It's Thursday. Today we start at noon today because we give the evening program. R did her Cactus program for 88 visitors last week. Tonight I give my Desert Tortoise program. The campground numbers and visitation numbers are up by over 25% this year over last year. Part of that is because of rangers spending time at Quartzsite in January and part is because the Good Sam Rally is in Phoenix this month and the Escapee Rally is in Tucson in March. The big reason that visitorship is up and length of stays are increasing is because the park is now fully open. From the time the new Superintendent came last year, he has been pushing to reopen the parts of the park that have been closed to the public for over ten years. He was aiming for July, but the opening finally happened in Sept of 2014. All the roads are open, hiking trails are open, areas of the park that were closed even to staff and volunteers can be visited by anybody. Several areas of the park are even open to backpacking. It is really fun this year working at the visitor center and telling our guests all the activities that are available to them. I hear a lot of "we are going to stay a couple more days" or "we are definitely coming back next year". These are words we love to hear.!
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