JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK EXTREMELY BUSY THIS WEEK

Over-capacity crowds are challenging Joshua Tree National Park this week. The recent rains have filled Barker Dam in Joshua Tree National Park, and there is water in Rattlesnake Canyon, and combined with the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, it seems everyone and their brother wants to visit Joshua Tree National Park. So if you were planning on going into the national park this week, you may want to revise your plans. Park Superintendent David Smith says the park is experiencing extremely high numbers of visitors this week and the campgrounds are full. He said visitors may want to come back next week after the holidays when the number of people coming to the park is expected to be much fewer. Earlier this week there were hour-long waits to enter the park in Joshua Tree, and at the southern entrance in Cottonwood, hundreds of people were lined up just to enter the visitor center to buy a park pass. Consider entering the park through the north entrance in Twentynine Palms or entering before 9 a.m. Smith also said people should expect to encounter parking lots that are filled to capacity; he added that people who park illegally will be ticketed and towed. Visitors can park alongside the shoulder of the road, he said, but it is illegal to drive over curbs and doing so is damaging to vegetation.