Nearly two months after dry lighting caused wildfires and park closures, Whiskeytown National Recreation Area is slowly returning to normalcy. The popular Boulder Creek Trail to Boulder Creek Falls will reopen this weekend along with other areas in the park, including South Shore Drive, Shasta Bally Road to Sheep Camp and the Mill Creek Trail in the Tower House Historic District. The campground at Sheep Camp is also open. “Visitors are encouraged to return to these areas and notice some of the changes that have occurred from the fires," stated Superintendent Jim Milestone. “The Whiskeytown fires burned areas of the Boulder Creek Trail and visitors will notice burned underbrush and blackened trees. Just as forests have done for thousands of years these areas will revive with time," continued Milestone. “Look carefully and you will see vegetation already sending up green shoots within the burned area."
Shasta Bally Road above Sheep Camp, South Fork Mountain Lookout Road, Grizzly Gulch Road, Peltier Valley Road (from Peltier Bridge Campground to Shasta Bally Road) and the Queen Mary Road east of Coggins Park will remain closed until heavy equipment use and rehabilitation efforts in these areas are completed.
Some areas in Whiskeytown will remain closed for a longer period of time due to the impacts of suppression activities during the fires. In cooperation with Cal Fire, the park has completed emergency soil stabilization activities on the Kanaka Peak Loop Trail; however, the trail will remain closed at least until next year to ensure that these efforts are successful and protect the public from unsafe conditions. The trail will be closed at the intersections of Logging Camp Trail and the Kanaka Cut Off Trail. “We ask for the public’s cooperation in avoiding this area so that we can recover the lost vegetation and prevent further damage and erosion," said Whiskeytown Superintendent Jim Milestone.
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
