Wednesday, April 5, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
21
Crater Lake bracing for bustling season as attendance soars
By Stephen Hamway
The Bulletin
BEND (AP) — While it’s
currently buried under nearly
12 feet of snow, Oregon’s
only national park is bracing
for more crowds this sum-
mer after consecutive years of
record-breaking attendance.
“It is getting to the point
where, during some of our
peak periods, we’re hav-
ing issues,” said Craig
Ackerman, superintendent for
the 184,000-acre Crater Lake
National Park.
The park drew approxi-
mately 756,000 visitors in
2016, a 23 percent increase
over the then-record numbers
from the year before. The
increase was partially due
to the centennial celebration
of the national park system,
which brought more visitors to
parks nationwide in 2016, but
that doesn’t explain the larger
growth trend.
All told, visits to Crater
Lake have increased by more
than 78 percent over the past
five years, thanks to a recov-
ering economy and increased
marketing from Oregon tour-
ism agencies.
The increase has had a
direct impact on the park
experience and tourism spend-
ing in neighboring communi-
ties, such as Bend, which is
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about two hours to the north-
east. However, Ackerman
said, the increase in visitors
has also put some strain on
Crater Lake staff: There are
longer lines — a mundane,
daily issue — but there have
been more serious impacts in
the form of increased search
and rescue missions.
“The park’s getting a lot
of exposure, and it’s going
through some growing pains,”
said Jim Chadderdon, execu-
tive director at Discover
Klamath Visitor & Convention
Bureau.
According to a 2016 report
on how spending effects
national parks, visits to Crater
Lake generated $71 million in
economic output in the form
of jobs and consumer spend-
ing in 2015. That total was
split roughly equally among
Klamath County, Central
Oregon, the Rogue Valley and
the Willamette Valley, accord-
ing to Chadderdon.
“For Klamath County,
Crater Lake’s a pretty big
deal,” he said.
While Crater Lake and
other national parks have
limited resources to market
themselves, Ackerman said
the park works with a variety
of local and statewide market-
ing agencies to reach a wider
audience.
In 2015, Travel Oregon,
which handles tourism-pro-
motion throughout the state,
and Discover Klamath helped
develop “Ride the Rim,” a
multi-day event in September
where cyclists and runners
can trek across 25 miles of the
lake’s rim. The event, which
Chadderdon said grew out of
days when the park was closed
to vehicles, attracted nearly
5,000 people last September.
Oregon’s growing pro-
file as an international tour-
ism destination helps as well.
Last February, Crater Lake
joined Wuyishan National
Scenic Area, a UNESCO
World Heritage Site in China
that receives 10.5 million visi-
tors per year. Allison Keeney,
global communications man-
ager for Travel Oregon, said
the partnership came together
in part because Oregon has
become a destination for
Chinese tourists. In 2014,
62,000 Chinese tourists con-
tributed $48 million to the
Oregon economy, according
to numbers provided by Travel
Oregon.
“China is our largest over-
seas market,” Keeney said.
Ackerman added that
Crater Lake is nearing an
agreement with Triglav
National Park in Slovenia.
“They have a number of
issues that are identical to
ours,” he said of the Slovenian
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National Park in southern
Utah as an extreme example
of this. The 76,000-acre park
received more than 1.5 million
visitors in 2016. Kate Cannon,
superintendent at Arches, said
the highway outside the park
has become so congested that
Utah Highway Patrol has had
to close the road. She added
that the park’s relative short-
age of parking spaces has
forced cars to park on the side
of the road, hurting nearby
plant life.
While Crater Lake doesn’t
have problems on the same
scale, Ackerman said the park
is looking at ways to dis-
perse visitors throughout the
park and the season. The vast
majority of Crater Lake’s visi-
tors come during the heart of
the summer and congregate
near the lake itself, Ackerman
said. As a result, the park is
looking to add attractions later
in the summer, and in other
parts of the park. In recent
years, the park added new
trails by the Pinnacles, miles
from the lake itself.
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While he said he didn’t
expect as many visitors in
2017 as Crater Lake received
in 2016, Ackerman acknowl-
edged that overuse is an ongo-
ing concern. Crater Lake
saw around the same num-
ber of visitors last year as
Canyonlands National Park
in southern Utah, which is
approximately twice as large.
More visitors in a smaller
space can cause problems.
Sean Denniston, manage-
ment assistant for the national
park, said Crater Lake’s rang-
ers reported a record-high
19 search and rescue calls in
2016, including two serious
injuries. Ackerman added that
long lines at the park’s two
entrances have been a chal-
lenge at Crater Lake as well,
with visitors waiting more
than an hour during busy sum-
mer days.
“At some point, we will
reach a capacity where we can
literally serve no more peo-
ple,” Ackerman said.
Ackerman cited Arches
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