Joffre Lakes boiling point — Will BC Parks actually deploy the tow trucks on September 1st?

On August 30th, 2018 BC Parks has issued a warning to park visitors that if they park alongside the road near Joffre Lakes this weekend, they will be towed:

In recent years, visitation to Joffre Lakes has exploded and some blame social media. There is no doubt that promotion and social media sharing has played a role. For example, in May of 2016, DestinationBC (The Crown Corporation that currently receives over $50 million of taxpayer money to advertise BC) named Joffre Lakes the #1 most photogenic spot in all of BC.

The role of trail improvements at Joffre Lakes, combined with a lack of improvements to other trails in the region, has arguably played a more important role than social media. Starting in 2013, a multi-year trail upgrade project was undertaken at Joffre Lakes. Prior to that time, the trail was extraordinarily challenging. Here are two pictures from 2010 showing the difficult boulder field and the extent of deadfall that was typical on this route.


The trail upgrades were very significant. Here is a picture from VancouverTrails.com showing the same boulder field after the upgrade. The boulder field was made so easy that you could push a stroller along it (please don’t though because there are stairs and steep sections on other parts of the trail.)

There is a severe dearth of family-friendly hiking trails in the Sea to Sky region that allow hikers of all abilities to get up into an alpine environment. Joffre Lakes is one of the few trails in the region to receive this type of an upgrade and so it has attracted an increasing number of hikers.
Below is a video showing the typical parking situation at Joffre Lakes on a weekend. Most of the cars parked alongside the highway are parked in no-parking zones.
This is not great. Many motorists have expressed concern about the danger of travelling along the highway while cars are partially obstructing the travel lanes and many people predict that it will only be a matter of time before someone is killed.
There are a few options for how BC Parks can deal with this situation.
1) Tow all offenders
This is what BC Parks has indicated they will do on the long weekend of September 1st, 2018. Unfortunately, by publicly stating that all offenders will be towed, they need to follow through or they will lose credibility. Many people already choose to flaunt BC Parks rules because of low levels of enforcement. Actually towing vehicles (and leaving people stranded) in this remote location will be very difficult and so I imagine their game-plan will consist of paying tow-trucks to be on-site and also requesting a visible police presence to deter anyone from attempting to illegally park. I think that BC Parks could have taken a more positive approach to managing crowds this weekend as described in the next option. One unfortunate side effect of this heavy-handed approach is that it will push crowds to nearby trails that have not been upgraded. None of the other trails in the immediate vicinity have a trailhead outhouse and many are very poorly marked. It is irresponsible for BC Parks to suggest that crowds of people visit these areas instead.
2) Accommodate visitors by running a shuttle or managing traffic on the highway
As can be seen in the following map, there are two large gravel lots that could be adapted for use as overflow lots. These lots are 3km and 10km away from the trailhead and it would be practical to run a shuttle service between the three locations to accommodate the peak crowds and ensure that everyone gets to access the park and see the lakes. This would also concentrate the crowds on the single trail in the area that has been upgraded to handle larger volumes of traffic and that has a sufficient number of outhouses.

Another option would have been to manage traffic on this short section of highway during these peak visitation days. The Duffey Lake Highway sees a fraction of the traffic that Highway 99 sees between Vancouver and Pemberton. The province has felt that it is appropriate and reasonable to implement lane closures on Highway 99 to accommodate sporting events — including the lengthy closures next weekend for the Gran Fondo. Two flag people and a handful of signs could easily allow park visitors to safely park alongside this short section of highway near Joffre Lakes with minimal impact to through-traffic. Alternatively, even just putting up temporary 30 km/h signs for a 3 km long section of road would probably be adequate.
3) Implement a permit system
BC Parks already has the web infrastructure to sell permits and reservations. Although I think the ultimate solution is to increase the number of upgraded hiking trails so that supply and demand come back into balance, it would have been possible for BC Parks to move to a day-permit system. That would allow visitors to have certainty that there would be room in the parking lot when they arrive and would have been much less contentious than turning people away who have driven for hours to reach the trailhead.
4) Invest in other trails
Joffre Lakes did not become popular overnight. For many years, hiking and recreation-based tourism have been increasing. During that same time, it has become increasingly obvious that our existing trail infrastructure is inadequate. Unlike areas like the Canadian Rockies or Mount Rainier, we lack a national park in the Coast Range of British Columbia and we rely entirely on the trails in the BC Parks and the BC Recreation Sites and Trails systems to support increasing demand. There are a large number of trails in the region that could be upgraded to accommodate a wider range of hikers and there are a large number of areas where new trails could be built. We have definitely not run out of mountains or lakes. Unfortunately, the provincial government has decided to not make the investments that are required to support the growing tourism sector. The message that BC Parks is effectively sending to tourists this weekend is that “We are full — please go away”. At a time when we need to be diversifying our economy to reduce our reliance on resources and real-estate, this is a disastrous policy for the tourism sector.
What do you think?
Happy Hiking
Steve
stevejoneshikes@gmail.com
