Memorial Day kicks off busy travel season

Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial kickoff to what many hope will be another busy summer for tourism, and there are plenty of early indicators that this year will bring just that.

Cheyenne Mountain State Park is base camp for the Scott family from Parker this weekend.

It’s far from there first campout, as it took only 13 minutes to thread their poles, pitch their tent, and stake it down.

Steward Scott grew up camping, and now teaches his kids to appreciate the outdoors.

“It’s just nice to be out where it’s quiet and peaceful, and you can just sit and not hear traffic,” he said.

This weekend, the state park is full.

Park Ranger says Jason Hagan they have already had several other sold out weekends, and just about every remaining summer weekend is already booked solid as well.

“The past several years, we’ve seen a steady increase in our campground use and occupancy, so we are expecting an even busier summer than the last few years,” said Hagan.

Camping is just one of dozens of destinations this weekend for drivers in what will hopefully be the start of a successful summer for everyone.

According to the Convention and Visitors Bureau, the amount of special tax revenue from hotel stays and car rentals is up nearly 22 percent in the first three months of this year compared to 2015.

AAA predicts the amount of Memorial Day weekend travel will be the second most ever, due in part to the lowest gas prices in more than a decade.

For the Scotts, however, the goal is to avoid the crowds.

“For the most part, we’ll stay here, do some hiking, do some geocaching if we can figure out how to do that,” he said smiling.

One statistic that’s not so positive is that Memorial Day weekend is consistently the deadliest weekend of the year when it comes to drunk driving.

As a result, state troopers are holding one of their impaired driver enforcement campaigns, and also a click it or ticket campaign, in hopes of keeping the roads safe.