2nd pullout parking

Yesterday we got to 2nd pullout at about 10 am to do the Great red Book...or at least that was the plan. The lot was full and since the road "improvements" there seemed to be no no parking along the road. Since the loop is one way we were forced to scrap our plans and ended up in Icebox. I have some questions for my fellow locals:

1)  What do other people do in this situation?  Drive the wrong way on the loop to get back to 1st pullout and hike to 2nd?  Park on the street and risk a ticket?

2) Since the loop road was redone, has anyone been ticketed for parking on the road ?

3)  Are there any plans to increase the number spots at the 2nd pullout?  If so, any idea when that sill begin?

Ended up being a great day but we were a bit frustrated at the situation and I'd like to hear from others as it gets colder and climbing at the Gallery gets more popular. 

Early Bird Gets The Worm 

Park at the Quarry and hike back? Or drive loop and park back at 1st pull out? 

Thanks John. The rocks and curb were the reason we headed for Icebox. As for "early"...it was just too cold to warrant getting up early to climb in full shade. But definitely people should have a backup for 2nd pullout or be willing to park at Sandstone and hike in. 

Personally saw them ticketing on sat and sun at 1st pullout and also sandstone as we went by on our way to the canyons. Icebox was the worst as far as offenders parking on the road...but I didn't see any tickets on windshields there.

Edited for Rant: Fawk I wish peeps could figure out that the loop is a 1 way 2 lane road.... not everybody wants to stare at sagebrush and creosote going 15mph when the speed limit is 35mph... 

BigB wrote:

Personally saw them ticketing on sat and sun at 1st pullout and also sandstone as we went by on our way to the canyons. Icebox was the worst as far as offenders parking on the road...but I didn't see any tickets on windshields there.

 

Thanks B. I had trouble finding parking at Icebox and can't say for certain I was legally parked but I was in a lot and I didn't get ticketed. Maybe with all the ticket money they can paint a dashed line showing that the loop is a 2 lane, one way road???

May I ask how long the road work is planned for? We are headed that way mid November and just wondered if its posted out there or if an estimated completion date is even known  

John Wilder wrote:

The road work is, to my knowledge, complete. They finished expanding the pine creek and Sandstone quarry lots just recently, along with a full repaving of the loop. It's nice, but with the improvements have come pretty expansive parking restrictions and enforcement. 

Thanks John. Good to know since a trip to that area from Texas for us is already costly. 

We spoke to a BLM law enforcement officer last week about all the boulders that have been placed along the loop road, blocking the dirt pull-offs that many people use to informally park. He said that the reasoning is to reduce damage to vegetation and that parking with all four wheels on the road pavement is still perfectly legal unless specifically signed otherwise. Now, I know that in the area of the second pullout there are a lot of No Parking signs on the road on either side of the pullout, but once those signs no longer appear, you should be legal to park on the side of the road.

John Hegyes wrote:

We spoke to a BLM law enforcement officer last week about all the boulders that have been placed along the loop road, blocking the dirt pull-offs that many people use to informally park. 

Such as the parking for the Ledger area.  I don't think I would be willing to leave my car on the road on that turn, or expect to not get a ticket for doing so.  

Also I know 1 person who got a ticket for being parked one space outside of the designated 2nd pullout.  So I wouldn't risk it.  I would hike from Sandstone Quarry.

The second pullout is a mess already and the season is not even near peak.  The spaces/lines are not even painted.  I expect that pullout to be full from sunrise onward from November to March.  It's time for an optional bus system.  I would take it versus driving the loop to not even be able to park!

First pullout parking is fantastic, second pullout is a massive downgrade, and SSQ increased the marked parking slightly while decreasing the possibile parking drastically.   So much wasted money on the SSQ parking.  An option that could have been used at the second pullout was to create parking on the left (south) side of the road or to have just allowed parrellel parking. 

I think it is going to be a tough year trying to find parking in the Calico Tanks!  

In general, the road improvements are good.  The parking was only legitimately improved for the first pullout and pine creek.  All of the other parking changes were downgrades.

Rprops wrote:

Such as the parking for the Ledger area.  I don't think I would be willing to leave my car on the road on that turn, or expect to not get a ticket for doing so.  

Also I know 1 person who got a ticket for being parked one space outside of the designated 2nd pullout.  So I wouldn't risk it.  I would hike from Sandstone Quarry.

Fun lil climb...

dnoB ekiM wrote:

The second pullout is a mess already

In general, the road improvements are good.  The parking was only legitimately improved for the first pullout and pine creek.  All of the other parking changes were downgrades.

Agreed!!!

dnoB ekiM wrote:

The second pullout is a mess already and the season is not even near peak.  The spaces/lines are not even painted.  I expect that pullout to be full from sunrise onward from November to March.  It's time for an optional bus system.  I would take it versus driving the loop to not even be able to park!

First pullout parking is fantastic, second pullout is a massive downgrade, and SSQ increased the marked parking slightly while decreasing the possibile parking drastically.   So much wasted money on the SSQ parking.  An option that could have been used at the second pullout was to create parking on the left (south) side of the road or to have just allowed parrellel parking. 

I think it is going to be a tough year trying to find parking in the Calico Tanks!  

In general, the road improvements are good.  The parking was only legitimately improved for the first pullout and pine creek.  All of the other parking changes were downgrades.

The one nice feature they did do at SSQ is the turn around, so atleast you can circle(like at the beach), unlike before...

This mismanagement of the NCA continues.  Member when BLM said they had enough FHWA funds to do an exit loop?  I member.

Member how it took them 8 months to re-do First Pullout and then they didn't have a budget for the exit loop? I member.

Weston L wrote:

This mismanagement of the NCA continues.  Member when BLM said they had enough FHWA funds to do an exit loop?  I member.

Member how it took them 8 months to re-do First Pullout and then they didn't have a budget for the exit loop? I member.

u been eatin those memberberries again....u know they make u hallucinate right? ;)

BigB wrote:

u been eatin those memberberries again....u know they make u hallucinate right? ;)

Southpark rules...

Weston L wrote:

This mismanagement of the NCA continues.  Member when BLM said they had enough FHWA funds to do an exit loop?  I member.

I hope the exit loop idea is dead. Sorry, I think this is a poor idea. Keep the interior of the loop intact - we don't need to tear up any more desert to pave more roads.. If they have any money left over, they should simply widen the loop road a little bit so that it can be striped as two lanes, thus allowing slow vehicles to be safely passed. And lastly, I really hope any talk of a two-way loop road is off the table. Passing slow vehicles would become impossible if the road was one lane in each direction.

I would totally give monetary support to a two way from the Visitor Center to the Sandstone Quarry. I just got home from Red Rock, and the only thing I dreaded was the 13 mile loop. We saw people trying to do a two way back up to the Visitor Center by the Overlook parking lot and we had to tell them it's a one way, which was very disappointing to them. 

The exit loop road would follow an existing jeep road bed from my understanding of what they had said at public input meetings.

My understanding is by federal regulations the road is currently not wide enough to be considered a two lane road, which is why there is no signage saying it is two lanes, and no white stripe demarcating it two lanes. That said, I drive the thing like there are two lanes, and I'll argue with anyone who tells me otherwise.