A Joshua Tree business has found itself the DeFacto visitor’s Center for Joshua Tree National Park. Coyote Corner, located across Park Blvd from the actual Visitor’s Center in Joshua Tree, closed because of a government shutdown, says it has been inundated with park visitors. The owners posted on Social Media yesterday that they are having trouble handling the load, saying, “It's asses to elbows all day long inside the store.” A retired Park ranger volunteered to help and spent the entire day yesterday sitting put in the cold weather answering visitor’s questions. The owners said they supplied some porta-potties for the crush and said, “The porto doors were swinging all day!” Coyote Corner also said, “With friends like the retired ranger and this rockin’ community we might just get through this thing.”
Another business, Cliffhanger Guides, cleaned 21 pit toilets in the National Park Christmas Eve, organizing and coordinating volunteers and funds. Elsewhere in the Park, local social media was full of postings of pictures of Park visitors, with no Ranger supervision because of the shutdown, parking off roadways damaging plants and open desert areas as well as reports of campers with reservations having their campsites usurped, piles of trash, overcrowded campgrounds, and untended toilets.
The sad state of affairs in Joshua Tee national Park has even caught the attention of the Los Angeles Times. Below is a link to their story about the negative effects of the shutdown:
https://www.latimes.com/travel/la-tr-canatparkshut-20181226-story.html
