California state parks plan weekday closures, cutbacks in Inland Empire

If you’re planning a fall, winter or spring outing to California state parks or recreation areas in the Inland Empire region, make sure your destination will be open on the dates you want to go. And that advice may soon apply to other regions too.

Starting next week, five state sites, including Mt. San Jacinto, Chino Hills, Lake Perris, Silverwood Lake and the California Citrus State Historic Park, will either close to the public on certain weekdays or reduce services. In some cases, parks will be open for day use for fewer hours each day. These steps are being taken because of budget reductions.

My colleague Pete Thomas has the full rundown in his Outposts blog, along with a head’s-up that parks elsewhere may take similar steps.

In a news release today on the closures, Supt. Ron Krueper of the parks’ Inland Empire District said that cutbacks during slower visitor periods are necessary to maintain “high-quality service and public safety standards” during the summer, weekends and holidays. California parks are making $14.2 million in budget reductions in an effort to continue to keep all sites open despite a statewide fiscal crisis.

The closures at Silverwood Lake State Recreation Area, which will happen on Wednesdays and Thursdays, are a blow for personal watercraft fans, who buzz all around the lake, about two hours’ drive from Los Angeles, and for boaters too. Mt. San Jacinto State Park, which will close its Idyllwild campground, day-use and sector office on Mondays through Wednesdays, is home to the second highest mountain range in Southern California.

— Jane Engle, assistant Los Angeles Times Travel editor

Photo: Visitors enjoy a secluded beach, accessed by water, at Silverwood Lake State Recreation Area last year. Credit: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at 10:09 am by Jane Engle and is filed under California, Fall, Family & Kids, News, Tips & Advice, Outdoors & Adventure, Sports, Weekend Getaways, Winter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.