Grounds crews at Golden Ears Provincial Park were busy Monday, cleaning up trash left behind by thousands of long-weekend revelers.
More than 5,000 people visited the park’s camping grounds and day-use area each day over the long weekend.
Parks manager Stu Burgess estimated that more than 100 cubic yards of trash were generated by parks users over the weekend.
“It’s amazing how much trash people make when they are up here,” he said. “It takes about a day and a half to completely clean up the park, so we’d like people to clean up after themselves.”
The park’s 409 campgrounds were fully booked Friday and Saturday night, while the Alouette Lake beach areas were packed with sun-worshippers throughout the weekend.
“The weather wasn’t the greatest, but it was a nice improvement on what we’ve had so far this year,” said Burgess. “For a lot of people, this was their first taste of summer, so they seemed to be really enjoying themselves.”
Burgess said the weekend went largely without incident, despite a pair of minor injuries that required an ambulance, as well as some underage drinking.
“We had a few people who had a bit too much to drink,” he said. “But in all, it was a pretty average weekend for us.”
Parks staff are getting ready for another onslaught again this weekend. While the park’s campgrounds and day-use areas are all open for the season, some hiking trails in the park are still buried under snow.
The Golden Ears peaks are currently inaccessible, while the hiker’s shelter near the peak is still half buried in snow, Burgess said.