Hidden Falls Park's Time In Spotlight Creates Parking Nightmare In Placer County
PLACER COUNTY (CBS13) — A park parking problem has sprung up as an out-of-the-way spot has grown so popular, it's causing traffic jams out in the country.
Neighbors are tired of people parking on their property to visit Hidden Falls Regional Park in Auburn.
The parking lot has about three-dozen spaces, but last weekend the county says park workers had to turn away 350 cars. Many of those visitors are ending up parked in front of neighbor's homes.
Hidden Falls Park in rural Placer County is a hidden gem no more.
It's traffic gridlock in one of the last places you'd expect, with cars on both sides of the road.
"Really busy, like car, after car, after car, after car," said Brenda Heckes. "It would've been impossible for a fire truck to get down."
Placer County Parks supervisor John Ramirez says it wasn't always this way. The park got some positive press recently, and starting on Valentine's Day weekend, people showed up like never before.
"There was quite a fiasco on the roads around here," he said. "It's a nice park, we do have a parking problem, and we're doing everything we can to address it."
He says there is a plan to tackle the issue. First off, it's impossible to miss the plentiful no-parking signs put up as far as half a mile away from Hidden Falls. If you did miss them, expect a $103 ticket on your windshield.
The county is also adding about 30 spaces to the original lot. But even they admit, it won't make much of a dent.
Another thought is to have people park at the Placer County Government Center five miles away and offer a free shuttle to-and-from the park.
It's a peaceful place locals love, and apparently so does everyone else.
"It's a beautiful park, people wanna come to it, but we can't have people parking on our land," said Russ Brigham, who lives nearby.
There is talking of charging to use the on-site parking lot, but the hope is the free shuttle will be in place by next month and take care of the issue.