Lake Pleasant packed for Memorial Day weekend, as fire dangers persist up north

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With most of the state under severe fire restrictions this Memorial Day weekend, many Valley residents chose to stay a little closer to home.

At Lake Pleasant, boat rentals were sold out, and campgrounds were filled as a lot of people chose to stay closer to town, rather then venturing up north to deal with fire restrictions that are in place

"My favorite part was going to the lake and trying to go fishing, but we didn't catch anything," said a little girl.

"It's really convenient," said one woman. "We live in Anthem, but it gets us out of the day-to-day mode of mundane things, and we have a good time."

"The beers been cold, the whiskey's been flowing, and good friends and everything," said a man.

"Yesterday, everyone refers to it as 'Sunday Funday', and they took it to that limit yesterday," said Chad case, manager of Pleasant Harbor. "It was a pretty busy day."

Case says this has been an especially busy holiday for them.

"We saw a lot of campers," said Case. "We saw a lot of people that were probably heading to the north part of the state, and with the fire dangers, said, 'we can camp close to home and still get that camping experience this Memorial Day weekend.'"

By the noon hour, Acacia Recreation Area at Canyon Lake, Butcher Jones at Saguaro Lake, and Water Users at the Salt River were at capacity, and closed to additional people.