Pizza boxes, dirty diapers: Waterfall closes again after California crowds trash trail

Park officials in Southern California say they had high hopes when they reopened a popular trail to Paradise Falls following national coronavirus lockdowns.

Then record crowds showed up, spending hours hanging out on the trail and leaving behind truckloads of trash — including human waste, officials in Thousand Oaks say in a release.

Photos posted on Twitter by the Conejo Open Space Foundation show mobs of visitors on the trail and empty pizza boxes and other litter next to an overflowing trash can.

“My daughter and I hiked there yesterday from Hill Canyon and found a huge mess,” wrote one visitor on Twitter. “We filled a bag of trash (used diapers, cans, bottles, clothing). It was disappointing and disgusting. Leave no trace! This is why we can’t have nice things…”

After just two weekends, the Conejo Open Space Conservation Agency says the waterfall in Wildwood Park will close again to the public on Friday until further notice.

Each weekend, rangers had to haul away truckloads of trash left on the trail, the agency said in its release.

“Then there were problems with human waste and sanitation as many used areas along the creek both upstream and downstream as a toilet, and wetland vegetation was trampled,” the release adds.

Designed as a “simple stopover” on a walk through the park, the trail and waterfall simply couldn’t handle the hundreds of people who spent hours there, officials said.

Thousand Oaks police will be on hand at Paradise Falls to enforce the closure, the release says. Officials asked hikers to visit other trails, which remain open, and give the waterfall time to recover.

“What a shame! They spoiled it for all of us. One of my favorite places to go,” wrote on visitor on Twitter.

“The mess is also spilling into our neighborhoods,” wrote a nearby resident on Twitter. “There has never been trash on our neighborhood streets but now along with being invaded by cars and hundreds of people there is trash too.”

California parks and businesses have recently started reopening after weeks of a statewide stay-at-home order intended to curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus, which has killed more than 100,000 people in the United States.

This story was originally published May 28, 2020 at 1:28 PM with the headline "Pizza boxes, dirty diapers: Waterfall closes again after California crowds trash trail."