Tahquitz/Suicide Parking Do NOT park at Humber!

Cars getting towed daily from lower Humber Park at the Ernie Maxwell trailhead head.

Any cars blocking access on Forest Dr also towed.

Is humber closed? Why are people being towed?

The whole thing is bizarre. Upper Humber is closed via the gate. People were parking in legal spots in lower.. Some people were parking parallel on the side of the road. Luckily we ended up climbing at Suicide and parked down on Forest. There were no signs at lower Humber. At around noon yesterday a cop started blasting his horn and yelling on the loud speaker that the trails were closed (We talked with a forest official, the forest isn't closed) and to return to your vehicles. That they would be towed. We could hear all this from the top of Sunshine face. If you were over on the Open Book area you probably couldn't tell what he was saying. 

After about 20 min of sirens and the vocal alert it stopped. 30 min later or so the tow trucks came through. We weren't sure if they were gonna tow cars parked on Forest, but luckily they didn't. I just don't understand how a cop can come through mid day and suddenly declare an area closed and start towing? I feel bad for all the people that were left stranded. There's no way you could have gotten off of Tahq and down to your car in time even if you did hear the warning. Seemed like a power move and an over step. More insight would be helpful!

I was up there last weekend (1/16) hiking and found the gate closed as well in the early AM. There were plenty of cars (~10) parked beyond the locked gate (not sure how they got there) though, including a cop car. The legal and illegal spots below the gate filled up fast, which created a bit of a shit show when a large truck + trailer doing maintenance on the power lines tried to use the upper Humber area to turn around (apparently the utilities company didn't know the gate was closed). They had to do some impressive 20 point turning with minimal room to work with........ No indication that the hiking trails were closed.

Would be nice to get some clarity on this situation.

Unfortunately I don't have any clear answers either. I can give you some context however. 

Over the last couple of years the amount of people coming up to Humber Park to play in the snow has grown exponentially, and were parking wherever they pleased. Residents of Fern Valley road and Forest drive complained, to whom exactly I don't know, and "No Stopping" signs were installed between the intersection of Forest drive and entrance of Humber Park, In addition a sign was installed that says No Snow Parking at the corner of Forest drive and Fern Valley Road, near the water tanks, picture below.

Usually, midday Saturday the sheriff comes up blares sirens and tries to kick everybody out, and also puts up barricades at the corner of Forest drive and Fern Valley road that say "Road Closed", or maybe the Forest service does that, I don't know. Occasionally there is a Forest service volunteer or employee turning people around at the corner of Forest drive and Fern Valley Road.

Talking to the people who parked in lower Humber at the trail head for Ernie Maxwell, all were confused by what "No Snow Parking" meant (especially since there wasn't any snow this weekend).

Especially confusing was that only some cars were towed from Humber, some in legitimate spots, while others in totally illegitimate spots were left alone.

There is also no sign indicating where your car might be if it is towed. FYI TOWED CARS GO TO IDYLLWILD GARAGE aka Chevron Station back in town. A tow is $440!

In addition the residents of Forest Dr voted down making their entire road No Parking, not sure why. So currently parking is allowed year around on Forest Dr unless you're blocking a driveway or emergency access.

Mountain Rocketman wrote:

Especially confusing was that only some cars were towed from Humber, some in legitimate spots, while others in totally illegitimate spots were left alone.

So dumb. I hate Idyllwild.

Makes no sense. It's been years since I've been to the Humber Park area. When we first started going in 1980 getting a parking spot in the upper lot in the early morning on a weekend wasn't a big deal. Seven years or so later it was nearly impossible to find a spot anywhere unless you got there before 6 AM.. Can't imagine what it is like today.

It sounds like the Idy police have been reading up on Art of War by SUN TSU

Heard that the park was closed this weekend because of fire danger (high winds) not snow but people were all over hiking and there wasn't anything anywhere to indicate that.

Mountain Rocketman wrote:

Unfortunately I don't have any clear answers either. I can give you some context however. 

Over the last couple of years the amount of people coming up to Humber Park to play in the snow has grown exponentially, and were parking wherever they pleased. Residents of Fern Valley road and Forest drive complained, to whom exactly I don't know, and "No Stopping" signs were installed between the intersection of Forest drive and entrance of Humber Park, In addition a sign was installed that says No Snow Parking at the corner of Forest drive and Fern Valley Road, near the water tanks, picture below.

Usually, midday Saturday the sheriff comes up blares sirens and tries to kick everybody out, and also puts up barricades at the corner of Forest drive and Fern Valley road that say "Road Closed", or maybe the Forest service does that, I don't know. Occasionally there is a Forest service volunteer or employee turning people around at the corner of Forest drive and Fern Valley Road.

Talking to the people who parked in lower Humber at the trail head for Ernie Maxwell, all were confused by what "No Snow Parking" meant (especially since there wasn't any snow this weekend).

Especially confusing was that only some cars were towed from Humber, some in legitimate spots, while others in totally illegitimate spots were left alone.

There is also no sign indicating where your car might be if it is towed. FYI TOWED CARS GO TO IDYLLWILD GARAGE aka Chevron Station back in town. A tow is $440!

In addition the residents of Forest Dr voted down making their entire road No Parking, not sure why. So currently parking is allowed year around on Forest Dr unless you're blocking a driveway or emergency access.

This is exactly what I experienced!! Also, there were no high winds this last weekend. It was perfect. It doesn’t at all seem legal to just start towing cars without any signs... 

Nic Nic wrote:

I was there last Friday for the first time, just doing a reccy as my usual climbing partner was out of action and I was totally confused. I saw the puzzling 'No snow parking' signs and so figured the trailhead parking would be closed, but carried on up just to know how to get there in future assuming at some point I would end up turning around. Then I found it open and the car park full. To be honest it wasn't even clear to me which spaces were legal and which weren't (there were clearly marked spaces, but people were parking in other positions around the trailhead, without there being any clear no-parking signs). 

Being new to the area, I'd also love to know the safe way to park near Tahquitz that also keeps locals happy. I'm totally content to do a longer approach. Being older and curmudgeonly myself, but I totally understand how much it must suck for locals when tourists descend and overpopulate/misuse an area you've loved enough to try and make your home ;D @Nick Rhodes - do you know whether parking on Forest Dr is the only option? Or are there less residential roads around?

Only the east side of forest dr is ok to park and that fills up quick, fern valley has winter "no stopping" signs down the hill a bit, there are some side streets down there but you'd have to hike up a bit to the trailhead.

We were there on Sunday (1/17) afternoon just to hike the Ernie Maxwell trail before climbing yesterday (1/18). We parked at the trailhead on Tahquitz View and saw the 3 police cars leaving lower Humber when we reached that end of the trail.

I went up and asked the police officer where it was legal to park and what was going on in general, mostly out of self interest as the signage was confusing and we wanted to climb the next day. He was quite friendly and said that they were only towing people in illegal spots that obstructed traffic, that they had towed 15 cars, and basically were pooped out and heading home for the day (this explains why some cars were towed and some were not, they got tired). He said the most important thing (in this one officer's view) is that you still have 24 ft of passage for 2 cars to dive side by side. He specifically called out one car that, while parked illegally, wasn't obstructing the road (i.e. still 24 ft of passage) so he wasn't going to prioritize towing it. He also said in general they only towed cars if someone complained.

I'll also add that he mentioned talking to a forest ranger, that told him the forest was closed, so technically no one could park even in legal spots in Humber, but that the forest ranger wasn't interested in enforcing it.

I feel like all this could be resolved with some clear signage... instead of "No Snow Parking - Closed" it could just read "No Parking - Closed".

On a separate note: we climbed Fingertrip yesterday and were buzzed by two separate helicopters. One looked like Coast Guard (?) or at least had that stripe on it, and the other had a police star on it. They hovered directly over us on the rock for a good min or two each, circled the rock, then sort of flew around the canyon. Anyone know what that was about? Kinda made climbing the friction top out 10x more stressful, although it was cool to see how well those guys / gals can pilot a machine like that.

The Town of Idyllwild is getting hammered this year!

I’d suggest you contact a member of the local town government and complain.

The gov folks know how that town survives.

Good luck to the locals. 

Guy Keesee wrote:

The Town of Idyllwild is getting hammered this year!

I’d suggest you contact a member of the local town government and complain.

The gov folks know how that town survives.

Good luck to the locals. 

Our local town mayor is a dog.  Good Luck.

Nick Ruggero wrote:

We were there on Sunday (1/17) afternoon just to hike the Ernie Maxwell trail before climbing yesterday (1/18). We parked at the trailhead on Tahquitz View and saw the 3 police cars leaving lower Humber when we reached that end of the trail.

I went up and asked the police officer where it was legal to park and what was going on in general, mostly out of self interest as the signage was confusing and we wanted to climb the next day. He was quite friendly and said that they were only towing people in illegal spots that obstructed traffic, that they had towed 15 cars, and basically were pooped out and heading home for the day (this explains why some cars were towed and some were not, they got tired). He said the most important thing (in this one officer's view) is that you still have 24 ft of passage for 2 cars to dive side by side. He specifically called out one car that, while parked illegally, wasn't obstructing the road (i.e. still 24 ft of passage) so he wasn't going to prioritize towing it. He also said in general they only towed cars if someone complained.

I'll also add that he mentioned talking to a forest ranger, that told him the forest was closed, so technically no one could park even in legal spots in Humber, but that the forest ranger wasn't interested in enforcing it.

I feel like all this could be resolved with some clear signage... instead of "No Snow Parking - Closed" it could just read "No Parking - Closed".

On a separate note: we climbed Fingertrip yesterday and were buzzed by two separate helicopters. One looked like Coast Guard (?) or at least had that stripe on it, and the other had a police star on it. They hovered directly over us on the rock for a good min or two each, circled the rock, then sort of flew around the canyon. Anyone know what that was about? Kinda made climbing the friction top out 10x more stressful, although it was cool to see how well those guys / gals can pilot a machine like that.

So what if you park first and then another car parks after negating the 24ft clearance? How do they decide who to tow?

What was really happening was they were towing the cars that were easiest to tow first.

Don't forget your measuring tapes everybody!

I think this no parking is great!  The no parking signs are up, have been up, and have been visible.  If you park in a no parking zone you get towed!  Duh... It's just that the snow is not here, so the prahji hordes come to climb and want their parking.  And it is the sheriff and chp on the hill.  No police.  The CHP has been getting pretty fed up with the winter nonsense the last many years.

Anyone who ever has seen what this place can look like on a nice winter day will understand the No Parking rule.  I love this rule!  Best thing that has happened on the hill for a long time.

x15x15 wrote:

I think this no parking is great! 

Until you parked in that spot you've been parking in for 15 years....and get towed   

James Robertson wrote:

Our local town mayor is a dog.  Good Luck.

James Robertson wrote:

Our local town mayor is a dog.  Good Luck.

I 'd trust a dog before I'd trust a politician.

Mountain Rocketman wrote:

Until you parked in that spot you've been parking in for 15 years....and get towed   

I feel for you, but the signs are up, been up for more than a year, and this is not a covert operation. It alleviates a huge problem, and provides a break from...

x15x15 wrote:

I feel for you, but the signs are up, been up for more than a year, and this is not a covert operation. It alleviates a huge problem, and provides a break from...

There are no "No Parking" signs in Humber Park. I'm good, no tow, but worried about you buddy!