CHEYENNE n Many Wyoming residents are vacationing closer to home because of high gasoline prices, state park officials say.

Although there are no seasonal statistics available yet, visitors to the 21 state parks and historic sites was off 4 percent for May, compared to the same month last year, or 438,000 compared to 456,000.

The drop was canceled by a 4 four percent increase in visitors in June, or 532,000 compared to 511,000, state park officials said.

Business was slow starting this spring because of rain.

"We had rain on Memorial Day that flushed out some of our roads. It wasn't until the Fourth of July and the weekend before that we saw pretty decent visitation," Domonic Bravo, administrator of the state Division of State Parks and Cultural Resources said this week.

The number of Fourth of July visitors to Sinks Canyon State Park, located six miles south of Lander, was up 26 percent over last year, he said.

Sinks Canyon is popular because it has its own visitor's center; it offers camping and hiking and is close to Lander which is centrally located.

Close by is the South Pass historical site.

"You can have a huge vacation in two weeks just staying here in Wyoming," Bravo said.

In Utah, meanwhile, high gasoline prices are being blamed for an 11 percent drop in the number of visitors to the state's 41 state parks.

The cut translates to about 250,000 fewer visitors for the first six months of the year compared to the same period last year.

Nearly half of Utah residents surveyed around Memorial Day said they planned to reduce their vacation plans.

Utah travel officials said many residents are planning vacations closer to home, according to published reports.

Sticking closer to home also is the trend at Edness Kimball Wilkins State Park at Casper.

"I think that the local people aren't spending money on gas to go to Alcova so they're coming out here instead," Superintendent Richard Anderson said.

Alcova Reservoir is southwest of Casper.

"Our small park here is a day use park and it's mostly local use anyway," he added.

Dan Marty, superintendent of Boysen State Park, south of Thermopolis, said the spring rains slowed the number of visitors but they picked up around the Fourth of July.

"Overall I believe we're down from last year for sure," Marty said.

He said he won't know the numbers until later this summer.

A few weeks ago, Marty said, he talked to some visitors who had allocated $5,000 for gas for this summer. They were "snow birds" who travel during the summer, driving a motor home and hauling a car, he said.

Statewide tourists numbers are also difficult to track, said Alan Dubberley, deputy director of the state tourism division.

But he said he has conducted a couple of informal e-mail surveys of people in the travel industry.

"What we're hearing is still pretty positive," Dubberley said.

The larger travel destinations and businesses are doing pretty well, he said, while some of the smaller operations say high gas prices and the economy have hurt their business.

"For the most part we're still expecting to have a pretty good year," Dubberley said. "Obviously 2007 was a banner year. "

"Even with the nervousness and all the media hype we've heard we're still hearing it's going to turn out to be a pretty decent year." he added.

Contact Joan Barron at joan.barron@trib.com or by phone at 307-632-1244