When Beltzville State Park opened in 1972, it promised to be a popular recreation area.

Today, 44 years later, it's exceeded that promise and has become so popular the gates occasionally are closed.It happened once again over the Fourth of July weekend.Part of the problem, it seems, is that Beltzville has been adopted as the destination of choice by residents of the Delaware Valley. And no wonder.The 3,002-acre park offers free swimming, a sandy beach, and nearly 20 miles of shoreline. Biking, hiking, hunting, boating. Beltzville has it all.Yes, Philly has a few swimming holes, but nothing to match Beltzville.And so it boils down to this: Philadelphia has the population. Carbon County has the park."When locals can't make it to their LOCAL lake because of out-of-towners that drive over an hour to get there, that's a shame, especially when they leave trash and cause scenes," was one of several comments on the Times News website.The "city folk" arrive in droves and many aren't Pennsylvania residents. They come from New Jersey and Delaware, too.Their cars overflow the parking area. Amazingly, there were reports of visitors parking along rural township roads and walking 4 miles to the lake.Beltzville's parking lot has 904 spots, plus capacity for an additional 400 cars in an adjacent field if conditions allow.When those areas are maxed out, visitors routinely park illegally along Pohopoco Drive.Quite a few cars were towed at the owners' expense over the weekend. License plates of towed cars indicated locations as far away as Massachusetts.But parking is just one part of the problem.Police made arrests, some were drug- and alcohol-related. At least one other was a woman trying to illegally enter the park after the gates were closed.Overflow crowds also leave their mark on the beach, as noted by another comment on the Times News website."Stopped out for a walk on the 5th. What a mess! Trash everywhere. Stay in Philly, Allentown or Jersey if you can't at least clean up after yourselves. The state should start charging $5 a person to use the picnic area," wrote the person, presumably a local resident.Beltzville is an accessible, leisure-land paradise that dangles like a carrot before the eyes of sweltering city dwellers.It's a fast, easy drive up the Pennsylvania Turnpike for a free outing where visitors are on the honor system to clean up. Many don't do it."I've been coming to this lake for about seven to eight years and I've never seen it this bad," said Johnny Santiago of Philadelphia on Facebook over the Independence Day weekend.It must be noted that another local park, Mauch Chunk Lake in Jim Thorpe, was also closed for a short time due to overflow crowds.Others nearby, such as Locust Lake and Tuscarora, are wildly popular destinations as well. But those parks are geographically removed from the turnpike traffic funnel that directs Philadelphia visitors to Beltzville.Some have argued for years that a nominal fee should be charged at Pennsylvania state parks to support cleaning and maintenance and to place a tangible value on park use.One thing is certain, state parks will continue to be a draw as long as algae and bacteria issues are kept at bay.With gas prices lower and expected to stay there, it's a sure bet more and more metro residents will head to Beltzville over the broiling weeks of summer.By Donald R. Serfass |

dserfass@tnonline.com