Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
- Utah's parks face cleanup challenges after busy holiday weekends, like Memorial Day.
- Custodial crews and volunteers restore parks, handling overflowing trash and scattered litter.
- Park visitation rose 33% in five years, highlighting the importance of cleanup efforts.
HEBER CITY — As Utahns flocked to the outdoors over Memorial Day Weekend, parks like Deer Creek were filled with visitors looking to enjoy the sunshine, scenery and high water levels.
"It's really nice," said Rebekah Judd, who was working the entrance gate at Deer Creek State Park.
And it didn't take long for the park to fill up.
"It wasn't all the way up to the road, but it got up there," Judd said while looking at Highway 189 near the park entrance.
At times, things got hectic.
"And just, like, the couple hours of it, nonstop," she said.
With blue skies above and water levels high from recent snowpack and precipitation, it's easy to see why so many chose to spend the long weekend at the lake.
But once the crowds leave, the real work begins.
"Um, not very clean. There's always a good mess left behind," Judd said with a laugh.
That's where the custodial crews and volunteers come in. They quietly restore the parks to as pristine of conditions as possible before the next visitors arrive.
"And they take care of all of the bathrooms, all of our grills, all the tables, all the trash," said Wyatt Madson, maintenance supervisor at Deer Creek.
While their work may go unnoticed, its impact is seen.
Crews were busy at Jordanelle State Park well into Tuesday afternoon cleaning up what visitors left behind.
There were wrappers on a trail near a pavilion, overflowing garbage bins and scattered garbage that couldn't fit into a bin.
Still, these crews come in and make it all disappear as quickly as possible.
"They've been doing amazing. We have a good grounds crew this year," said Judd when asked about the Deer Creek custodial team. "They're on top of it for sure."
With visitation to Utah's state parks continuing to increase, up nearly 33% in just five years, from 8 million in 2019 to 13 million last year, the cleanup crews are more important than ever.
It may not be glamorous work, but at parks, it is vital.
"Yeah, there's trash, but we pick it up," said Madson.
Of course, visitors can help by cleaning up after themselves and putting garbage where it belongs.
The workers would sure appreciate it.
