State park rangers predicted Friday that as many as 75,000 people will visit Folsom Lake during the Memorial Day weekend to take advantage of the reservoir’s highest water level in years.

Ranger Ryan Steele said the crowd could be the biggest since the drought began four years ago.

“We’ve had such a low water level that the lake hasn’t been very enticing for everybody,” Steele said. “Now, they have the opportunity to come out here and really use it for its full recreational potential.”

By early Friday afternoon, cars and trailers with boats were starting to line up the Granite Bay entrance to Folsom Lake State Park.

On the beach at Beal’s Point, extra lifeguards are scheduled to be on duty.

The campgrounds are reserved for all three days of the weekend.

Myrna Bennett, of San Francisco, said her weekend at Folsom was just the start of a summer of campouts.

“Then we’re planning to go to Rancho Seco in Sacramento. Then we’re planning to go to Lake Shasta,” Bennett said. “And the other one, it’s (Lake) Tulloch.”

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