The Yavapai County Board of Supervisors approved an expansion of county “no parking” zones along Chavez Ranch Road between Upper Red Rock Loop Road and Ramshead Trail on Jan. 17.
Construction of another county approved “no parking” zone along Dry Creek Road is ongoing.
“[Crescent Moon Ranch] is an extremely popular tourist destination, and post-pandemic, the area has seen a significant uptick in visitors,” the board’s agenda stated. “The picnic site is operated by a U.S. Forest Service concessionaire and has limited parking, so the public has been using makeshift overflow parking along the shoulders of Red Rock Crossing Road and Earl Drive, which is creating safety access and public nuisance issues for the residents in the immediate area.”
The county had previously installed “no parking” signs along sections of these roads, but the board’s agenda stated that the public has largely ignored the signs.
Annual visitation for Crescent Moon Ranch in 2023 was 150,703, compared to roughly 138,000 from 2018 through 2022. The Crescent Moon Ranch picnic area has a capacity of 75 vehicles.
Acting District Ranger Alex Schlueter declined to provide monthly visitation statistics, stating that “while monthly visitation data is available, it lives on hardcopy forms and would take some time for our staff to compile.”
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“What’s been recorded and observed is a lot of issues with parking [with] visitors and then the residents having trouble getting in and out of their small easement roadways or driveways, people walking through their yards, leaving trash, those are those are some of the issues we’ve been trying to look at over the last few years,” Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office Lieutenant Daniel Pritchard said.
YCSO has not yet responded to a request for the numbers of vehicles in excess of the existing parking capacity or for complaints filed by residents.
“It’s a seasonal issue to start off with,” Schlueter said. “There’s many times of the year where it’s not at capacity, and anybody can go in and have no trouble getting in. It’s really when it gets into those warmer weeks that we have that issue.”
Pritchard said that residents in the unincorporated area don’t have a governing board such as a homeowners association and have been taking their concerns directly to the county.
“We have the members of the community, the concessionaire, the Forest Service, our Public Works office that is responsible for the roadways and the roads working together,” Pritchard said. “[Yavapai County District 3 Supervisor Donna] Michaels has worked to put everybody in one room to assess the problem, whose responsibility is what, and then what, and even if, there’s anything that we could do about it.”
“Anytime a road’s blocked, it could hinder our response,” Sedona Fire District Chief Ed Mezulis said. “But I can tell you, the Forest Service and the county understand our concerns. And I don’t foresee any real issue other than maybe a major rapid onset evacuation, such as a wildfire. I think all the players are taking some good steps to work towards getting ahead of it, instead of just reacting.”
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Schlueter was not aware of any discussions to increase the parking capacity at Crescent Moon.
“Additional solutions include … future consideration of county parking regulations, and finding alternatives to the transportation and parking problems surrounding the Crescent Moon facility,” the board’s agenda stated.
Pritchard said that YCSO has reached out to the site concessionaire, ExplorUS, to hire off-duty deputies, especially on busy holiday weekends, to help alleviate some of the problems.
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“We’re considering getting what we call variable message boards,” Schlueter said. “Those are electronic boards that can notify somebody, hopefully at the top of the hill right off Highway 89A, by the high school where most folks are entering Red Rock Loop Road … We also talked about real-time webcams. There’s examples [in] national parks where you’ve got livestream camera footage where somebody could go to a website and look, that’s a bit longer term … it’s something that I think is worth considering.”
Schlueter said that expanding the city of Sedona’s shuttle service to Crescent Moon is not a viable solution, as water recreation visitors tend to stay at a site longer and also tend to haul with them more equipment, such as coolers and grills.
“[It’s] the kind of stuff that is less practical to bring on a shuttle than if somebody’s gone for a hike,” Schlueter said.
The trailhead shuttle service serves about 8% of Sedona’s nearly 10,000 daily visitors.
Representatives from the concessionaire, ExplorUS, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
