Did you talk with Mike at Bowen ranch about why he's letting people park? I'm assuming the income and I'm sure he doesn't care about the health of people/the springs. According to the website the deep creek camping people have closed their lot since march due to corona.
I was thinking if Mike had closed his entry in March and the usfs had gated the 173 on the arrowhead side this would have prevented a lot of people from going to DCHS. Then the springs would have had a nice break from human garbage, feces, chopping down trees, etc. Seems like just the opposite has happened and it could have been prevented relatively easily. My theory is that through social media and word of mouth people figured out that the springs were still open even when the beaches, campsites, trails were closed and that gave a huge boost to the already huge popularity of the springs, especially with first time hikers/campers and people looking to escape urban areas.
Someone told me they even saw overflow crowds of people at the upper warm springs.
Also Julian, did you leave after your encounter with those people camped at the pools or was there more to your report? Very curious.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/26/2020 11:58AM by paulespo.
