(Photo: Michigan Department of Natural Resources)
Summer used to be a time where many people took to the skies or hopped a train for vacation, but the pandemic has changed all that.
People are vacationing closer to home and flocking to Michigan beaches, campgrounds, hiking trails and harbors in record numbers, Bridge Magazine reports.
“We’ve seen record numbers of people all week, even on marginal weather days,” says Ron Olson, parks and recreation chief of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. “People have been sequestered at home, and being outside feels like a safer place to go, particularly places that have larger open spaces so people can spread out.”
Reservations were up 25 percent at state campgrounds last month, in terms of nights booked, along with “unprecedented” attendance at first-come, first-served rustic campgrounds. Visitors to the Huron-Clinton Metroparks system in southeast Michigan increased nearly 31 percent so far this year to 2.2 million, Bridge reports.
