THE NATIONAL PARKS SYSTEM 277 



Sequoia's jump from 46,677 in 1925 to 89,404 

 in 1926, exceeding 91 per cent, followed the com- 

 pletion of a better surfaced entrance from the Cali- 

 fornia state highway system, luring the lover of the 

 road. The completion, late in the season, of the new 

 "all year road" into Yosemite jumped the year's pat- 

 ronage from 209,166 in 1925 to 274,209 in 1926, or 

 31 per cent, and to 490,430 in 1927 or 58 per cent 

 more. There was this significant difference, how- 

 ever, that Yosemite's increase was largely week-end 

 local visitation from San Francisco and neighbor- 

 hood cities, attracted by the fine roads in and the 

 day-and-night pleasures of the Valley, while Se- 

 quoia's new visitors found no resort entertainments 

 to amuse them, but averaged longer visits. Thou- 

 sands camped in the Giant Forest for weeks. 



Little General Grant National Park's patron- 

 age for the same year averaged 22,400 persons for 

 each of its four square miles of area. Completion 

 of the road connecting General Grant on a circle 

 drive with the Giant Forest in near-by Sequoia Na- 

 tional Park settles its future for all time as a day, 

 week-end, and camping-out resort for southern Cali- 

 fornia residents. It will be the turning point of Los 

 Angeles's local motor runs, as Yosemite has become 

 the turning point of San Francisco's. Both lose na- 

 tional character and prestige. 



The fact that Lassen Volcanic Park had, in 

 1927, only twenty thousand visitors, we conceive to 

 be wholly due to poorer road connections with the 



