Joshua Tree National Park and our three neighboring national monuments figured prominently in many of our top stories in 2017. Joshua Tree National Park officials announced in January that a record number of people visited Joshua Tree in 2016—2.5 million, and numbers are expected to be even higher in 2017. And perhaps to reduce the number of visitors to our over-crowded parks, the Trump Administration announced it planned to significantly raise entrance fees to the nation’s most popular national parks, including Joshua Tree. The senior pass increased from $10 to $80 in August. In October, the Park Service announced entrance fees would increase to $70 for a one week pass to Joshua Tree National Park between January and May, up from $25. Public comment on the proposed fee increase closed last week; the National Park Service has not yet announced if and when the fee will go into effect.
In April, the Trump Administration ordered Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to review the boundaries of more than two dozen national monuments, including Sand to Snow and Mojave Trails National Monuments. While Sand to Snow and Mojave Trails escaped changes, Zinke’s review hints at the possibility of allowing hunting in Castle Mountains National Monument.
In other park-related news, here’s managing editor Tami Roleff…
On July 28, a couple from Orange County went missing while hiking in Joshua Tree National Park. Rachel Nguyen, 20, and Joseph Orbeso, 21, were missing for almost three months, before a search party found their bodies October 15 under a bush. The county coroner’s office later determined that their deaths were a murder-suicide; Orbeso’s father, who was with the search party when the bodies were found, said his son was cradling the injured Nguyen in his arms and that their deaths were mercy killings.
And in a similar story, the bodies of two hikers from Yorba Linda were found dead August 12 at the Amboy Crater, just five hours after they started hiking and two hours after they called for help. Kathie Barber, 58, and her husband, Gen Miake, 60, started hiking at Amboy Crater about 11 a.m. Saturday morning when temperatures were in excess of 100 degrees. Barber called 911 in distress about 1:30 p.m., saying she was unable to find her husband, who had a heart condition. Sheriff’s deputies located the bodies of the couple at 4:20 p.m., just 100 yards apart.
