by Bob Edwards
This past Saturday, May 30th, I was looking at the Cabrillo National Monument web page to see if there was any news about a future reopening. To my surprise I found the following information under “Alerts Now In Effect”:
“Outdoors areas and restrooms at Cabrillo National Monument are open from 9 am to 5 pm.
We are working to increase access to the park in a phased approach. Outdoors areas and restrooms are open from 9 am to 5 pm. Indoor facilities such as the Lighthouse, Visitor Center, and some exhibits remain closed.?The tidepools close at 4:30 pm.”
I usually walk the Bayside Trail a few times a month and have been really missing it, so I immediately hopped in the car with my wife, drove up to Catalina Blvd., and headed out past the cemetery to the monument. (As a side note, I just found out that there are 101,000 souls interred at Ft. Rosecrans Cemetery. That also happens to be the number of people who have died of Covid-19 in the USA as of this weekend.)
Parking lot near visitor center is nearly empty. All photos by Bob Edwards, except the picture of the lighthouse, courtesy National Park Service
At Cabrillo there was a ranger in the guard booth who waved us in after I showed him my annual pass. It was 9:45 AM and there were less than 25 visitor cars in the entire monument. By the time we left, two hours later, there were more cars and people, but still not many compared to a typical spring Saturday.
Only a handful of cars down by the tide pools
We spoke to a couple of volunteers who told us that Cabrillo has been reopened to the public since last Wednesday, but there was no public announcement made because the Park Service didn’t want a sudden deluge of visitors. Only half of the parking lots will be open initially in a further effort to assess how safe a full reopening will be.
Warning sign at Bayside Trailhead. If you go there, be sure and wear a mask as there were quite a few unmasked people not maintaining physical distancing
We had a beautiful hike and counted 25 lizards along the trail, a respectable turnout but nowhere near the record 65 we spotted a year ago on a springtime walk there.
Many flowers are blossoming though we missed out on the peak spring bloom as the monument was closed at that time.
Surfers and pleasure boats dot the waters off of the Bayside Trail
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