PORT ANGELES — A technical glitch threw off Olympic National Park’s visitation statistics for 2010, park officials said this week.
Despite the fact that fee revenue was up $30,000 last year, the National Park Service reported that visitation was down 13.2 percent in Olympic National Park.
Park officials said the traffic counters used to calculate tourists at Lake Crescent, Lake Ozette and elsewhere were out of service in December.
“Eventually, they’ll be updating these totals for 2010,” said Barb Maynes, park spokeswoman.
Current numbers show park visits fell from 3,276,459 in 2009 to 2,844,563 in 2010.
Meanwhile, revenue from entrance fees and all permits rose from $2.49 million in 2009 to $2.52 million last year.
“It can be a little confusing because a lot goes into our visitor counts,” Maynes said.
“Part of the deal with 2010 is that we know, for example, that the Kalaloch road counter was not functioning for a time period.”
In December, park staff reported that the traffic counters on U.S. Highway 101 at East Beach Road near Lake Crescent, Ruby Beach and Queets were out of service.
The Kalaloch counter was reportedly down in June.
Twenty percent of the vehicles that pass Lake Crescent in the winter are counted as park-user vehicles.
Each park-user vehicle counts as 2.6 visitors.
In May, June and July, the percentage of vehicles counted in the park’s statistics jumps from 20 percent to 40 percent.
It hits 80 percent at the peak of the season in August before falling to 40 percent in September and 30 percent in October.
Different formulas are used to count visitation in the various districts of the 922,650-acre park.
The counting method has not changed since 1994, which allows park officials to study long-term trends.
Maynes said it would be “a significant project” to update the method.
“We are quite certain our visitation in places like the Hoh has increased significantly,” Maynes said.
Maynes attributed some of the popularity of the Hoh Rain Forest to the Forks-based Twilight series of books and movies.
Many who come to Olympic National Park are repeat visitors — people who come back to see what they missed the first time.
“They want to see more because they like the area,” Maynes said.
August visits to the Hoh Rain Forest were up 41 percent, while peak-season visits to Hurricane Ridge were up 11.9 percent last year.
Hurricane Ridge Road is now open most weekdays in the winter. A fundraising campaign netted $77,000 in donations to pay for additional snowplowing that allows the 17-mile road to stay open daily except during storms.
Contributions included $20,000 from the city of Port Angeles, $20,000 from Clallam County and $5,000 from the city of Sequim,
The Department of Interior is providing $250,000 in matching funds on a trial basis for up to three years.
Last month’s visitation statistics for Hurricane Ridge were not available Thursday.
“That will be interesting to see,” Maynes said.
Maynes said it will be difficult to compare January numbers for Hurricane Ridge because of a landslide that closed the road for much of January 2010.
Anecdotal evidence, however, suggests that daily access is helping.
“What we hear from staff is typically about 20 cars are going up on a given weekday,” Maynes said.
She added that tourists are traveling to the Elwha River valley to catch a last glance of Lake Aldwell and Lake Mills before the National Park Service removes the two dams that formed them.
“Every time I’ve been at the dam, there are at least another 10 people with me,” Maynes said.
“That’s a change from previous years.”
Although there seem to be more tourists in the Elwha, the numbers don’t corollate because the road to Olympic Hot Springs trail is closed for dam removal preparations, Maynes said.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
