Lake Catherine State Park limits number of visitors
Lake Catherine State Park, which has seen thousands of day-use visitors during the coronavirus pandemic, has decided to limit the number of people allowed in the park at one time, Superintendent Cheryl Vincent said Tuesday.
“We have a massive amount of visitors,” Vincent said, with “no physical or social distancing” between them.
Last Thursday, the park had “over 3,000” visitors, and on Sunday, over 3,200.
The vast majority of the visitors came to hike the trails. Vincent said that, at one point, a park employee counted 137 vehicles parked at, or near, the trailhead. At the same time, “around 15 to 20” cars were circling the parking lot “waiting for people to leave.”
Vincent said having that many visitors in the park is “tearing up the resources.” For one thing, the visitors are not staying on the trails. Some hikers
are taking shortcuts off-trail to maintain social distance from other visitors, but by getting away from everyone else, they are creating new trails.
The restrooms have also been closed at the park. Vincent said that porta-potties have been put up in the park, but she said that many visitors are not using them.
“I’ll be blunt,” she said. Visitors are “using the bathroom all over the park,” urinating and leaving feces behind.
Visitors who decide to use the porta-potties do so at their own risk, Vincent said. The porta-potties are only being cleaned once a week, and Vincent said visitors might want to bring their own hand sanitizer and toilet paper with them.
The damage that visitors have caused, Vincent said, means it will take “a lot of work” to restore the park to the condition it was in before the coronavirus outbreak. Vincent said that is why they decided to limit the number of people allowed in the park.
Once the park reaches capacity, and hikers can still safely keep their distance from each other, Vincent said they will “block traffic.” After that, Vincent said it will be “one in, one out,” as far as letting other vehicles in.
Vincent noted that now that spring break is over, the amount of visitors might also go down.
Vincent said the park estimates around 40% of the visitors have been from out of state. She said a number of visitors have said they were trying to get out of a county that is about to have a “stay in place order.”
“These are the things we are hearing, not just locals trying to get out,” Vincent said, noting that since March 18, the park has had 100% occupancy in the campgrounds.
Limiting the grounds to RVs, Vincent said, means “we don’t have to have restrooms open” in the campgrounds, which reduces the risk to park employees.
Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage, and Tourism Communications Director Melissa Whitfield told The Sentinel-Record the decision to limit use of the campgrounds was “just for the safety.”
She said visitors should practice social distancing while hiking and recommended that if a park already has a lot of visitors, then hikers should “find one that isn’t full.”
While Lake Catherine State Park is limiting its amount of visitors, Lee Howard, superintendent of Lake Ouachita State Park, said they are not following suit.
“No, at this time we are not,” Howard said, noting they have “quite a bit” of parking available.
Howard said visitation during spring break was robust, but they “only got two or three days of really good weather.”
Hikers, he said, have kept to the trails at Lake Ouachita and maintained social distancing.
“So far, everyone’s been very polite,” he said. “We see a few people who probably should have more distance” between them, but “for the most part” visitors are keeping their distance, Howard said.
Like Lake Catherine, Howard
said Lake Ouachita is also seeing a large number of out-oftown visitors.
“Despite the warnings, it’s still a country (where) we can come and go, as long as we are careful,” he said.
At both parks, the beaches and swimming areas are closed, but both parks are still allowing people to take their boats out on the water.