The mild winter and a so far warm spring means Riding Mountain National Park has been having a great year so far.
George Hartlen, the CAO of Friends of Riding Mountain National Park, says they have seen big increases in the number of tourists, and businesses in the area are booming.
Hartlen says he has already seen quite a few people in the park.
"Even during the week, when typically, you would think people aren't going to be up in the area, but we see a lot more traffic during the week, and then on weekends, it's going to be a lot busier. Businesses are opening up, and everyone's just having a good start to the season."
He thinks the momentum will likely carry over into a successful summer.
"We had a really good winter this past winter, so we had a lot of great press about how the ice froze this year on [Clear Lake], and that brought up a lot of people over the winter season, and definitely seems to have carried on to spring."
Crews are still working to get trails groomed and things cleaned up after the winter, and Hartlen thinks just about everything should be done by May long weekend.
He says work on the Wasagaming Campground and Highway 10 through the park are going smoothly and on schedule.
