SUAMICO, Wis.— Dan and Ruth Waldon are seeing the Midwest one campground at a time.

The couple is spending the better of the summer camping across Wisconsin and the region.

What You Need To Know

  • The Brown County Parks Department continues to see a large number of campers at its campsites

  • The uptick in interest in camping and other outdoor activities during the pandemic is still there three years later

  • Weekends are busy and campers are urged to plan ahead with site reservations

“We really like the countryside. It’s green, it’s pretty,” Dan Waldon said. “There are lots of trails. We have some e-bikes that we ride around on. We like to explore easy trails with those. It’s been great.”

The Florida couple recently stayed at the Reforestation Camp Campground in Suamico near Green Bay.

Longtime campers, they’ve seen a shift in who some of their neighbors are at campsites.

“There are a lot more younger people camping than we use to see,” Waldon said. “When we were out west a couple of years ago, there were a lot of people who looked like they were living full time in their rigs. More-so than we’ve ever seen in the past 20 years.”

Camping and other outside activities saw a spike in interest during the pandemic.

State figures indicate outdoor recreation is an $8.7 billion industry in Wisconsin annually. That was up more than 14% from 2020 to 2021.

(Spectrum News 1/Nathan Phelps)

Matt Kriese of the Brown County Parks Department said the number of campers using county campgrounds is continuing that trend.

“We’ve noticed that our trend lines continue on an uptick, which is great to see,” he said. “People are still getting outdoors, enjoying camping and recreating with their families and loved ones.”

While RV and camper sales have cooled since the halcyon days of 2020, their use hasn’t wained.

“Those RVs are still out on the market and people are still looking to use them,” Kriese said. “Camping is really a reasonable alternative to a hotel room or any other vacation you may have. Those campers are still showing up and those trends continue to increase as far as occupancy.”

Waldon said there’s something special about seeing the country through camping.

“We haven’t been to this area of the country before, across this Northern tier. We thought we’d start with Wisconsin,” he said. “We thought we’d spend enough time here to really get to know the place and see what there is to offer. Instead of just blasting our way across the country staying a night or two, we like to stay a week or more at each place and explore that area.”