds that had record years,” Severson said. “And we’ve had some areas that have had lower numbers than normal,” including some campgrounds in the Wisconsin Dells area. That was because some people seemed to incorrectly think the Wisconsin Dells area was closed because Lake Delton emptied, Severson said.
“And gas prices affected some of our northern campgrounds” that traditionally draw campers from longer distances, Severson said. “I think the Chicago business was down a little bit (because of high gas prices), but our people staying closer to home made up for that.”
High gas prices prompted some people to camp closer to home, and also made extended stays a little more popular, Severson said. “People would stay more days at one particular campground,” rather than make more trips for shorter stays.
Summer camping got off to a slow start in Wisconsin because of flooding in some areas, Severson said. “But July and August turned out nicely,” she said.
