The rain’s gone away, and Kansas lakes are ready to welcome Memorial Day visitors

For many, Memorial Day is the kick-off of the summer season — bonfires, lake days, grill-outs and camping. Afton, Cheney and El Dorado lakes are popular Kansas spots for summer fun, and the lakes are preparing for just that.

Even following the rainy last few days, the lakes are in good shape to entertain this weekend’s visitors.

El Dorado State Park, with its 98 miles of shoreline, is expecting anywhere from 80,000 to 90,000 people, according to Doug Lauxman, director of volunteer programs and camp posts. The lake is still ready to entertain guests, he said, with the water only about seven to eight inches above normal.

“I don’t think the water levels are going to affect too much,” Lauxman said. “It’s probably close to three feet before it starts impacting our campsites … It’ll probably come up just a little bit more … but I expect it to be relatively the same.”

El Dorado offers just shy of 1,200 campsites. Lauxman wants visitors to “just be nice to each other.”

“It gets crowded, we get a lot of people,” Lauxman said. “Just be courteous to each other and it’ll be a great weekend.”

Cheney State Park is expecting 30,000 to 40,000 visitors over the weekend. The park’s roughly 700 campsites are almost completely booked for the weekend.

As for water levels, park manager Shayn Koppes said they are two feet below conservation.

“We’ve came up, but we’re not quite back up to that conservation pool,” Koppes said.

Koppes said he wants guests to have fun, but also be safe and respectful.

“We just want to make sure that, you know, everybody realizes it’s going to be busy out here but we want to make sure that everybody gets along, and just, you know, everybody be positive,” Koppes said.

Lake Afton Park, near Goddard, is expecting up to 40,000 visitors Friday through Monday. The lake level is about four to six inches above normal after recent rains. But Superintendent Mark Sroufe said it’s nothing to worry about, as Afton drains quickly. It’s expected to be just a little over full for the weekend.

“I expect that by Friday, then we’ll be down to just a trickle over the spillway. So we’ll be full,” Superintendent Mark Sroufe said.

Afton has 210 electrical camping spots, and countless other spots for visitors to camp without electricity. With the thousands of visitors expected Sroufe, like Lauxman, wants visitors to be respectful of each other.

“They need to be considerate of their neighbors as far as noise, that kind of thing,” Sroufe said. “And make sure you have your dog on a leash and put them in the camper at night.”

This story was originally published May 27, 2022 at 2:54 PM.