MARQUETTE - The first long weekend of the summer is the kickoff for a lot of things - the grilling season, the warm weather season, vacation season.
For many local and many visiting families, Memorial Day weekend was also a chance to get a start on this summer's camping season, with outdoors enthusiasts pulling the camper or tent out of storage and heading to the local campground.
"We're either here or in Big Bay," said Marquette resident Derek Sandstrom, who was camping with wife Becky and daughters Carly, 11, and Bre, 9, at Tourist Park for the long weekend.
The family usually makes several camping trips during the summer around the Upper Peninsula and downstate.
"It's a good way to get outside," Bre Sandstrom said, adding she enjoyed playing bocce ball, bike riding and cooking over the campfire.
For other families, the long Memorial Day weekend is a chance to take the camping equipment for a test drive before longer summer trips.
"We like to get the camper out closer to home," said Jeremy Jones of Marquette, who was also camping at Tourist Park with his wife Brandy and their two children.
"We just enjoy being outside. No TV, no phones," Brandy Jones said.
The Joneses said they also enjoyed the campground as a place for their two kids to explore safely and have a bit of freedom.
For Tourist Park, the Memorial Day weekend hasn't traditionally been a busy period, although holidays such as July 4 or events like the Ore to Shore Mountain Bike Epic typically see the park filled to capacity, said Cindy Noble, parks and recreation coordinator for the city of Marquette.
"We're up and running. We've been catching up on projects and we're starting to book reservations. The Fourth of July we're already booking up," she said.
In recent years, Noble said the park's lack of a beach area has seemed to deter reservations, especially during hot weather. Next summer, however, she expects the beach to once again be available after the dam on the Dead River is completed.
Over at the Van Riper State Park near Champion, however, Memorial Day weekend is busy, and this year is no exception.
"We are just about completely full for the weekend," Ranger Matena Coron said.
Coron said out of the 188 available sites at the park, only 15 were unoccupied this weekend.
"We had a ton of campers this weekend," she said. "People say Memorial Day is the big kickoff of summer. That's really true for us."
Johanna Boyle can be reached at 906-486-4401. Her email address is jboyle@miningjournal.net.
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