PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — 2022 marked 100 years of Oregon State Parks, as well as the second-busiest year ever logged in their history.
“We are incredibly grateful to our visitors, volunteers and partners and to all those who cherished and supported Oregon State Parks for its first 100 years,” Oregon Parks and Recreation Department Director Lisa Sumption said in a release. “We know the next 100 years will bring challenges and opportunities, but we will meet them together with resilience and a sense of stewardship for these awe-inspiring places that belong to us all.”
According to OPRD, state-park visitors recorded 2.97 million camper nights last year. This is 1.8 percent less than the number of camper nights in 2021, which holds the top spot for the most bustling year.
The state parks also report that there were more than 52 million day-use visits in 2022, a 2.7 percent decline from the previous year.
2021 and 2022 being record-breaking years for state-park visits could be attributed to the strict guidelines that were in place the year before.
In March 2020, Oregon State Parks announced to the public that all parks would close to slow the spread of COVID-19. In the months to come, the parks gradually opened up so people could camp overnight, but with a few limitations in place — hence why many Oregonians were excited to return to the campgrounds as normal in the next couple of years.
But data from the OPRD shows that people were more eager to spend time in some state parks than they were in others. Park officials reported that day-use and camping numbers in the Willamette Valley parks increased from 2021 to 2022, by 4 percent and 7.8 percent respectively.
Detroit Lake, Fall Creek, Champoeg State, Willamette Mission and Milo McIver state parks were some of the valley’s hot spots.
Day-use and camping on the Oregon coast remained steady, while camping in the mountain region had the most significant decline at 11.9 percent — with state parks such as the Valley of the Rogue, Farewell Bend, Prineville and Cove Palisades not seeing many visitors.
OPRD connected the region’s drop in to that summer’s rise in gas prices, saying that many campers opted to stay close to Oregon’s most populated areas instead of venturing out.