Failed Trip to Castle Peak. . . Parking is Crazy, WTF.
Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2017 6:11 pm
Hi All,
I had a disappointing experience this weekend, and I'm curious to hear what other HST members think about it. The plan was to snowshoe up Castle Peak on Saturday (1/14/2017). Long story short, the parking situation was impossible and we had to change our plans. Is this the "new normal" for California? Or was it simply a convergence of fresh snow + great weather + three-day weekend?
We left Oakland a bit after 6am, and arrived at exit 176 (Bunny Hill Drive) around 9am. There was a very long line of cars waiting on the offramp, and it took 45 minutes to physically exit the interstate. Unsurprisingly, the Donner Sno-Park lot was filled, but I was disappointed to see that Bunny Hill Drive was also totally full. On top of this, several dozen vehicles were illegally parked; many people had stashed cars in places with obvious "No Parking" signs. Anyway, the place was a zoo with people everywhere and cars in gridlock. It took one hour simply to drive along Bunny Hill Drive, down to Donner Sno-Park, and then back to the offramp. Overall, the parking situation seemed impossible this weekend. Although I was expecting crowds, I was not expecting this level of crazy. I'm curious to hear what other HST members think about this whole situation.
Did anyone else have crowd problems this weekend?
I had a disappointing experience this weekend, and I'm curious to hear what other HST members think about it. The plan was to snowshoe up Castle Peak on Saturday (1/14/2017). Long story short, the parking situation was impossible and we had to change our plans. Is this the "new normal" for California? Or was it simply a convergence of fresh snow + great weather + three-day weekend?
We left Oakland a bit after 6am, and arrived at exit 176 (Bunny Hill Drive) around 9am. There was a very long line of cars waiting on the offramp, and it took 45 minutes to physically exit the interstate. Unsurprisingly, the Donner Sno-Park lot was filled, but I was disappointed to see that Bunny Hill Drive was also totally full. On top of this, several dozen vehicles were illegally parked; many people had stashed cars in places with obvious "No Parking" signs. Anyway, the place was a zoo with people everywhere and cars in gridlock. It took one hour simply to drive along Bunny Hill Drive, down to Donner Sno-Park, and then back to the offramp. Overall, the parking situation seemed impossible this weekend. Although I was expecting crowds, I was not expecting this level of crazy. I'm curious to hear what other HST members think about this whole situation.
Did anyone else have crowd problems this weekend?