FOLSOM, Calif. — With this weekend’s heat wave, some people may be heading to the great outdoors to do a little camping. But state park rangers are urging campers to prepare for the heat or consider rescheduling.
Many Recreation areas are experiencing dryer-than-normal conditions. At Folsom Lake, water levels are so low visitors may have to walk close to a mile from parking lots to get to the water.
Park rangers say heat exhaustion is not uncommon and a tent is not a great place for shade.
“Probably being in your tent is not a great idea. It would be like being in your car without A/C,” State Parks District Superintendent Barry Smith said.
At Folsom Lake, Beal’s Point campground reservations are at 50% partly due to the heat.
Jenifer Infantino and her family planned on celebrating their daughter’s 17th birthday but decided to leave because of the heat and low lake levels.
“We are waiting to get a refund. I am not going to pay $24 to sit here at look at dirt,” Infantino said.
The dirt she is talking about is the miles of exposed lakebed caused by the drought. Smith doesn’t like to talk negatively about Folsom Lake, but he says there are a few things visitors should know before coming.
“Sometimes it can be almost a mile to the water,” Smith said. “At Folsom when we lose our beaches, we lose our life guarded beaches.”
Lifeguards are not a big concern to Elisa Lozano, but staying cool inside her tent is. That’s why she hired Creative Excursions -- a camping company that set up what they call a “Glamping tent” equipped with a real bed, carpet, and even a fan.
“It’s just a normal fan and my husband says it’s going to make us hotter blowing the air around,” Lozano laughed. “We’ll tough it out. I guess that’s camping.”
Park rangers say if you are going to camp anywhere in California make sure you have plenty of water, a good source of shade, and a place to rest. You may also want to consider changing your reservations to a different date, too.
