Yosemite's Woes Equal Another Slump in Attendance 1999 decline is blamed on highly publicized slayings, higher gasoline prices and road closures. By Mark Grossi The Fresno Bee - October 12, 1999 Start with the murders. Add the rockslide, the higher gas prices and the road closures for construction. Do the math on this bad karma in Yosemite National Park, and you'll find visitors are being subtracted. The park's visitation - one measure of Yosemite's popularity - is slumping for the third consecutive year. With 2.58 million visitors from January to August this year, Yosemite had about 50,000 fewer guests than it did for the same period last year. And the park finished last year with 3.79 million visitors, the lowest total since 1991. It was 400,000 visitors shy of Yosemite's record 4.19 million in 1996. "We're still having a busy year," said Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman. "But, with everything going on, there are going to be impacts on visits." Media attention on the murders of four women in the area could take some of the blame for this year's dip, officials said. The grisly murders made Yosemite the scene of many news reports since February. Three tourists - Carole Sund, 43, of Eureka; her daughter, Juli, 15; and visiting Argentine family friend Silvina Pelosso, 16 - were murdered in February outside the park. Their bodies were not found until about a month later. In July, naturalist Joie Ruth Armstrong, 26, was found beheaded in the park. Federal officials say the suspect, Cary Stayner, 38, in the Armstrong killing has confessed to all four slayings. He has pleaded innocent to the Armstrong killing and has not been charged in the other three. After the first three killings in February, Yosemite had fewer visitors in March and April compared with the previous year. Many other factors, including weather and road construction, could have influenced the visitorship, officials say. The park then experienced an increase in visitors for May and June, even though a mammoth April rockslide closed a section of Highway 140 on the park's west boundary. In July and August, after Armstrong's body was found, the numbers dipped again. Other factors were probably involved as well, but network television cameras and journalists appeared at Yosemite for several weeks in July. News shows, magazines and newspapers carried the graphic details of the murder worldwide. "Nobody has really talked about what's affecting the visitor totals," said Yosemite ranger and spokesman Kendell Thompson. "It was a fantastic summer - relatively cool, not many search and rescues and not that crowded. I don't know why July and August attendance were down, unless it's tied to the negative press." Thompson and others say the reconstruction of Highway 140 is also a big factor. The construction - a road repair after the huge 1997 flood - closes the road for many hours each day. It will continue until September 2000. The work is separate from the road clearing required after the April rockslide. The business community on the west side of Yosemite is focused on road closures, not sensational news. "Virtually nobody is asking about the murders," said Steve Hayes, executive director of the Mariposa County Visitors Bureau. "People want to know how to get into the park. Some people, unfortunately, have driven all the way to El Portal and had to turn around." The 1997 flood also wiped out 350 campsites, 200 lodge rooms and 80 tent cabins in Yosemite Valley, officials said. Fewer people can stay overnight in the valley, Yosemite's 7-mile-long, 1-mile-wide centerpiece where people can see Half Dome, El Capitan and Yosemite Falls. Yosemite Concession Inc., which runs the businesses in the park, is losing about $10 million a year, company officials said earlier this year. But those problems may ease by 2002 if motel rooms are rebuilt in accordance with a new valley restoration plan, officials said. The plan is delayed, at the moment, while Yosemite officials complete a court-ordered study of the federally protected Merced River. As the plans, repairs and rebuilding are completed, park visits will level off, says Jay Watson, regional director of the Wilderness Society. He says people should not overreact. "I don't think this portends a downhill trend in visitation," he said. "You put together things like murders, a rockslide and prices going up at the gas station, and you lose a few visitors. Anyway, the idea isn't to pack in as many people as you can." Indeed, the valley was free of traffic jams on many summer days this year, said Oakhurst resident Jeannie Aceto, who worked temporarily on Yosemite's traffic-management team. "Definitely, the numbers are down."