CALIFORNIA, USA — If you plan on visiting a state park any time soon, you'll probably have to leave the car at home.
California State Parks announced on Sunday that they are closing vehicular access to all 280 state parks.
A lot of state parks have seen a surge in the amount of visitors over the last couple weekends, even with a stay at home order in effect. California State Parks is closing their parking operations to decrease the amount of visitors.
“We’ve seen over the last several days, and, especially last weekend, that people were not maintain social distancing,” said Mike Howard, Superintendent Auburn State Parks. “So, we’re now at the point where, what we were trying hasn’t worked. And, we’re going to close of all the state parking areas to try and maintain that distancing.”
Howard says Auburn state parks saw one of their busiest weekends “ever” just last weekend. With those crowded areas, it was difficult to maintain social distancing.
“It’s still an issue because people use the same restrooms. They’re hiking on single track trails, where you just can’t maintain that kind of distancing,” said Howard.
People can still come to state parks and hike, but there is something they’re discouraging park-goers from doing.
“What we don’t want is people driving a long ways, from community to community and across counties to get out and recreate," Howard said.
They highly encourage people to stay in their local communities and go to their local park.
For those people who violate the “closed parking” rule at state parks, there are repercussions.
“We’ll be issuing citations, if it’s necessary. We definitely don’t want to do that. My ideal situation is to write none because everyone is doing what they’re supposed to be doing,” Howard says.
Howard says closed parking is the first step to decreasing visitors at parks, but, if surges continue, there’s a possibility that all 280 parks could be completely closed.
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