Taylor Creek Visitor Center may be torn down, rebuilt
By Kathryn Reed
It was never meant to be a visitor center. And, yet, what was supposed to be the bathroom and storage facility at Taylor Creek have been a visitor center for more than 40 years.
All of that is about to change.
Taylor Creek Visitor Center may be overhauled. Photos/Kathryn Reed
This seasonal South Shore outpost on Highway 89 run by the U.S. Forest Service could be demolished in the next couple years and replaced with a 3,800-square-foot facility that is designed to provide a better experience.
“We want to make it more functional and organized,” Jackie King, USFS interpretive program manager, said of the proposed center.
What is there now was designed in the 1960s. Bats and mice infested the upstairs (it’s been taken care of) – but the area cannot be used.
The originally planned visitor center was not built because funding never came through. The Forest Service adapted. The center is small. With five people it feels crowded.
Making it a better experience just walking from the parking lot is part the plans. It’s not welcoming how it is currently situated, nor from the outer parking area do visitors know a center even exists.
The current Taylor Creek center was built for storage.
A handful of years ago the idea was to construct a 10,000-square-foot center with classrooms and exhibit halls. The public nixed that idea, saying it would overwhelm the site.
Now out for public comment until mid-September is the smaller visitor center proposal. The idea is what’s standing now would be torn down, the trailers would be hauled away and the new structure put up. The cement walkways with the animal tracks would have to be torn out, but King said they are such a talking point with guests that they would be replaced.
“What we’ve heard from the public is make sure you don’t make it an architectural monument that overwhelms the site,” King said.
The idea is for the center to beckon people to come in, to ask questions, to thumb through books. Then it will act as a gateway, much like it does now, to the Rainbow Trail, Lake Tahoe and the amphitheater.
Interpretive information will remain outside near the visitor center.
Interpretative exhibits will remain outdoors.
It’s the environmental analysis that is in circulation. It’s online and hard copies are at the Forest Service office in South Lake Tahoe and at Taylor Creek. Once comments have been scrutinized, it will be up to the forest supervisor how to proceed. If it’s signed off, at that point the agency will go after funding.
The project is estimated to cost just less than $3 million. It everything goes according to plan, the new center could be running in four to five years.
It would remain a seasonal facility – operating seven days a week from mid-May through October.
Click here for more information and ways to comment.
Yeah, it’s only taxpayer dollars. Let’s just throw money at another project that doesn’t need to be done! Hope the kids enjoy the displays because they’re going to be paying for it for the next 30 years.
Since when does the federal government listen to the public?
Steve, They might listen if you vote out the incumbants.
The economy at the Lake depends on nice, updated visitor centers for our guests to visit. Its sounds like they’ve been planning and budgeting for this for a long time. I’m all for it.
We consistently send visiting family, friends, and even people who walk down our street to this facility. It gets them to the area, they enjoy it and then they dine and experience other businesses over there. We are a tourist area depending on a tourist economy. Why is this so difficult for people to understand? Our Federal and State lands are important. I suppose individuals that don’t go out to enjoy these treasures may not understand the importance of taking care of them.
Its a small ferfectly suited vistors area just the way it is. The money for this is probably coming from profits made off land sales in Las Vegas. These funds should go to real projects or something that will actually help Lake Tahoes clarity and near shore. Last I heard native fish groups were trying to get rid of the Kokanee and bring back the cutthroat. Thats not gonna help with the education component. “See this tank kids, it used to have thousands of kokanee, now its a big tank with some frogs and an occasional brown trout. Sorry there is no cutthroat, they simply cant live here anymore” That area is real nice, but I am not sure about this spending of our tax dollars on things that dont need it.
I really like this whole area, the Taylor Creek bridge, Stream Chamber, Trails, Amphitheater, Beach, huge trees, and sadly carved Aspen.
I like the visitor center as is, but a bit larger could really complete this area, and pull it all together better, as it is now, at least when I go there, it seems to be under used, the parking lot is never full.
This would be a good spot for a Wildlife Education Center, since it already is in many ways, with the creeks and meadows. Teach everyone about bears, and how to not invite them into town!
Would be nice if this area/project was able to tie in a Wildlife Care Center/Refuge, so people could come and experience the animals, get educated about them, and hopefully leave them alone in their natural habitat.
This is a great area where locals and visitors can walk through the woods and over the creeks to enjoy our wonderful nature. I support the update of the visitors center, but don’t get rid of the bats! We were out there last week and my daughter saw a bat in the lady’s bathroom. It was cute, and I was able to explain to her that the bats help keep down the bug population.
If there is this kind of money around, why not put the visitor center at the corner of Hwy 50 and Statline Blvd. There’s already a hole in the ground to accomodate an underground viewing area. All we need to do is reroute the creek that runs through the meadows just to the South of there. The neighborhood has it’s own bear and coyotes as well as racoons. We could call it an urban wildlife viewing area.