KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – After being closed for more than a month, Clear Lake State Park is reopening to day use and boating on Wednesday, but the recent flooding has necessitated repairs to campgrounds that could take months, with some facilities not expected to open until next spring.
On Feb. 9 the park was closed due to flooding of main park roads, campgrounds, cabins, boat launch, day use and restroom facilities, as Lake County News has reported.
With the waters now receding, Park Superintendent Bill Salata said the park will reopen for day use starting on Wednesday, with day use hours from sunrise to sunset.
However, Salata said campgrounds and cabins remain closed due to flooding and storm damage.
Clear Lake’s level continues to steadily recede. Early Wednesday, it was just under 8.4 feet Rumsey. Flood stage is 9 feet Rumsey.
Salata said the reopening of the campgrounds is still undetermined. That’s because park staffers haven’t been able to fully evaluate the erosion and facilities damage from the flooding due to some areas still being underwater.
He said the Cole Creek campground, which still has some standing water, along with Upper Bayview campground and Lower Bayview Campground are closed until June 1, due to needing to do repair work that requires digging up the roadway. Once the main park road is evaluated, those campgrounds can be reopened.
Kelsey Creek campground, which is still partially underwater, is expected to be closed until March 2018, he said, noting closures may be extended if additional damage is identified.
“We still have picnic tables floating, and we have about 50 trees down,” he said.
Those picnic tables, which range in weight from 500 to 800 pounds, are at the water’s edge in the Kelsey Slough. Salata said it is expected to take until the end of the summer to retrieve all of those picnic tables.
There also are crushed tables and lifted blacktop, and the need to assess the condition of the park’s sewer and fresh water system. He said that will require digging up parts of the roadway in order to access fresh water lateral lines.
There are concerns that driving through the park could further damage roads and infrastructure, he said.
Salata put the damage estimate to the park’s facilities in excess of $100,000. “I imagine that number is going to double.”
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He said park staff is now cutting down trees, trying to clean the roads and cleaning facilities for day use, which is a priority.
“The amount of work right now is overwhelming,” he said.
In order to complete repairs, Salata said State Parks has an interagency agreement with the California Conservation Corp which starts at the end of the month, and they’re working on an amendment with Cal Fire for use of its inmate crews to begin this month.
Salata, who has been at Clear Lake State Park for the last eight years, hasn’t seen this kind of damage previously during his tenure.
However, he said the facility was seriously damaged in the 1998 flood, when Clear Lake’s elevation topped 11.4 feet on the Rumsey gauge, nearly a food higher than its peak level in February. At that time, the park didn’t have gates to close and some of the other infrastructure it now has.
He said he’s added gates to keep the public safe and to allow for making closure when necessary.
Salata said Clear Lake State Park has about 200,000 visitors a year between Memorial Day and Labor Day. During the “shoulder season” last spring, they had 300 to 500 people people a day using the park thanks to the crappie fishing.
“Our numbers are higher than they have ever been in history, up until this winter,” Salata said.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
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