Hollister
– Presidents Day weekend marked the start of Pinnacles National
Monument’s busy season, and park visitors were out in force.
Hollister – Presidents Day weekend marked the start of Pinnacles National Monument’s busy season, and park visitors were out in force.
Carl Brenner, the park’s supervisor of interpretation and education, said rangers counted 448 people passing through the doors of the visitor center over the three-day holiday weekend. That’s pretty normal for this time of year, Brenner said, but a big step up from the doldrums of late December and early January, when the visitor center may see as few as five people on a particularly slow day.
Brenner said this year’s numbers are also an improvement over Presidents Day weekend in 2006. Overall, a combination of hot weather in February, snow in March and high gas prices year-round caused park visitation in 2006 to drop 8 percent from 2005.
If gas prices and the weather continue to cooperate, Brenner is hopeful that 2007 will mark a return to busier times.
The park’s busy season stretches from Presidents Day weekend in February to Memorial Day at the end of May. Brenner said most of the park’s visitors come out during the spring, when the weather is warm without being too hot, and the wildflowers are in bloom. In April, he said, there are normally 450 visitors on a typical Saturday or Sunday.
Bear Gulch Visitor Center – where many of the park’s hiking trails begin – had a full parking lot on Saturday and Sunday, Brenner said, and latecomers had to leave their cars in the overflow lots. Luckily, the park also began operating its spring shuttle service this weekend. Brenner said the shuttle will run on weekends and holidays throughout the spring.
Overall, he added, busy weekends like the last one are “all hands on deck” time at Pinnacles.
“Our focus is to ensure that all visitors have successful visits,” Brenner said. “When it gets that crowded, we spend less time addressing an individual person, and more time addressing the group.”
Although the parking lot was full, the campground – which has about 100 sites – was not.
“There was plenty of space,” said Alicia Miramontes, who works at the campground.
Miramontes added that it’s unusual for the campground to be completely full except over Memorial Day weekend.
The coming of spring also means the park is kicking off its season of educational programming, which includes rangers talks and guided hikes.
Pinnacles doesn’t track its visitors’ origins, but Brenner said a big percentage – especially during the off-season – come from Hollister and the Salinas Valley. During the spring, Brenner said, he sees an influx of visitors from Monterey and especially the Bay Area. He said Pinnacles also has some international guests, although it’s hard to predict who will arrive when.
“At a certain time of year, I’ll see a certain contingent of people, and I’ll think, ‘Oh, I guess they’ve all got a holiday right now,'” Brenner said.
As the crowds grow, rangers are encouraging visitors to come during the off-season or on weekdays. Brenner said Pinnacles – which will celebrate its 100th anniversary next January – had more than 160,000 visitors last year, 37 percent arriving in March, April or May.
Brenner said that if visitors arrive at less popular times, “They’ll get more of a feel for why the park was set aside in the first place, rather than sharing a hiking trail with 150 of their closest friends.”
Anthony Ha covers local government for the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or ah*@fr***********.com.
