Area burn bans affecting campgrounds

LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - Many campers around the area are finding themselves out of luck when it comes to a good meal cooked over a campfire and, of course, everyone's favorite campfire snack.

"Well, we haven't been able to have s'mores," camper Carlie Swing said. "We had to cook them in the microwave actually."

Campers at Wolfe's Leisure Time Campground in Lafayette said they understand the reason for the burn ban but camping just isn't the same.

"There is nothing like coming to a campground and the smoke in the air," camper Bryan Swing said. "It makes everything so much better. The smell of everybody cooking outside and it isn't any fun camping without a campfire."

Owner of Wolfe's Leisure Time Dale Wolfe said he's had to put out a few fires since the ban went into effect last week.

Wolfe said he's been telling campers to bring grills with them because they can't cook over an open fire. He said campers understand of the ban, but with the holiday coming up, it's hard to say if people are going to plan a camping trip if they can't have a fire.

"It's affected the business some. It's kind of hard to tell right now because it's a weekend before a holiday weekend, so we are generally slower. But we have had some cancelations going into next week because they don't know how long the fire ban is going to extend. We just tell them to get out there and do a rain dance, we need some rain," Wolfe said.

Regardless of having a fire or not, some campers say the experience is still worthwhile.

"When you want to go camping, you want to go. So it's probably going to be a hot dry summer so we're planning on late fall to go camping again. So hopefully by then, we'll have a lot more rain," Bryan Swing said.