View From Landmark Isn’t Free Anymore

Just as they have on many occasions over the years, the Hobert Hicks family of San Diego decided that Sunday’s warm, sunny weather would make for a perfect day to visit Cabrillo National Monument.

But after a park ranger stopped them as they strolled the grounds to inform them that Sunday was the first day of a new $1-a-person entrance fee at the park, the Hickses decided that Saturday would have been an even better day.

“Oh, lucky us!” Eleanor Hicks said, laughing, as her husband reluctantly reached in his pocket while good-naturedly grumbling about “starting to get charged after coming here all this time.”

“Shoulda come yesterday,” Hobert Hicks sighed. “But it’s only a dollar. It’s worth it for the view. Still . . . “

Thousands of others who visited the monument at the tip of Point Loma Sunday reacted similarly. While no one ever enjoys paying for something that used to be free, it’s difficult to get too worked up over $1, so most people shrugged off the new charge as a relatively minor annoyance.

“It’s only $1--what’s a dollar these days?” said Linda Frank of Point Loma, who was visiting the monument with her young son, Gilbert. “If it helps maintain the park, it’s well worth it.”

Intended to help offset federal budget cuts, the entrance fee at Cabrillo--$1 per person or $3 per car, whichever is less--will help fund improved educational programs and upgraded facilities both at Cabrillo and other parks nationwide.

About one-third of the more than 330 national parks, historical sites and monuments also began charging entrance fees Sunday. Nationwide, the new fees are expected to generate about $54 million this fiscal year.

With 1.7 million annual visitors, Cabrillo officials estimate that the entrance fee, being collected on an honor system, will produce about $600,000 this year. Of that revenue, $152,000 has been allocated to Cabrillo for, among other things, the hiring of additional seasonal staffers to expand the park’s interpretive talks, expansion of the park’s hours, development of new historical exhibits and the upgrading of existing ones and whitewashing the Point Loma Lighthouse.

Park officials took a decidedly low-key approach Sunday to collection of the fee, which, based on a cursory examination, appeared to be paid by roughly half of the visitors who entered the park during several afternoon hours.

The money was collected by park rangers at a small table, marked by a sign explaining the new fees, that had been set up on the outdoor walkway leading to the visitor center. But while some people stood in line to pay the fee--blocking the sign in the process--others, apparently unaware that visits were no longer free, casually walked by and, in most cases, were not stopped and asked to pay.

“We’d like to catch as many as we can, but we’re not going to make a scene and run after the ones that get by,” said park ranger Bob Randall. “We don’t want it to look like we’re out to make money or going commercial.”

In coming weeks, park officials plan to experiment with several different collection locations and methods “to find where we can get the best return,” Randall said. Ideas being considered include stopping cars as they enter the park--an unattractive option because it could clog traffic--and setting up a kiosk near the visitors center.

While most of Sunday’s non-payers apparently did so innocently, at least some people deliberately avoided paying to enter the park.

As a group of five adults approached the collection table, one man steered his friends to the far side of the walkway and then quickly slipped by while the ranger was busy receiving money from other visitors.

“There you go--I just saved us $5,” the man gloated to his friends. (Actually, he saved only $3 under the $3-per-carload rule. What price guilty conscience?)

Most visitors, though, accepted the fee with equanimity and even a sense of humor.

“I think it’s very fair--it figures out to about one-third of a cent per every degree of view,” Penny Bacon of San Diego said. “It’s expensive compared to zero, but it’s very inexpensive compared to just about everything else.”

“Maybe they ought to give San Diegans a pass to get in free and charge everyone else,” Hicks said.

A $10 annual pass good for unlimited visits to the park is available but, as of late Sunday afternoon, only a handful had been sold.

“It’s one of those things where you hold off because you really don’t want to pay $10 at once, so I’ll probably end up paying $40, a dollar at a time, this year,” Bacon said.

Visitors under 12 years of age, educational groups and individuals with $25 annual passes good for federal recreation areas are exempt from the entrance charge. Persons over 62 years of age--and anyone else with them, up to a carload of adults--also will continue to receive free admittance to the park.

“Hey, I’m glad you came with us today!” one man joked with his elderly mother-in-law as a ranger explained that policy to him.

Joggers and bicyclists also will not be charged, unless they use the visitors center’s restrooms, drinking fountains or “stop to enjoy the view,” Randall explained.

Many San Diegans and other frequent visitors to the park said Sunday that the new fee probably would not cause them to visit the monument less often. That sentiment, however, was not a universal one.

When he saw the sign listing the new admittance policy, Dan McCullough turned on his heels and returned with his family to their car.

“This has always been a nice place to bring the family because it doesn’t cost anything,” said McCullough, of Mira Mesa. “I can understand why they’re doing it, but I don’t feel like paying $3 just to look at the ocean. I’ll go somewhere else and look at it for nothing.”

The more common attitude, however, was perhaps best expressed by Frank, who said that she has been visiting Cabrillo regularly since she was a child.

“When you live in San Diego, and especially Point Loma, you kind of grow up feeling that this place is part of your neighborhood,” Frank said. “That feeling’s worth a whole lot more than $1 to me. So, to me, this is a bargain.”