While many people will have cookouts and family gatherings in their backyards for the Fourth of July holiday, others will venture to parks for holiday celebrations.

For some parks in and around Butler County, the Fourth is one of the busiest days of the year. Others, though, are expecting less-than-average attendance.

Whether county residents plan to stay at home or head out to one of the many parks, there will be no shortage of ways to celebrate this year.

Moraine State Park employees are preparing to be in full force for the Fourth of July celebrations, as well as for the weekend before.

"Normally the Fourth of July is our busiest holiday of the year," said Obie Derr, Moraine's park manager.

"We usually have a great weekend with swimming, boating, fishing and hiking," he said of the weekends around the holiday.

In addition to the increased participation in the park's usual activities, a horse concession at Porter's Cove will be offered. Horses can be rented for riding on the park's trails.

"It's a new addition," Derr said. "You could always ride horses (on the trails), but before you had to have your own horse or you were stuck."

For those who want to have a family gathering but don't have the space at home, four of the seven pavilions that seat between 60 and 144 people at the park are still available for reservation.

"Picnicking is big," he said, "if it's a nice day, it will be packed."

The state park also offers guided tours at McConnells Mill State Park throughout the weekends and holiday.

Before any of these activities can occur, however, the parks have a lot of preparation to do. This includes a lot of grass mowing and trimming.

Although employees do this regularly, they will work extra hard to get the parks ready for such a large increase in the number of visitors, Derr said.

"We get a lot of people in the parks, and hopefully people will take advantage of all the programs we offer," Derr said.

Visitors also should be aware the seven-mile bike trail is still closed for improvements.

Park officials in Cranberry Township also expect increased holiday attendance. This is especially true on the Fourth, which is also the township's annual community day, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. at the Community Park.

Like all parks, attendance and activities will depend heavily on the weather.

"We usually get somewhere over 20,000 on a fair day and that easily doubles on a nice day," said Mike Diehl, the township's director of parks and recreation.

The park's attendance, he said, includes a number of people coming and going throughout the day between Community Park and North Boundary Park.

The activities include swimming at the water park, games, music, food, entertainment and fireworks.

Like the state parks, Cranberry Township also will need to do a lot of preparing.

During the week before the holiday, park employees will mark off parking spaces, set up extra trash barrels, make sure the grass is trimmed and mark off each vendor's designated space, Diehl said.

The park also offers three shelters at both parks, and although Community Park's shelters won't be available on July Fourth, reservations can be made for other days.

Not all parks plan to be booming with people, though.

Employees at Alameda Park in Butler don't expect to have a busy holiday.

In fact, they even expect a less-than-average attendance for July Fouth and the surrounding days.

"Many people have the misconception that (Butler area) parks have their busiest days on Labor Day, Memorial Day and the Fourth of July," said Gary Pinkerton, Butler County's director of parks and recreation. "But, there are a lot of backyard gatherings and family reunions that day not at parks."

If people do decide to bring their families to the park, however, Alameda still has six of its eight shelters available for rent. Rental prices range from $30 to $120 on holidays and weekends, and $15 to $60 on weekdays, depending on the size and amenities included.

"We are just business as usual," Pinkerton said.

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