Short-term and long-term changes are on the horizon for
Monument
When visitors come to Pinnacles National Monument, getting to
the Bear Gulch Visitor’s Center can be quite a trek.
Short-term and long-term changes are on the horizon for
Monument
When visitors come to Pinnacles National Monument, getting to the Bear Gulch Visitor’s Center can be quite a trek.
“It’s pretty much in the core [of the park],” said Carl Brenner, the public information officer for the park. “So anyone who wants to come find out about trails or do some hiking, they don’t want to come to the core of the park and then have to hike elsewhere.”
With the acquisition of the Pinnacle Ranch and campgrounds along the eastern entrance of the monument in March 2006, one temporary solution to greeting visitors early on would be to use the camp store as a sort of visitor’s center.
“We want to meet [visitors] shortly after they enter the park,” Brenner said.
The staff will take over management of the camp store in March 2008. The store will be used as a place for rangers to collect entrance fees.
“It could be a location for the main orientation and they could get info and park maps at the camp store,” Brenner said.
The historical visitor’s center would be available for other uses.
“The visitor’s center [at Bear Gulch] traditionally would become more of a discovery center,” Brenner said.
The park staff has been holding transition meetings to discuss the best short-term uses of the new resources made available with the recent expansion, but longer term plans are on the horizon.
“We are having campground transition meetings – trying to devise and move into that area appropriately,” Brenner said. “We have finite resources and specific needs and we need to meet the visitor’s needs as well.”
One factor is that when rangers are working around the campgrounds, there will be less rangers in other parts of the park. Volunteers helping in other parts of the park may be key.
“We need volunteers to share their experiences and help touch the hearts and minds of the people who come to the park,” Brenner said.
Pinnacle Partnership, a nonprofit formed in 2006, is one such organization that is trying to connect volunteers and donors with the park. The group’s mission is to increase education in the park and one goal is to have a science camp for local school children at the monument. Goals such as this are a ways off in the future, though.
“This is all just the short-term transition,” Brenner said. “Long-term plans are driven by the [general management plan].”
A new general management plan is still in the works. The last plan was finalized in 1976 and work on a new plan started in 1998, but was delayed so that park staff could acquire Pinnacle Ranch and the campgrounds. The staff held public input meetings through May 2007 to find out what community members and visitors want to see as the park expands. More public meetings will be held this fall and winter as different drafts of the general management plan become available for viewing.
“It was a grassroots movement when it was created at the turn of the century,” Brenner said. “We need to tap back into that and get people involved.”
For more information on Pinnacles National Monument’s general management plan, visit www.nps.gov/pinn/parkmgmt/planning.htm or call 389-4485. For information on Pinnacles Partnership, visit www.pinnaclespartnership.org.
