Record park visits bloom in spring

As an early spring hits its peak in the Bay Area, many parks closed by last fall’s lightningsparked firestorms are rising from the ashes, their flora reborn and with bestever visitor numbers.

“We are seeing record camping and dayuse visitation,” said Maria Mowrey, superintendent for the California State

Parks Bay

Area District. “People are fascinated by the recovering landscape. Camping and hiking are more popular than ever in our COVID times.”

In the East Bay Regional Park District, rangers have reopened parks closed over the winter by fire, with all 75 regional parks now open. In Santa Clara County, the vast interior wilderness at Henry W. Coe State Park, where 56,000 acres burned, is 100% open. In Sonoma County, rangers at five state parks have reopened the entry gates to trails, camp

grounds and yurts.

Two giant swaths of Bay Area parks remain closed from last year’s recordsetting infernos: The wilderness interiors of Point Reyes National Seashore in Marin, and the connected landscape in the Santa Cruz Mountains that links four parks. There are no projected reopening dates.

Here are the current postfire conditions at parks, as reported by rangers.

Marin County: The Woodward Fire burned 4,929 acres of the interior of Point Reyes National Seashore, bordered roughly by Limantour Road and Sky Trail stretching south past the Bear Valley Trail and Wildcat Camp. The area spanning across the footprint of the fire remains closed to all access.

“Several trails in the burn scar area have many hazard trees that need to be assessed and cleared,” said Christine Beekman, the program manager of Interpretation at Point Reyes. “Our trails crew is making steady progress and will reopen trails as soon as they are safe. Hazard trees (which might fall across trails) are the biggest concern.”

Closed trails include Bear Valley, Sky, Mount Wittenberg, Woodward Valley and the interior of the Coast Trail, Beekman said. Sculptured Beach can still be reached by hiking along the beach from Coast Camp.

All but one campground, Sky Camp, have reopened and are getting booked 100% by reservation.

“Sky Campground will reopen as soon as a hazard tree assessment is complete, and picnic tables and other infrastructure impacted by the fire are replaced,” Beekman said.

East Bay hills: All 75 parks in the East Bay Regional Park District are open, including the backcountry SunolOhlone Wilderness, Morgan Territory and Mission Peak Regional Preserve, a region scorched by the lightningtorched SCU Complex fires. All trails and backpacking campsites have reopened in the area, where the grasslands have been reborn this spring.

“The SCU fire was bestcase scenario in terms of intensity, which allowed wildlife time to burrow or escape to safer areas and seedlings to survive for future regrowth,” said Dave Mason at East Bay Regional Park headquarters.

“Grazing and properly managed fire roads likely reduced the intensity of the SCU fire in many areas,” he said. “In many cases, the fire was seen burning itself out at maintained fire roads and slowing down in grazed areas, giving wildlife time to seek shelter and firefighters a fighting chance.”

In the past two months, park district biologists have been monitoring dozens of motionactivated trail cams to study the fires’ impacts on wildlife.

“The images show various species of wildlife surviving and adapting as the areas recover,” said Jen Vanya, a park district spokesperson.

Santa Clara County: At 87,000acre Henry W. Coe State Park, the SCU Lightning Complex fires burned 56,000 acres, about twothirds of the park, which was closed for months.

In the past month, the grassland hillsides ignited not with fire, but with emeraldlike greens spiked with wildflowers. Rangers reopened 100% of the park’s backcountry for hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding and wildernessstyle camping. There are 81 trail camps open, including 29 in the easiertoreach Western Zone. Only group camps are still closed, a product of COVID safety, not fire damage.

Santa Cruz Mountains: The CZU Lightning Complex fires burned 86,509 acres in the Santa Cruz Mountains, including 97% of Big Basin Redwoods, 60% of Pescadero Creek County Park and the backcountry of Butano State Park and Memorial County Park. All four parks remain closed, with no projected dates for reopening.

South of La Honda, the dividing line for the fire was the Haul Road out of Portola Redwoods State Park and into Pescadero Creek, where fire crews made their stand. Nearby San McDonald County Park and the Heritage Grove, and Portola Redwoods, escaped fire damage and are open.

At Butano, the beloved Candelabra Tree, named for its massive stems that extend from a trunk that is 20 feet around, emerged untouched, said ranger Stan Kopacz, who hiked in to see it. The park’s drivein campground is in good shape, he said, but the water system at Butano Creek that feeds into the site was incinerated. The backcountry along the Butano Rim, the old airstrip and the trail camp, on the other hand, was severely burned.

“We were lucky and didn’t see big debris flows over winter,” Kopacz said. “Things are slowly starting to regenerate, but it’s still early.”

At Big Basin Redwoods, park headquarters, the ranger station, visitor center and museum and tent cabins were a 100% loss. In the park’s interior, Berry Creek Canyon, with its three spectacular waterfalls — Berry Creek, Silver and the Golden Cascade — had severe burn damage, including the viewing deck for 70foot Berry Creek Falls, said Joanne Kerbavaz, senior environmental scientist for California State Parks.

Sonoma County: The Glass Fire burned 67,484 acres in Napa and Sonoma counties and spread across five state parks: TrioneAnnadel, BotheNapa Valley, Bale Grist Mill, Robert Louis Stevenson and Sugarloaf Ridge. The hills have been renewed with fresh grass emerging across the landscape. Lack of rain this winter helped minimize erosion and trail washouts in burn areas, Mowrey said.

At Robert Louis Stevenson, campgrounds and yurts are available by reservation. Yet hikers will find pockets where hot, winddriven flames left behind tree skeletons and burnedout manzanita, she said.

At Sugarloaf Ridge, 98% of the park has burned in three years from fires in 2017 and 2020. Yet only 1.2 miles of trails (on brushy peaks) are now closed for repairs, and wildlife is emerging.

“Our critter cam team has captured mountain lions and bears at the park since the fire, so we know the large animals are still around,” Mowrey said.

More good news came from TrioneAnnadel, a great park for mountain biking.

“It was a slow fire and no structures were damaged. Grass and flowers are growing back, lots of visitation.”