Businesses On Keystone Lake Impacted By High Water, Wind On Memorial Day

The weather always has an impact on lake activities across Oklahoma, with recent rain and wind being top of mind for businesses during the Memorial Day weekend.

Recent rain left Keystone Lake 13 feet above normal this weekend.

Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park, which just opened for the season on May 13, is keeping its floating obstacle course closed for the beginning of the season, to keep everyone safe.

Still, there were kids going down slides, boats on the water, and families grabbing lunch around the lake.

“All of our rental boats have been out all...weekend long, so it’s been a good successful weekend for us so far,” Pier 51 Marina General Manager, Sean Adair said.

But Adair said nothing compares to the revenue he saw in 2020, when the beginning of the pandemic drove people out of their homes, and onto the water.

“Every weekday was like a weekend. And every weekend was like a holiday. That’s how busy we were in 2020,” he said.

High water wasn't the only element lake-goers and businesses were up against this weekend.

“The wind has been a big factor this weekend. I mean we’ve got some really strong gusts,” Adair said.

“It was really windy out,” Sand Springs resident Sydney Boyd said.

Boyd and Braden Dahl spent the holiday weekend in their little corner of the lake, capturing some of the fun on Dahl’s drone.

“His parents have a houseboat out here so we went out on Friday and Saturday I think,” Boyd said. “We just anchored out because there wasn’t a beach or anything.”

While Adair enjoys the business holiday weekends bring, he said Memorial Day means so much more.

“It’s not just about going to the lake and having fun and partying. It’s about the fallen, so, if everybody would take a moment and just reflect on that, I think that would be great,”  said Adair.

Jellystone Park is offering discounts to its customers, until the water goes back down. Employees are hoping to have all their features back up and running by Father's Day weekend.