Crowds close Sunken Meadow State Park

Sunken Meadow State Park, attracting its typical holiday influx of local and New York City beachgoers and picnickers, filled to capacity Monday afternoon and was closed to additional visitors for almost two hours.

With more than 25,000 people at the North Shore park by 1:25 p.m., officials closed off the entrance road until 3:15, when some of the early arrivals began to leave.

With open space at a premium, families began setting up picnics in parking lots and on grass medians of park roadways.

David Rodgers of New Hyde Park said it was his first time at Sunken Meadow in 30 years. "I wish we had come earlier," he said. "We came at 8:30 a.m. and it was packed. Now I see that next year I have to get here at 6 or 7 o'clock."

Lady Huerta, 16, of College Point, Queens, was at Sunken Meadow with about 15 family members. "We come here every year and come to the beach, make some barbecue and play volleyball." They arrived at 6 a.m. to grab a good picnic spot in the shade. "We like it because it's an open area and lots of people come here and they're really friendly," she said.

With the skies clearing during the day, there were good crowds at Jones Beach and Robert Moses State Park on the South Shore. Parks officials said 108,000 people came to Jones Beach and 39,000 to Moses.

Lifeguards at the two parks closed some beaches and restricted people to wading at others because fog obscured their view of the water until the sun broke through midafternoon.