The operator of Golden Ears Provincial Park wants to assure people that day passes are being checked when they enter the gate.
Checks are being done at the front gate to the park on the weekends and whenever staff anticipates that they are going to have an issue with parking during the weekdays, explained Stu Burgess, operations manager with Alouette Park Management, the park operator for both Golden Ears and Rolley Lake Provincial Park.
It all depends on the weather, he said.
At other times, noted Burgess, staff are performing random checks in the six parking lots at the park. If they find people without passes they are sending them back into phone range to get one.
READ MORE: Starting July 27, visitors must have a day pass for Golden Ears Provincial Park
“For most of the areas passes are still available through the week. The east and west canyon area are the only places that passes are all being taken before early in the morning,” said Burgess.
Day passes became mandatory for Golden Ears park on July 27, and are available at 6 a.m. each day on the Discover Camping website.
Staff are not monitoring the amount of people launching boats at the park, however, Burgess added, a day use pass is needed per vehicle to access the boat launch. Other vehicles in the party can get a south beach day pass to access the south beach area for parking.
Last Saturday more than 3,100 vehicles entered the park and on Sunday there were more than 3,800 that went through the main gate.
Passes, Burgess said, were scooped up moments after they became available.
READ MORE: Record numbers flock to Golden Ears Provincial Park
“On Sunday, we had over 2,000 more vehicles come through the gate then there are passes available for the day,” said Burgess.
“That means we turned around a whole lot of people on Sunday,” he noted.
Burgess and his team plan to keep an eye on attendance as the summer season comes to a close.
“We’ll just keep an eye on it,” said Burgess.
“If we see a significant number of people coming in without passes then we’ll just put the check on the road again,” which, Burgess noted, will cause lineups and people will have to wait, once again, to get into the park.
cflanagan@mapleridgenews.com
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