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By Miriam Raftery
Photo by Miriam Raftery: Lake Cuyamaca in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park is among sites now closed to vehicle access.
March 29, 2020 (San Diego) – California State Parks announced today that vehicle access is shut down to all 280 state parks due to visitors not following social distancing requirements during the COVID-19 outbreak. In San Diego County, state parks include Cuyamaca Rancho, Anza Borrego Desert, and San Pasqual Battlefield state parks as well as state beaches at Cardiff, Carlsbad and Torrey Pines.
"During this pandemic disease, every person has a role to play in slowing down the spread of #COVID19. Please protect yourself, your families and communities by practicing social/ physical distancing,” a Facebook post from California State Parks reads.
The action to close vehicular access follows earlier closure of campgrounds, visitor centers, museums and events in all state parks.
It is unclear when any of the parks will be reopened as the pandemic continues to spread statewide.
California State Parks encourages residents to take precautions, which include:
- Stay home if you are sick.
- Stay close to home when you get outdoors. This is not the time for a road trip to a destination park or beach.
- Venture out only with people in your immediate household.
- Walk around the neighborhood and enjoy neighborhood parks.
- Always maintain a physical distance of 6 feet or more when recreating in the outdoors. If you cannot maintain physical distancing, leave the park.
- Do not congregate in parks.
Comments
No reason for this
You can hike desert trails but state parks parking lots are shut
down. They are open to locals who know how to get in there, and that is still legal with social distancing, FYI, though not an option for everyone.
I agree with you that the press and public should be told earlier when there is a confirmed case in a place the public visited, including a business open to the public such as the pharmacy in El Cajon.
Actually there is scientific disagreeement on how far away is safe for social distancing with coronavirus. Studies and estimates around the world range from 3 feet to 27 feet. Wind may blow the virus farther, so surfers six feet apart in the ocean are likely not safe on a breezy day.
Those who ignore social distancing will prove Darwin's survival of the fittest; if they ignore science and crowd together they will be the most likely to die of this virus.
Yes, I hike nearly every day in Anza Borrego DSP,
The reason is simple. . .
The people who brought Coronavirus here were not undocumented.
They were Americans returning from China and wealthy Americans air-lifted off a quarantined cruise ship, against the CDC's advice, and brought back to the U.S. specifically, here to California At least those were the first known cases in the U.S.
It's wrong to scapecoat and blame immigrants or any other group of people for the virus. By your logic, hundreds of thousands of lives would be lost and many others would be left with permanent lung damage -- and this now includes people of all ages. I personally know someone who is not old, and was on a respiratory for days with COVID-19 here and many now be left with damaged lungs.
While I, too, am concerned about our loss of liberties, in times when many lives are threatened such as during wars, natural disasters and pandemics, Americans should be pulling together to fight the common enemy -- a virus in this case -- not stooping to scapegoating innocent people out of fear as we look for someone to blame.
If there is any analysis of who to blame, it should focus on any political leaders around the world and in various states and cities who in some cases have failed to listen soon enough to the health officials and scientists.
Oh, and many of those people who came here originally as immigrants years ago are now doing critical work to keep open our grocery stores, delivering goods to those at home, working as janitors in our hospitals and other facilities, nurses and other critical jobs, often at minimal pay, risking their lives to keep all of us safe.
AMEN!
AMEN! I agree Miriam, and could not have said it better!
Why worry?
Anza Borrego
I can imagine closing parks like Cuyamaca, there's a road where it's easy to control traffic. Anza Borrego is the largest state park in California.It will be difficult to close it, there won't be any rangers patrolling the park.