Not only Winnipesaukee experienced lower crowds this year. According to the Boston Globe, many New England parks and beaches have been having a slow season.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/art...great_indoors/
According to the article, some possible culprits are high gas prices, the internet and video games.
The wildest idea, is to blame standardized testing in schools. I guess everyones studying too hard, no time for field trips. But don't kids still get the summer off?
Winni is not a park with easy to measure entrance fees as a benchmark. Do people on this site see the kind of drop off reported in the article? They're reporting 5% nationwide to around 25% on Mt Katahdin.