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Roy Jensen
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PostWed May 13, 2020 2:48 pm 
The official word from the NC National Park is that Highway 20 is open for "essential" travel and the National Park remains closed to all uses.

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slabbyd
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PostFri May 15, 2020 3:46 pm 
joker wrote:
They went at least a half mile on mostly dirt/rock/vegetation before they got to any sort of sleddable snow (and even then they surely had a lot of earth to cross for a little ways further).
Unfortunately this seems like pretty standard sledding behavior as the snowline increases. I've seen the same at Schreiber Meadows.

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blendergasket
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PostFri May 15, 2020 4:33 pm 
The latest in ONP: The National Park Service (NPS) is working servicewide with federal, state, and local public health authorities to closely monitor the COVID-19 pandemic and using a phased approach to increase access on a park-by-park basis. Based on guidance from the White House, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and state and local public health authorities, access to the park is as follows: May 14, 2020 Update Open: The Lake Crescent area is open for day use recreation. This includes the Barnes Point area with access to the Marymere Falls and Moments in Time trailheads and the Storm King boat launch. Bovee’s Meadow, La Poel and East Beach picnic areas are also accessible. The Spruce Railroad Trail is currently under construction and closed to all use for public safety until the project is complete in fall 2020. On Friday, May 15, Sol Duc Road will open to vehicles for day use recreation. Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort, RV & Campground remain closed and updates are available on their website. The Heart O’ the Forest trail in the Heart O’ the Hills area will also be accessible for day use with parking available at the amphitheater. Visitors are urged to plan ahead, hike smart, pack the Ten Essentials, and have an emergency plan even for a day hike. Closed: All coastal areas of Olympic National Park are closed to all park visitors until further notice. The coastal area closures include all parking areas, trails, beaches, and facilities at Kalaloch, Mora, and Ozette. The following park roads are closed at the park boundary: Staircase Road; Hurricane Ridge Road above the Heart O' the Hills entrance station; Ozette Road; Mora Road; Upper Hoh Road; Lower and Upper Queets roads; and North Shore (residential traffic only), North Fork, and Graves Creek roads in the Quinault Valley. The Olympic Hot Springs Road and Whiskey Bend Road in the Elwha Valley are closed to vehicles at the Madison Falls parking area due to the washout of Olympic Hot Springs Road. Deer Park, Obstruction Point, and Hurricane Hill roads have not opened for the season and remain closed at this time. All overnight camping, including in wilderness, is currently suspended. All drive-in park campgrounds are closed including: Staircase, Heart O’ the Hills, Ozette, Mora, Hoh, Kalaloch, Queets, North Fork, and Graves Creek. Deer Park, Fairholme, Sol Duc, and South Beach have not opened for the season and remain closed at this time. With this closure, it is important to remember that no other areas in the park are authorized for camping. To make changes to or cancel existing wilderness permit reservations affected by this closure, please contact the Wilderness Information Center at 360-565-3100 (Option 4) or email Olym_WIC@nps.gov. Public facilities including visitor centers, contact stations, and most restrooms remain closed. Kalaloch Lodge, Creekside Restaurant and The Mercantile closed as of March 23. The tentative date for reopening is currently May 29 at the earliest. Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort, Campground and RV Park and Lake Crescent Lodge have delayed opening until May 29 at the earliest. Log Cabin Resort has delayed opening until June 12 at the earliest. While the listed areas are accessible for visitors to enjoy, a return to full operations will continue to be phased, and services may be limited. When recreating, please follow local area health orders, practice Leave No Trace principles, and avoid crowding and high-risk outdoor activities. The CDC has offered guidance to help people recreating in parks and open spaces prevent the spread of infectious diseases. We will continue to monitor all park functions to ensure that visitors adhere to CDC guidance for mitigating risks associated with the transmission of COVID-19 and take any additional steps necessary to protect public health.

"He who would understand the Book of Nature must walk its pages with his feet" ~Paracelsus
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MyFootHurts
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PostFri May 15, 2020 7:39 pm 
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moonspots
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PostSat May 16, 2020 6:36 am 
Chief Joseph wrote:
Yes, I think we should all stay home for a couple of years until we are absolutely sure that there is nothing outside that is out to get us. However, living in my shack, if a tree falls, I am toast. eek.gif
lol.gif Good one. up.gif

"Out, OUT you demons of Stupidity"! - St Dogbert, patron Saint of Technology
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Luc
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PostSun May 17, 2020 12:17 pm 
Cyclopath wrote:
People have felt cooped up, it's natural that there's a lot of pent up demand right now. And everything hasn't opened yet, so people are concentrated in places they can get to. If you expect crowding, you won't be disappointed to find it. It'll slowly get better.
I wonder if rethinking the M-F work week would help with some of the crowding. Not that everyone is working of course, nor working the standard week. But if there weren't these two specific days that people feel is there only chance to recreate, it could reduce crowds by not having so much of a weekend warrior bottleneck.

GNGSTR
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Malachai Constant
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PostSun May 17, 2020 2:19 pm 
At least 25 cars parked at Mountainside Blvd. TH to Bullitt Fireplace and Chibiniski Trails. No work party sigh, Really?

"You do not laugh when you look at the mountains, or when you look at the sea." Lafcadio Hearn
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luke123234
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PostTue May 19, 2020 1:59 pm 
Okanogan Wenatchee National Forest Officially opening trailheads on Friday May 22nd. Fees are required where full services (i.e. bathrooms) are available for people to use.

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jinx'sboy
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PostTue May 19, 2020 4:38 pm 
luke123234 wrote:
Okanogan Wenatchee National Forest Officially opening trailheads on Friday May 22nd.
Sounds like SOME of the trailheads and day use areas on the Okanogan - Wenatchee NF will open May 22. SOME campgrounds are PLANNED to open in June. ALL facilities may or MAYNOT be available at these open sites. I saw this on a Facebook post from the Forest. I didn’t know whether or not other Washington Forests (or Oregon) Are doing something similar. I would hope there is some co-ordination! News release, today, from the OKA-WEN NF: https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/okawen/news-events/?cid=FSEPRD742926

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altasnob
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PostWed May 20, 2020 7:16 pm 
Yosemite National Park aims to reopen in early June Under the draft plan, visitors with overnight reservations at hotels or campgrounds inside the park would be allowed to drive in without buying a ticket to the park ahead of time. But visitors coming in for the day would be required to first purchase a day pass at recreation.gov. Maybe the WA national parks will follow the same plan?

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slabbyd
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PostThu May 21, 2020 11:52 am 
Pandemic or not it's way past time for a policy like this to be implemented at MRNP as well. Cars back up for miles (and hours) at the Nisqually entrance every weekend. The current situation seemed untenable.

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dixon
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PostThu May 21, 2020 12:59 pm 
slabbyd wrote:
Pandemic or not it's way past time for a policy like this to be implemented at MRNP as well. Cars back up for miles (and hours) at the Nisqually entrance every weekend. The current situation seemed untenable.
Couldn't agree more! I will be interested to see how they manage the climbing season this year. Any of the high camps - Muir, Sherman etc are busy with little space for distancing and shared washrooms. The guide services use the hut at Muir for their climbers and theres the public shelter so seems like potential for one infected person to cause issues especially for the rangers who spend time at the high camps. Maybe they'll add a disclaimer in which climbers accept the Covid risk in addition to the perpetual rockfall on the Cleaver? biggrin.gif

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PostThu May 21, 2020 1:05 pm 
slasbbyd wrote:
Pandemic or not it's way past time for a policy like this to be implemented at MRNP as well. Cars back up for miles (and hours) at the Nisqually entrance every weekend. The current situation seemed untenable.
^ This is way off topic, but: In 1997, Mt. Rainier National Park (former) Superintendent William J. Briggle tried to ramrod through a plan whereby all vehicle traffic would stop at Ashford, park in a gigantic parking lot outside the Park, and be hauled into the Park via a shuttle service, ostensibly to reduce the parking and traffic congestion problems that were seen (at that time) on what averaged five sunny summer weekend days. On an "off" day, the traffic counts are significantly reduced, and the parking generally isn't an issue either at the upper or lower Paradise parking lots. On a cool, overcast, mid-week day (in mid-September, 1997), with a notepad and a stopwatch, I clocked visitors at the upper Paradise parking lot. The average length of stay in the parking lot that day (over the course of about five hours) was 20 minutes. The shuttle proposal, which was then included as part of the MRNP General Management Plan, was resoundingly defeated by overwhelming public objection. Mt. Rainier National Park is not Glacier, or Yellowstone, or Zion, or Yosemite. What works in one National Park may not necessarily work in another National Park.

"I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each."
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dixon
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PostThu May 21, 2020 2:21 pm 
Ski wrote:
On a cool, overcast, mid-week day (in mid-September, 1997)
A lot has happened in ~23 years and many more people have moved to the Seattle area. Outdoor recreation is more popular than at any time in history. If you look over the MRNP Twitter feed for 2019 they report "parking lot full" around 10am for Paradise/Sunrise lots with one in/one out for the rest of the day which results in several mile lineups since the road system doesnt have enough space for vehicles to turn around. Perhaps the shuttle proposal wouldn't be defeated now.

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altasnob
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PostThu May 21, 2020 2:47 pm 
If MRNP requires day users to pre-register at recreation.gov so that they can open during the pandemic, that is one thing. But I wouldn't support this being a permanent thing. Currently, if you get to the gate before 9 am, you are fine, regardless of the day. If there is a fixed number of day use spots that you must reserve in advance, there would be no advantage to those willing to get up early or go in off hours, which spreads use throughout the day. I could also see people reserving a spot in advance, and then deciding they don't want to go and forfeit whatever fee they paid (so their spot would go unused). Programed bots could snag up all the day use spots the second they go online (this seems like the case with campsite reservations done through recreation.gov). I assume at Yosemite, there is now a service fee day use users must pay to the private contractor recreation.gov.

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