Oceano Dunes is reopening to some vehicles after COVID-19 closure. Here’s when
California State Parks will allow some vehicles to return to the Oceano Dunes as part of a phased reopening, the agency announced Tuesday.
So-called “street legal” vehicles such as Jeeps and trucks will be allowed at the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily starting on Oct. 30, according to State Parks.
Camping will not reopen at the Oceano Dunes at that time, State Parks said in a news release.
“Staff will monitor conditions and operations over the next few weeks to determine when to restore” camping, State Parks said.
The popular state park near Pismo Beach has been closed to all vehicle and camping access since mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Oceano Dunes were scheduled to reopen in late September after the end of the snowy plover nesting season. But the reopening was later delayed until Oct. 19, according to an email from Reserve California obtained by Fresno-based television news station KMPH.
Hundreds attended a rally at the Grand Avenue entrance to the Oceano Dunes on Oct. 10 in support of reopening the park.
“We’d really like to get back, on what little we have on the California coast, on the only place you can ride. We really want to be back on Oceano Dunes,” rally organizer Leah Hensley told The Tribune at the time.
Off-highway vehicles with a green sticker issued by State Parks will remain temporarily prohibited from entering the park, the agency said. State Parks did not specify when those vehicles would be allowed back on the dunes.
“Drivers are advised that the dunes and topography changed during the closure of the park unit, creating unfamiliar terrain,” State Parks said in the release. “All drivers are being asked to drive with care and provide shorebirds and pedestrians plenty of space as they enjoy the park. The speed limit on the beach is 15 miles per hour.”
The San Luis Obispo County Air Pollution Control District will install wind fencing and State Parks will continue restoration projects and facility maintenance while the park begins to reopen, the agency said.
According to State Parks, 100 camping sites at the Oceano Dunes will become available to the public, but the agency did not say when that would happen.
Visitation and physical distancing will be monitored at the dunes, and “if unsafe conditions develop, access may be restricted again,” State Parks wrote.
Campgrounds at Hearst San Simeon and Morro Bay state parks, as well as Morro Strand State Beach, opened in mid-September.
Pismo State Beach’s North Beach and Oceano campgrounds also reopened Sept. 21.
As of Tuesday, San Luis Obispo County was in the red tier of California’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy, meaning that COVID-19 spread in the county was considered “moderate” but not “widespread.”
“We thank the public for their patience as this is the first time in the history of the department where safety measures such as vehicular access closures, full closures and cancellation of reservations have been implemented at such as large scale in response to a pandemic,” State Parks director Armando Quintero said in the release.
