Paicines
– Pinnacles National Monument will take over operations of its
only campground in March to bring the site up to national park
standards.
Paicines – Pinnacles National Monument will take over operations of its only campground in March to bring the site up to national park standards.
The park purchased the privately owned Pinnacles Ranch, which includes the Pinnacles Campground, in March 2006. To keep the site open to the public, monument officials signed a temporary contract with its former managers.
Monument officials will begin operating the campground March 15, when that temporary contract runs out. Improvements should be completed within five years, and access to the campground will not be hindered, said Carl Brenner, the park’s supervisor of interpretation and education.
“Give or take,” Brenner said. “We’re saying approximately five years because that’s what we’re guessing will take to completely renovate it.”
Once the projects are completed, officials will find another managing group to operate the campground. Brenner said park officials are only interested in improving the campground.
Most of the work would be done during the monument’s offseason so that revenue and camping would not be affected, Brenner said.
April and May are the park and campground’s busiest months.
In those months, there were at least four weekends when all 157 camp sites were in use, Brenner said.
The park’s fee structure will also change, but before the monument begins running the campground.
“We want all that worked out prior to the transition,” Brenner said.
Current fees range from $10 for one person to $35 for six people.
Under the new fee structure, regardless of how many campers are using one site, the park will charge a flat fee of $20 a night for nonreserved and $23 for reserved camp sites.
Officials hope to be accepting reservations through the National Recreation Reservation System’s Web site in fall.
As for immediate projects, more than $200,000 in federal funding has been requested for campground improvements in 2008, Brenner said.
“Until the actual budget comes out, none of this is funded,” Brenner said.
If approved in October, the funding would allow bathrooms and showers to be brought up to American Disability Act standards, as well as the repair and replacement of water lines and electrical systems and the controlling of evasive species, Brenner said.
Park officials also hope to replace the camp store’s old and outdated exhibits.
“So that people have a better understanding of the park and area,” Brenner said.
