ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The surf. The sand. But no sun.
Yes, you still need a reservation for Sandy Point even in bad weather
Some visitors to Sandy Point State Park still made the most of their day off this Memorial Day, despite the less-than-perfect beach conditions.
“There’s like nobody here, so it’s kind of perfect," said Jessica Cornell, who was visiting from New York City.
“It’s good to take advantage of places where there’s not that many people," 11-year-old Romeo Garcia said. “Having fun with family is all that matters.”
The state park is one of the most popular in Maryland, and can see huge crowds, especially on good weather days.
But even when it's not, from now until Labor Day it requires reservations in advance.
Most likely because of the weather, they were easy to snag close to the holiday.
“We had thought about canceling, every day we’re checking in, like are we still going? An Ngyuen said. "We just bought the reservation like two days ago, just because we were waiting until the last minute, but it’s better than sitting at home.”
Last year, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources first implemented the reservation system to cut down on traffic backups, crowds and capacity closures.
The agency reports that there were 67,000 reservations processed and 4,000 calls made to the call center. DNR stated that the results were "dramatic."
In addition to Sandy Point, Greenbrier State Park, Point Lookout, Newtowne Neck, North Point, Rocky Gap, and Swallow Falls State Parks also will require day use reservations on weekends and holidays.
