Staycation on Alcatraz ?

If you live in Northern California, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area this past week proposed some exciting new ideas for the use of Alcatraz Island which would bring a whole new staycation destination to the San Francisco Bay area. Instead of just visiting Alcatraz, you might soon be able to spend the night at Alcratraz!

With some help from Google and the sfexaminer.com, I was able to track down the document (GOGA, Draft GMP/EIS, Volume I, Part 4: The Alternatives for Alcatraz Island) that proposes these exciting changes.  The proposal is to

Here is the overview:

Many who visit Alcatraz Island are drawn by the island’s notorious prison reputation. Others want to see the crumbling ruins set against the spectacular scenery of San Francisco and the Golden Gate or understand the island’s human dimension: the American Indian occupation or the gardens tended by guards and their families.

In this alternative Alcatraz island would be managed to provide an expanded variety of settings and experiences that will pleasantly surprise visitors attracted by the notoriety of the prison, and connect them to the greater breadth of the island’s resources and stories. The park would seek to enrich the scenic, recreational, and educational opportunities in the heart of San Francisco Bay.

Visitors would have access to the majority of the island’s historic structures and landscapes to experience the layers of island history and its natural resources and settings. Many of the indoor and outdoor spaces currently inaccessible to visitors would be reopened to expand the range of available activities.

All historic structures would be preserved; most would be rehabilitated and adaptively reused for visitor activities and park operations. Food service, meeting and program space, and overnight accommodations (possibly including a hostel or camp site) would be provided.

This proposal, while exciting, is nevertheless, just a proposal and with budget constraints on everyone’s radar, who knows how much support this idea will have financially. However, here’s hoping a new hostel-like staycation destination comes to Alcratraz soon!