Thousands flock to closed Sonoma Coast, where rangers give them the talk, and some the ticket

BODEGA BAY

The state park rangers and other authorities pitching in to help enforce beach closures along the Sonoma Coast are mostly telling visitors what they already knew before they got there: All the parks are closed.

But that knowledge hasn’t dissuaded thousands of people from heading to the seashore since late March, when social distancing fails at California parks, particularly on the North Coast, prompted public officials to shut down access to parks and beaches around the state.

For some, it’s enough to get away from home and stop on the side of the road to catch a glimpse of the ocean and the open sky, and breathe in the cool, salty air after days or weeks cooped up at home, even if it’s technically nonessential travel.

But many, given a chance - even moment unobserved or a space large enough to slide their vehicle between barricades - have just ignored the flashing “park closed” signs on the highway and hit the beach or a trail, coronavirus rules be damned.

That’s what Sonoma Coast State Park personnel are finding after more than five weeks under never-before shelter-in-place orders designed to contain the spread of global pandemic.

By Sunday, they had issued more than 5,200 verbal warnings for violations of the shutdown since March 28, flushing people out of turnouts and chasing them from parking lots.

They’ve also written 214 parking citations and 20 more serious citations that will require the offenders to appear in court. Many of the ticket recipients are from outside the region.

“Where you would think our work load would go down because of the shelter-in-place order, it’s almost the opposite,” said Supervising Ranger Tim Murphy, who provided the statistics. “Our workload has increased for this time of the season for us, and, you know, verbal warnings and everything are through the roof.”

Warm, sunny weather over the past week has only increased the lure of the coast, park personnel said, converging with what’s coming to be known across the nation as “quarantine fatigue,” a phrase suddenly in the vernacular, now that most communities are well past a month into stay-at home orders. This week will mark Sonoma County’s sixth, with an mid-week extension on the shelter order widely expected to prolong social distancing and other measures well past the current May 3 expiration.

Saturday, a summerlike weekend day, “was probably the biggest turnout yet as far as this whole thing goes,” said Murphy’s counterpart, Supervising Ranger Damien Jones.

Almost everyone he encountered, said simply, “I just had to get out,” he said.

The story has been similar around the state, with masses of people congregating where beaches and parks have been open and despite warnings from state and local park officials to be wary, given the natural desire to be outside enjoying beautiful weather.

For the most part, Sonoma Coast State Park authorities are trying to be understanding. Everyone is under stress, they acknowledged, so they’re trying to be less punitive, more educational in their approach.

“Generally, if we can find the people and talk to them and give them our speech and concept behind the whole thing, and why this is going on, it usually suffices,” Jones said.

But sometimes, people leave their vehicles and take off, and the only thing to do is write a ticket. And sometimes, the behavior is more egregious, the offenders more elusive.

People have stolen, purposely toppled or displaced the orange cones that now line miles of Highway 1 and are used to close off turnouts, park entryways and picnic area parking lots.

In some cases, rangers find that the cones have been stacked up or even thrown over cliffs, Jones and Murphy said.

In other cases, visitors figure if they can maneuver between cones or barricades, it’s perfectly fine for them to be the only ones within view at a picnic table. One Napa couple even lodged a complaint later when they got a parking ticket, Murphy said.

Another Napa group parked across the driveway of residents in the Salmon Creek neighborhood, scrawling a cellphone number on the back of a receipt stuck to their windshield noting they could be found at the (closed) beach, in the event there was a problem, he said.

On Sunday, despite morning fog and a chilly breeze, more than 100 vehicles were counted in a over 3.5 hours span headed down the dead-end road to Bodega Head, Murphy said. To get there, they had to turn off Highway 1 travel right past a digital “park closed” sign on Bay Flat Road before they were turned back by a line of cones and just beyond, Murphy and his ranger vehicle.

A sheriff’s deputy caught one vehicle from Sacramento driving round the barricade just beyond him earlier in the morning, Murphy said, and rangers already have issued tickets to people up at the head, so he’s sure some of those who turned around upon seeing him would have driven all the way in, as well.

“It’s a hard time,” said Jones, “and we know that, and we understand the need to get outside and why it’s hard to shelter in place. But some folks honestly don’t think it applies to them or that we have no business telling them what they can do, so it’s a hard sell to say the least.”

The state’s shelter-in-place orders initially were written in a way that offered residents the freedom of outdoor recreation in public spaces.

But overwhelming demand on public parks around the Bay Area and much of California in the first weeks created such dense concentrations of people in some areas, especially on the North Coast, that park officials at all levels took action to limit access or close parks in their entirety.

Sonoma County closed all county and municipal parks, while the California State Park system closed vehicle access to all 280 state parks and beaches and has completely closed 77 of them, including 33 in Sonoma and Mendocino counties.

Sonoma County Health Officer Sundari Mase is expected to announce revisions to her shelter-in-place order this week that will allow some limited walk-in and bike-in access to parks in close proximity to people’s homes.

But the county’s coastal beaches, like Doran, Gualala Point and Stillwater Cove regional parks, are expected to remain closed, as well as state parks and beaches, because they remain such a draw to people from out of the county, raising the prospect of overwhelmed sites, as well as potential viral exposure for park officials, first responders, local residents and essential business personnel.

“I recognize that’s frustrating for locals, but as you’ve seen, it’s very difficult to enforce,” said Sonoma County Supervisor Lynda Hopkins, who represents the Sonoma Coast and lower Russian River. “The concern is if you open a crack for locals, it would become impossible to enforce.”

Among the stream of complaints Hopkins said she has received in recent days from coastal communities, are reports of crowds standing or eating shoulder to shoulder in coastal parking lots and concerns that tourists from outside the area bring with them unnecessary risk of exposure to the virus everyone is trying to avoid.

“My concern is it’s just going to get worse as the shelter in place wears on and the temperatures go up,” she said.

“It’s just very, very difficult to protect 55 miles of coastline.”

There are also issues for neighborhoods off Highway 1 when parks are closed, like Carmet, where many visitors Sunday parked to lunch in their vehicles with a view of the ocean on Carmet Drive.

Some also climbed out to walk across Highway 1, from which people often ignore the barricades and seem to walk to the beach.

“I’m not sure how far they get,” Carmet Drive resident John Pitcl, 63, said.

“We’re frustrated,” he said. “We live here, and we can’t go to the beach.”