Venturing Fourth : The Art of Celebrating the Fourth Requires Patience and Flexibility

If poet Robert Frost took the road less traveled, he didn’t do it on a Fourth of July weekend in Southern California. There’s no such thing.

The loneliest, most sunburnt stretches of desolate desert highways will be jammed--an extra hour to Las Vegas if traffic sails, an extra three if someone wrecks.

Most of the campsites are already gone, many of them reserved seven months ago. Same with vacation-spot hotel rooms. Same with rental boats.

The holiday rule of thumb for the most populous county in the nation is: If it sounds like cool summer fun, 9 million others probably agree, and a good number of them are already beating you to it.

“It’s generally a huge day for us,” said Javier Mendoza, spokesman for the tour and rides at Universal Studios. “We’re basically expecting 20,000 people, both on Thursday and Friday,” he said.

“We are bombed, very busy” with reservations for the Fourth, said Lanny McCurcheon, who books reservations at Balboa Golf Course in Encino, part of the city park system.

“We are booked until about 1 p.m. on the Fourth, then it gets too hot out here for a lot of people. Today it was 103.

“Besides, that’s when everyone wants to go barbecue, anyway.”

If you can tolerate the heat, however, you can probably get onto the links by playing during the most scorching hours of the day. “In the afternoon, you can just about walk onto any course,” said Lenore Boulden, supervisor of golf and tennis reservations for the city Recreations and Parks Department.

Another alternative is city-owned pools, which expect crowds but not gridlock in the water.

“What generally ends up happening on the Fourth is that people tend to want to go to the beaches, as opposed to the pools,” said Tom Jones, pool manager at the Van Nuys-Sherman Oaks pool.

Jones has worked at the 50-by-20-meter pool, the largest the city operates in the San Fernando Valley, since 1980. He cannot recall it ever reaching its official capacity of 530.

It’s not easy, but for the early-rising, alternate-route-taking, flexible-minded who don’t insist on a beachside barbecue or lakeside fireworks show, Independence Day can still feel like a holiday--even in L.A.

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Every freeway leading out of the city--and in, to a lesser degree--is going to be considerably busier than usual, said California Department of Transportation spokesman Vincent Moreno, many conducting tens of thousands more cars than on an average day.

Although Caltrans will halt all but necessary work on most freeways, the Santa Monica eastbound and the Golden State southbound out of the city are good ones to avoid right from the get-go, Moreno said.

The best big-freeway alternate route may be for those who would take the Golden State south to San Diego or Mexico. Instead, Moreno suggested navigating one of several freeways east of the city, then turning south on I-15. You will drive farther, he said, but may well save time.

Travelers would be well-served to check not only their vehicle’s radiator before hitting a hot highway, but also the battery, said Jeffrey Springer of the Auto Club of Southern California.

“Also, double-check the belts and hoses. Under hot weather conditions, they can snap and leak,” Springer said.

If the freeways will be packed with cars, many of those vehicles will be heading for the hills. And the hills, it appears, will be absolutely full of city folk seeking a break from other city folk.

To land a campsite at a state park, the California Department of Recreation has an automated reservation line. Yup, it’s a little like ordering Kiss concert tickets, but it works--unless you’ve waited until now. A very few, less-than-choice sites are left.

Some 130,000 visitors are expected at Los Angeles-area state parks. About 100,000 people are expected to crowd Angeles National Forest’s 60 first-come, first-served campgrounds and 36 picnic areas. The trick to garnering a campsite is to wake up at a decidedly un-holiday hour.

Indeed, if this Fourth unfurls like last year’s, campgrounds will be brimming, the roads to them closed before lunch because of overcrowding, said forest spokeswoman Randi Jorgensen.

Wildfires that have already charred more than 11,000 acres are expected to keep some mountain roads and campgrounds closed at least through the weekend.

The Idyllwild fire, in the San Jacinto Mountains, has forced the closure of California 243, which branches from the San Bernardino Freeway, and California 74, which runs to the 243 from Hemet. About 10 public campgrounds in the Idyllwild area will remain closed until the blaze is reined in, U.S. Forest Service officials said, but no roads or camps around the Bichota-area blaze are currently closed, according to fire officials.

“We’re taking it day by day,” said fire information officer Ruth Wenstrom.

The best camping secrets may be found at higher altitudes, Jorgensen said, farther from home and water sources, and perhaps the crowds. She suggested the Chilao campground off Angeles Crest Highway and Big Pine Recreation Area near Wrightwood.

This Fourth of July is looking especially tough to negotiate for two reasons, according to the holiday recreation experts: First, with the Fourth landing on a Thursday, many patriots are planning to take Friday off and make an extra long, four-day weekend of it; second, it is shaping up to be darn hot.

If the temperatures stay high, the 14 beaches in L.A. County may teem with a million bathing-suited revelers, according to the county Department of Beaches and Harbors. Most of them will arrive in cars--cars that need parking.

“Venice is going to be the worst,” both in terms of parking and crowding, said Dusty Brogan, the department’s marketing chief.

Other beaches where the crowds will be large and parking spaces few include Manhattan, Santa Monica and Will Rogers. Better bets are the often wide-open Dockweiler, Nicholas Canyon and Zuma.

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Any large body of water will be filled with the overheated (the Salton Sea, southeast of Indio, however, may have room in its 360 square miles of water as well as some open campsites).

To succeed, one must sacrifice sleep, suffer an inordinate number of bad drivers, and not smoke in the forest, drink beer on the beach or light fireworks in either locale.

Perhaps the wise will go to the Central Library downtown, which is closed on the Fourth but open Saturday and Sunday. Maybe they will visit the Museum of Modern Art. Maybe the wise will head to the largest area of boiling blacktop in the center of the deserted city and barbecue all by themselves.

Nah. America may be only 220 years old, but it still has its traditions.

Times staff writer Jeff Leeds contributed to this story.

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Holiday Tips

Here are some tips for celebrating the Fourth of July holiday:

* Worst area beaches in terms of crowding and parking: Venice, Will Rogers, Manhattan.

* The best: Dockweiler, Marina del Rey, Zuma

* Average trip from Los Angeles to Las Vegas: 4 to 4 1/2 hours normally. For the holiday weekend, add an hour. If there is a Sigalert, add three.

* Penalty for using fireworks in a national forest: $5,000 and / or six months in jail.

* Camping in the Angeles National Forest: 60 first- come, first- served camping areas; seven reserved camping areas; 36 picnic areas.

* Number of visitors expected in the Angeles National Forest July 4 to 7: 100,000.

* Rescues made last Sunday by Los Angeles County lifeguards: 530.

Dialing Suggestions

* Los Angeles County Fire Department fireworks information: (800) 900-FIRE.

* Angeles National Forest information: (818) 574-5200.

* California Department of Parks and Recreation camping reservations: (800) 444- 7275.

* Los Angeles County Department of Recreation and Parks: (213) 738-2961.

* Santa Catalina Island Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Information Bureau: (310) 510-1520.

* Los Angeles County Museum of Modern Art: (213) 857-6000.

* Los Angeles Public Library: (213) 228-7000.

Weekend Weather Outlook

Temperatures Wednesday and July 4 should be above average but will not reach the record-breaking levels of last week-end, said Rob Kaczamarket, a metrerologist at WeatherDate Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times. Highs in Los Angeles will be in the high 80s and low 90s into the weekend, he said. In the valleys and the Inland Empire, temperatures should be in the high 90s. Tuesday’s high at the Civic Center was 91 and it stayed warm into the early morning hours, with a low of 71.