Fire season isn’t over yet, but Pinnacles National Park has reopened areas that had been closed because of wildfire danger.
The park last month had closed the west side of the park, including the entrance near Soledad, and all trails except for the Bench and Sycamore trails.
“We have not experienced a large fire in a number of years — actually more than 15 — and if you look at our fire history almost all of the park has burned throughout the years,” said park Superintendent Blanca Alvarez Stransky. “So we’ve been told by our fire management officers that Pinnacles is at a high risk for fire, so we’re taking every precaution we can to prevent that and that’s one of the reasons we had to close.”
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In announcing the reopening, Stransky cited the shift of seasons — bringing increased humidity at night — and the slow return of wildland fire resources to the area.
“We were doing our part to support the firefighting efforts by trying to limit folks so if there was a fire we could easily evacuate,” she said. “People come to our parks and they go hiking in the wilderness and it’s very difficult to get to them if there is a fire.”
Stransky said the park still has a high fuel load of dried vegetation and fire danger will fluctuate between high and very high until December. All campfires or cooking fires are prohibited in the park and use of propane or gas stoves for cooking purposes is restricted to designated campsites, use of charcoal grills is prohibited, smoking is only allowed within enclosed vehicles and driving or parking vehicles off-road and/or on vegetation is prohibited.
“We don’t have what they call an initial attack crew available, so if there was a small fire that was started in the park we do not have anyone that’s trained that can immediately go to that area,” Stransky said. “We would have to wait for the response to come out of the Cal Fire station that’s further down the road. Because of all the fires in California we were at 96% commitment of resources, so that puts us in a little bit of a shaky situation.”
COVID-19 regulations remain in place at the park, keeping the Bear Gulch Nature Canter and West Visitor Center closed as well as the Balconies and Bear Gulch Caves. Shuttle services inside the park remain non-operational.
“It’s hard to socially distance (in the caves) and it’s hard not to touch everything when you’re going through,” Stransky said. “It’s also a moist, dark space that’s a perfect breeding ground for all kinds of germs.”
