Citizens of Montesano and of the harbor area have a daily opportunity to take in Lake Sylvia State Park, and according to recent attendance information, many choose to take advantage of that opportunity.

Attendance information for Lake Sylvia indicates that the park received 302,169 visitors during the fiscal year of 2015-16, July 1 through June 30. Of these visitors 16,813 camped overnight.

It is difficult to know how many hikers, swimmers and fishers the park has received over the last year, according to Toni Weyman Droscher, communications consultant and social media coordinator for the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission, because of how attendance is kept.

Droscher explained that attendance is recorded by monitoring vehicle traffic coming in and going out of the park.

Vehicle traffic, or attendance, for this past fiscal year was at its highest during the summer months. July had the most visitors at 53,134 and August was a close second with 48,203. Of those who visited in July 4,224 camped overnight, while 3,793 of those visiting in August were overnight campers.

Attendance dropped as winter approached as November and December had the lowest recorded attendance rates at 7,606 and 7,311. Campers for both of those months together totaled less than 50.

Additional information can be found at http://parks.state.wa.us/ or http://www.discoverpass.wa.gov/.