Gas prices keeping Puget Sound travelers closer to home

Derly Girault usually flies to Miami with her two daughters to spend their summer vacation with family and take in the heat and sun. In years when they don't make the trip, they typically drive to the Oregon Coast, where they stay in a motel and shop tax-free.

Not this year.

"It's too expensive," said Girault, who lives in Seattle's Hillman City neighborhood. "We're not going."

She's not alone.

Many people in the region, confronted by the high price of gas and air travel, are sticking closer to home this summer. Washington State Parks reports higher campground use. Some city parks say they've added staff to keep up with the surge in visitors choosing less-expensive day trips. Meanwhile, travel to more distant getaways like the San Juan Islands is down.

Many in the Puget Sound region are either planning their vacations within a smaller distance from home or finding ways to economize on vacations they've already planned.

"People are tending to travel shorter distances. In some cases, they're staying for a shorter time," said Dave Overstreet, spokesman for AAA Washington, which offers maps and vacation planning to travelers.

AAA conducted a national survey of members over the past two weeks by e-mail. Of the about 1,200 who responded, 47 percent said they were changing their vacation plans because of high gas prices. Fifty-two percent said they were making other cuts to their family budgets to afford their trips, or looking for travel bargains with frequent-flier miles or vacation packages.

Vacationers also said they're not going as far as they'd originally planned, Overstreet said.

Take Wayne Colwell, an outdoors enthusiast and REI employee. Usually at this time of year he hikes the Yakima River Gorge or Ancient Lakes in Central Washington while he waits for summer to arrive in Western Washington.

This spring, he's biked Seattle, canoed Jetty Island in Everett and camped at Spencer Spit State Park on Lopez Island in the San Juans.

"Basically, I've switched to local trips," Colwell said.

That's good news for Washington parks, where camping this year has increased 12 percent through June 23. Reservations through the rest of the year also are up about 10 percent, state parks spokeswoman Linda Burnett said.

At Saltwater State Park, about halfway between Seattle and Tacoma, visitors come for the more than 1,400 feet of Puget Sound shoreline, tide pools and camping. More are coming, particularly from the nearby cities of Tacoma, Des Moines and Federal Way, said park manager Lem Pratt.

"People who would normally go outside the state or to another geographic location are coming here," he said.

With the crowds have come some problems: more intoxicated people, more minors in possession of alcohol. Arrests have been running about two to three per weekend, Pratt said, and he noted that state park rangers are commissioned law-enforcement officers able to make arrests.

Flocking to city parks

The increased use of parks isn't limited to the state system.

According to the city of Edmonds, day use of its popular waterfront parks shot up in April at the first hint of warmer weather. Regular maintenance crews couldn't keep up with the weekend litter, so the city added two seasonal workers two months early, said Parks Manager Rich Lindsay.

"The number of people we're seeing has definitely increased," he said. "No question about it."

Deception Pass State Park on the north end of Whidbey Island is typically overrun in summer. The park offers hikes to hidden beaches, a freshwater lake and crazed water racing through a narrow chasm.

But both day-use and drop-in camping are down this spring, though it may be a combination of cool weather and high gas prices, said park manager Jack Hartt.

The biggest difference, Hartt said, is the increased number of visitors coming from the Puget Sound region.

"We're not seeing the same numbers from Idaho, Spokane, California," he said.

Sparse in the San Juans

Even the San Juans, which typically draw tourists from around the world, are getting fewer visitors from far-flung locales. The Chamber of Commerce agreed the combination of a gray spring, higher ferry fares and rocketing gas prices is likely hurting the tourist trade.

On a typical holiday weekend, the Bay Cafe on Lopez Island, with its sunset views, serves about 120 people a night. Owner/chef Daren Holscher said that on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, he served 35. Weekday business, he said, is also "way down."

"People who love the San Juans will come regardless, but they may be staying with friends or not going out to dinner," Holscher said.

On San Juan Island, the biggest and busiest of the islands, more people are walking onto the ferry rather than driving, and more are coming from Canada and Washington state, according to the island Chamber of Commerce. It costs a car and driver $51 to sail from Anacortes to Friday Harbor — or $85 for a family of four — vs. $13 to walk on.

Dan Ward, a self-described "numbers nut" who runs the local shuttle business, San Juan Transit, Tours and Charters, said his business before Sept. 11 was about 85 percent out-of-state residents. That dropped to 15 percent afterward, but in the past few years, the numbers of out-of-state visitors had rebounded.

This year, "Everyone is from around Washington."

"Gas-guzzlers special"

Some Eastern Washington destinations also are worried about summer business. At the MarDon Resort on the Potholes Reservoir near Othello, Adams County, owners Marilyn and Mike Meseberg are offering a "gas-guzzlers special" — $40 gas credit for an RV and $20 for a tent camper — to lure folks the 175 miles from Seattle.

A few regulars have canceled, and some who usually come four times a year are coming only once, Marilyn Meseberg said. Although they haven't been hurt financially yet, she said, "We didn't want to wait until the end of July to find out scary gas prices are keeping people away."

That seems to be a well-founded fear.

Wayne Goodsell, of Auburn, said he and his wife were thinking about a trip to Utah in the couple's 23-foot travel trailer. Instead, they've made reservations at several state parks on the Washington coast.

"We're sticking around and going camping," he said.

Lynn Thompson: 206-464-8305 or lthompson@seattletimes.com