Public Camping Closed at Moab?

[Steve C]

Just saw this posted on Facebook's Sportsmobile group and thought it might be worth sharing. It looks like Moab is closing down to visitors and that includes utilizing dispersed sites on public lands. Not sure how the counties can enforce laws on Federal property, but might warrant some phone calls before heading out.

https://moabcity.org/551/COVID-19-In...HjtHsBH4mXEqfU

[86Scotty]

This is getting really stupid. How on earth could it be seeen as anything but a good thing for people to get outdoors in the fresh air and recreate.

Absolute stupidity.

[simplesez]

It isn't stupid. The Moab hospital is usually very busy with broken tourists this time of year. They don't have enough beds to deal with that plus sick elderly local residents. It is preventative. Expect everything to be shut down. They want everyone to just stay home for a while until this blows over. I'm sure it was a tough call.

[BrianBlair]

I don't like it......but I get it. We have the same thing going on in the Eastern Sierra. People are off of work or working remotely and are travelling to small mountain towns to climb/ski/whatever. When you have hundreds(or thousands) of new "residents" in your town the hospital(singular, there's only one) can be overrun with patients pretty quickly once the virus starts spreading.

Not to mention that having hundreds of visitors in your town doesn't help with containment. Inyo/Mono County(again, in California) don't have any cases confirmed yet.....but with hundreds of visitors crowding the coffee shops/grocery stores they likely will soon unless they can get everyone to leave.

BB

[rionapo]

This is the High Country News story on Moab and similar areas.

[daveb]

They shut down Yosemite NP yesterday. The traffic is unreal in my town. Looks like it was in the 70's as far as how many are on the road. And of all times, my van is in the shop in Fresno at J's performance with a fuel pump problem. No escape vehicle and that bothers me. But even if I did have it, you can only haul so much food and water and I'd hate to be on the road looking for supplies that may be difficult to find. Perhaps other areas of the country are not as affected as stupid CA? The people around here are raiding the stores and I've never seen anything like this especially since I don't know anybody with the virus as of yet.

[rionapo]

Originally Posted by daveb

. . . Perhaps other areas of the country are not as affected as stupid CA? The people around here are raiding the stores and I've never seen anything like this especially since I don't know anybody with the virus as of yet.

The stupid virus is way ahead of COVID. The news is about paper and Purell but our local store has been out of tortillas all week, plus other food products, and certain flavors of ice cream. That’s getting pretty close to an emergency if you can’t find tortillas or ice cream. Could buy more flour and make my own tortillas but not sure about ice cream—not enough milk in the store and have you looked at the price of hand crank ice cream machines!? (Electric ones are an offense against humanity.)

[simplesez]

Crowds and crap behavior are getting great hide aways in the forest shut down in Colorado. Being selfish and ignorant is the American way. We are staying true to our roots.

[yelnam]

It’s a bummer that we can’t go. I myself had to cancel my family’s plans to camp near Moab this week.

But the numbers are clear. For every confirmed case, 25 to 50 others also have the virus. People are spreading it while asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic. In the U.S., the number of cases is doubling every 4 days (exponentially).

The restrictions are understandable if you consider their perspective. Visitors would bring more virus. Hospitals in rural settings don’t have much capacity, and they don’t have ICU’s.

Besides, it wouldn’t be much fun to be sick away from home anyway. The world hasn’t experienced something like this in over a hundred years. It’s best we all hunker down.

[shadetreevanman]

A friend lives in Wrightwood, a small SoCal ski resort town. The problem they have is out of towners buying all their food. Just stay home.