More Montanans Are Visiting State Parks During the Pandemic

Montana has been gradually reopening over the last few weeks, slowly bringing back businesses, restaurants, and more under new social distancing guidelines. Things are a little different in some parts of the country - some states are fully open, others don't know when they're going to be able to open up again.

A little while back, the federal government closed all of the national parks in the country in order to slow the spread of COVID-19. And with national parks closed and people looking to get out of the house during quarantine, it only makes sense that the state parks in Montana are seeing more and more visitors. And in fact, it seems like they're seeing a pretty drastic jump in attendance. In March and April of last year, the parks managed a total of about 95,000 visitors. This year, those same months saw about 152,000 - that's more than a 60% increase!

It's great to see people utilizing their state parks during this time, and hopefully that can keep up even after the pandemic is over - have you been out to visit any of them in recent months? Especially now that the weather is picking up, it's definitely a good time to go.