The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has set new rules in place for visitation to the Illia Dunes following damage done last summer. These rules will limit the number of people able to visit the area on weekends.
The Illia Dunes usually sees between 100 and 300 visitors on a typical summer weekend. On holiday weekends they expect to see up to 2,000 people. But over August 25th and 26th of last year they got an unexpected crowd of 3,000. Unfortunately, the Corps was forced to temporarily close the dunes after the crowd left thousands of pounds of trash, broken glass, foam coolers and other litter along the beach.
Corps staff and a grounds maintenance contractor worked to clean the shore area in time for the Labor Day weekend holiday. They also worked with a group 64 volunteers from Washington State University to clear the debris left in a three mile stretch of road ditches.
Because of this, parking will now be limited to to the two nearby Corps parking lots. Each lot has a 120 car capacity and will limit the number of visitors to about 500 people at a time. Parking will no longer be allowed on Almota Ferry Road.
