On Independence Day weekend, San Francisco residents Daniel Segura and his wife arrived at Samuel P. Taylor State Park in Marin County, about 30 miles north of the city, in the early evening. The couple knows better than to show up during peak hours, when the parking lot is often full.

“We arrived at around 5 p.m., which we like to do, because at that time, most of the humans are packing up and leaving, so we don’t have to contend with too many of them,” Segura said.

Segura pulled up to the ranger station and was ready to pay the $8 fee, but then something strange happened. “Today is your lucky day,” Segura remembers the ranger saying before handing him a free pass. “Just pick up some trash along the way.”

The couple wasn’t sure why they were chosen, but they did suspect that the ranger was incentivizing a cleanup. The refuse on the redwood-flanked Pioneer Tree Trail — including used tissues, discarded cans and other unpleasant items — certainly suggested as much. “Why do people come here to trash the place?” Segura said. “It’s so very disappointing and disheartening.”

During a summer in which many Bay Area denizens still aren’t comfortable flying on planes or packing into indoor spaces, some popular state parks in the North Bay are feeling the strain from the increased demand for recreation, California State Parks officials said. As in national parks around the country seeing a large uptick in visitation, consequences of overuse have included full parking lots, crowded parks, dirty bathrooms and an abundance of trash.

In particular, parking lots are filling early on weekends at Samuel P. Taylor, Tomales Bay State Park and Mount Tamalpais State Park, according to California State Parks Bay Area Superintendent Vince Anibale. Lately, those parks have together been welcoming about a million visitors each year, and it’s gotten to the point where officials are considering vehicle reservations like those of Muir Woods National Monument or Yosemite National Park, which must be booked online and in advance for a fee.

“It’s difficult when a lot of people come out and you have to turn them away,” Anibale says. “[The reservation system is] something we’re thinking maybe we need to go to in the future.”

According to the park’s website, Samuel P. Taylor’s Azalea Day lot — which contains 97 spots — often fills by mid-morning on weekends. Carpooling or visiting the park on weekdays or off-peak hours on weekends can help, according to the website, but visitors should have an alternate plan or destination. Those who insist on showing up at popular times often have to wait in line for others to leave.

Over at Tomales Bay’s Heart’s Desire Beach — a calm, protected stretch of bayside sand ideal for picnics and hikes — parking has also been a problem. “Once the parking lots have filled, the park is closed and no additional cars will be permitted — even to drop off people or load/unload equipment,” the website states. (Alternate parking is available at the Jepson Trailhead on Pierce Point Road, a 1.5-mile trip from the beach.)

A woman crosses a log at Samuel P. Taylor State Park.
Courtesy of Karne Martinez

Trash has also been an issue around Tomales Bay, largely because of people living in their cars in nearby pullouts, Anibale says. And with high visitation on top of the drought causing water shortages, both Tomales Bay and Samuel P. Taylor have seen difficulties with restrooms. Some have been shut down because of water shortages, while others are requiring more frequent clean-ups.

“There’s definitely been a need for more maintenance staff in our parks,” Anibale says.

This year, California’s state budget provided more funding than ever for state parks, with large amounts set aside to address wildfire damages and chip away at the billion-plus dollars of deferred maintenance projects. Although that’s a huge win, says California State Parks Foundation Executive Director Rachel Norton, the agency remains underfunded and understaffed.

“You can allocate money for [staffing] positions but actually getting them filled is a whole new challenge,” Norton says. Finding the candidates and getting through the hiring process are part of that, she says, and in places like the Bay Area where the cost of living is high, there’s the added issue of wages not being high enough to attract applicants.

When Norton learned that a reservation system was under consideration for some Bay Area parks, she acknowledged that there were pros and cons but also said she has concerns.

“Whenever you create a barrier to entry, whether it's a fee or the requirement you have a reservation ... there are some people who don’t get that message,” Norton said. Maybe they don’t have a computer to make the reservation, or maybe they can’t afford the fee, and the result is that access is impacted, she added.

In 2018, Muir Woods instituted a year-round vehicle reservation and shuttle system to reduce overcrowding, becoming the first national park to do so. Visitors who showed up unaware were often out of luck, particularly because there’s no cell service or WiFi in the area, making it impossible to book a reservation on the spot.

In Yosemite, the day-use reservations system came about as a way to keep the number of visitors down during the pandemic. Although it succeeded in doing so, budget travelers who arrived without reservations didn’t have a good option for accessing the park, and local businesses that catered to those travelers suffered.

Booking ahead is not unprecedented within the state parks system — down at Año Nuevo State Park, a permit is required to visit a colony of elephant seals. That system allows for rangers to monitor human-seal interactions and is in place for the safety and of all involved creatures. In cases like that, Norton can see why a bit of advanced planning is important.

For other state parks where crowding has become an issue, she hopes there will be a “robust public process” that involves “thinking about how we can mitigate the effects of controlling visitation, so that it doesn't discourage access to folks that we most want to really be engaged with their state parks.”

The challenge the parks are facing, Anibale said, is balancing recreation with resource protection.

“In the Bay Area, there are so many people who want to recreate,” he said. “They’re trying to find opportunities, and maybe there aren’t enough opportunities.”