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July 10, 2007

Salisbury Reservation state’s most popular park

Jimmy Carroll

Trailer doors are left wide open, music plays through screen windows, and campers walk around barefoot and in bathing suits.

At Salisbury Beach State Reservation’s campground, leisure is the only visible way of life, and it can be yours — so long as you book your trip well ahead of time.

Statewide, reservations for camping sites at the 28 state parks and forests are up 10 percent from last year. But at Salisbury, there’s no way for the popularity of camping to get any better than it already is.

“All sites are booked through the summer, as they were last year, as they will be next year,” said Wendy Fox, press secretary for the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation.

Salisbury is now ranked the most popular campground in the state park system, tied with Nickerson State Park, the state’s largest camping park, on Cape Cod.

“While Nickerson has 418 sites, Salisbury has 484,” Fox said. “And they are both full every day, from Memorial Day through Labor Day.”

State officials say the rise in popularity at state camping parks this year can be attributed to improved weather from last spring and the spike in gas prices, which has tended to keep people closer to home. Indeed the bulk of the campers in Salisbury’s campgrounds spotted this weekend hailed from Massachusetts and New Hampshire, with the occasional New York, Florida or Quebec license plates.

And camping rates are relatively cheap — Massachusetts residents pay $15 a night; out-of-staters pay $17.

Those who go to Salisbury say its popularity can be largely attributed to its close proximity to the ocean. The camping sites are no farther than a few hundred yards from the beach.

And then there’s the tonic that every vacationer seeks — a congenial atmosphere.

The small dirt-path roads of the campground are filled with people riding bikes, walking dogs, grilling, tanning and doing just about everything else a vacationing camper would like to do on a hot summer day.

Loyal Salisbury Beach camper Charles Hatch, of Derry, N.H., has been coming to the park for 30 years now and said the ocean just keeps him coming back for more.

“I’ve been coming here since my kids were about 2 or 3,” Hatch said. “And now they have kids that are 2 or 3.”

Hatch particularly likes the friendly atmosphere at the beach.

“I met a guy and his family that were from way up in Canada,” he said. “After we met, we became good friends and would continue to meet each other each year at the campground.”

Hatch also likes the familiarity of the beach and said that you seem to see a lot of the same people each year.

“Everybody helps each other out,” he said. “I love it down here.”

Joe Alfonso, of Chicopee, who has been camping at Salisbury Beach for about 20 years, says it’s all about the beach.

“You’ve got great access to the water here — you’ve got a ramp for your boats, plenty of area to go fishing,” he said. “There’s not too many campgrounds on the beach.”

His wife, Joyce, who moved from Michigan in 1994, likes how safe the campground is.

“It’s very family-oriented and you don’t have to worry about your kids,” she said. “The security is very good at what they do and there’s never really any problems.”

Another reason the couple have remained loyal to the campground so long is its location. The Alfonsos meet family members at the campground every summer and are able to enjoy a number of different activities, depending on what they feel like doing.

“You can swim, go fishing, take a da -trip to Kittery to go shopping, visit the White Mountains,” he said. “It’s a very good centrally located spot.”

Because the park has such steadfast campers as the Alfonsos, reservations are hard to come by.

“You used to be able to just come and walk in and get a spot on site,” Joyce Alfonso said. “Now you’ve got to book about six months ahead of time.”

Campground offices operate 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Regular camping season is from mid-April to mid-October. Off-season camping is available from mid-October to late November for Thursday, Friday and Saturday night stays. Salisbury Beach State Reservation, 978-462-4481

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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