Hammond Creek was a special case. The permit 

 station was located about 3 miles from the Primitive 

 Area boundary. Several trails from this trailhead did not 

 lead to the Primitive Area. Many of the visitors did not 

 enter the Primitive Area and thus did not require a permit. 

 Many of them were on horseback rides for the day, while 

 staying at a nearby dude ranch. Because the dude ranch 

 was already covered by a special use permit from the 

 Forest Service, the likelihood of the guides filling out 

 another permit was probably low, regardless of the planned 

 route. 



The permit stations located some distance up the 

 trail (Little Hellroaring, Cascade, and Deer Creeks, and 

 Spanish Creek during the fall only, after the station there 

 was moved at the end of summer) performed better, with 64 

 percent of the visitors obtaining permits there compared 

 to 38 percent at the permit stations located at the trailhead 

 near the road. If Hammond Creek is omitted, the 

 comparison changes little, becoming 64 versus 41 percent. 

 With the exception of Spanish Creek in the fall, all of 

 the stations located up the trail met the desired level of at 

 least 60 percent compliance at each location. 



3. By seasons. --Summer and fall compliance rates 

 were identical-both 53 percent (table 2). This was 

 unexpected because previous studies (Wenger and 

 Gregersen 1964; Lucas and others 1971) showed sub- 

 stantial drops in the fall, especially for hunters, who were 

 common in the Spanish Peaks. 



With the main exception of Deer Creek, fall and 

 summer rates were substantially the same at each trail- 

 head. Deer Creek, with considerable fall day-use, much of 

 it by hunters who had poor compliance, dropped from 

 78 to 50 percent. 



Spanish Creek improved 6 percent, probably related 

 to the move of the information center and permit-issuing 

 facility from the edge of a large, somewhat confusing 

 parking lot up the trail about 100 yards. 



4. By length of stay. —Compliance dropped sharply 

 as visits became shorter (table 3). Overall, 72 percent 

 of the campers (overnight visitors, whether hiking or using 

 horses) obtained permits, compared to 45 percent of day- 

 users. Campers complied at similar rates (68 to 79 percent) 

 at all trailheads, but day-user compliance rates varied 

 widely among locations (10 to 70 percent, or omitting 

 Hammond Creek, 28 to 70 percent). 



Again, the stations located up the trail performed best. 

 The three locations with the highest compliance for 

 campers were all up the trail. After the Spanish Creek 

 station was moved up the trail, compliance by campers 

 jumped from 63 to 81 percent. Day-users complied much 

 better at up-trail locations (55 to 70 percent compliance 

 except at Spanish Creek in the fall, which was only 33 

 percent) compared to 1 to 28 percent at roadside locations 

 (26 percent for Spanish Creek in the summer). 



Compliance for day-users also dropped as stays be- 

 came more brief. Parties could be classified into approxi- 

 mate lengths of stay in most cases by noting the number 

 of hourly red frames between their entrance and exit. If 

 no red frame separated entrance and exit, their stay could 

 not have exceeded one hour, for example. 



The day visitors making longer stays, more than 3 

 hours, complied almost as well as campers, 65 percent 

 compared to 72 percent for campers. Visitors staying 

 2 hours or less complied very poorly (20 percent or less 

 compliance). Compliance of day-users was as follows: 



Duration of stay 



Hours 

 1 



1- 2 



2- 3 

 3+ 



Compliance 



Percent 



17 

 20 

 43 

 65 



5. By metliod of travel. —There were substantial 

 differences in compliance rates by visitors traveling 

 different ways (table 4). Horseback riders' compliance was 

 lowest (35 percent, or omitting Hammond Creek, 43 

 percent). The small sample of hikers leading packhorses— 

 only 19 parties— complied best (84 percent). Hikers were 

 intermediate (55 percent). 



As related to compliance, method of travel and length 

 of stay are strongly interrelated. (These data will be 

 presented in a subsequent section). 



6. By party size.— Single persons complied less fre- 

 quently than larger parties (table 5), obtaining permits only 

 41 pecent of the time. Medium and large parties had about 

 the same compliance rates (57 and 60 percent, 

 respectively). 



7. Combined factors.— Compliance was tabulated 

 against combined variables. Table 6 presents the most 

 meaningful of these, showing for each trailhead the 

 compliance rate during summer and fall for day-visitors 

 and campers, separated into hikers and horseback riders. 

 Several relationships stand out: 



a. Compliance by campers, both hikers and horse 

 users, is relatively good almost everywhere (about 70 

 percent, overall), summer and fall. 



The occasional lower compliance figures for campers 

 in table 6 are, with one possible exception, all based 

 on light use and few observations. Almost all of these 

 anomalies are based on three or fewer observations. The 

 20 percent figure for Deer Creek horse campers in the fall 

 is based on observations of only 5 parties. The one 

 possibly significant exception is for fall hiking campers 

 (in other words, backpackers) at Hellroaring Creek, where 

 only 42 percent of 12 parties issued themselves permits. 

 Except for this one situation, backpacker rates ranged, 

 by season, from 63 to 80 percent. Horse campers, 

 omitting values based on small numbers of observations, 

 ranged by season, from 75 to 100 percent, and for the 

 total use period, from 60 to 81 percent. 



b. Camper compliance rates for hikers were better 

 at up-trail locations (Little Hellroaring, Cascade, and 

 Deer Creek and Spanish Creek in the fall) than roadside 

 locations, but there was no clear difference for horse 

 campers. 



8 



