Glacier NP to Implement Ticketed Entry for Summer Season

Rockskipper said:
If you're not from an area with lots of public lands, you probably aren't even aware of how incredible being out there can be. I've been in NPs where people walk around looking stunned. :)
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That's just because they got a glimpse of the kilted Scatman! :D
 
You are so right Rockskipper! Onetime on a forum was sharing some photos of the Thorofare and the Absarokas. Then a woman from Ohio replied, ' I didn't know that country like that existed'.

When you get people who have been in some city or some flatland place their whole lives, then they visit some of the remarkable places here in the West ... Then just like Rockskipper said, they are stunned or more actually Beyond Stunned!
 
Looks like I hit a nerve. So, yeah, just one man's opinion after 40+ years of backpacking all over the world. Yes, even an occasional national park. Of course our parks are for all our people. But the sad fact is that 90% of our people don't understand, don't value, can't cherish and will not protect them. So it falls to the rest of us to do that for them, in ways that might reach more of them, to educate them by explaining that these wild places do not and cannot exist if not for our efforts and our care. My proposal is meant to increase access, not decrease it. It's meant for everyone who wants to experience those lands, to learn about them. We need to have meadows free from the noise, fumes and mayhem of vehicular traffic, where people can actually hear nothing but nature. We need to divert people's attentions away from the soft serve ice cream and the imax theaters and pizza joints so they can focus on the pure magic of a sunrise creeping up the slope, or watching the mist rise from a lake. Some people will want to walk, or bike, or hike, or backpack, or run through the landscape. Others will want to just sit in the meadow and enjoy the air. The campgrounds should welcome all who are willing to leave behind their music, their TVs, their generators and all the other stuff that gets in the way of experiencing the park. Instead of rangers who would really prefer you stick to the road, to the developed sites, and stay out of trouble, we should have educators who are encouraging people to get out there. Banning cars is just a start, not an end but a means to an end. We can't stop with the parks, either - we need to use the parks as attractions to get the education process started. One man's opinion. That's all. Thanks for reading!
 
Goat said:
But the sad fact is that 90% of our people don't understand, don't value, can't cherish and will not protect them... We need to divert people's attentions away from the soft serve ice cream and the imax theaters and pizza joints so they can focus on the pure magic of a sunrise creeping up the slope, or watching the mist rise from a lake. Some people will want to walk, or bike, or hike, or backpack, or run through the landscape.
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Not trying to pick a fight with you, I agree with much of what you say. But this perspective is a common misconception. Research about the parks shows that visitors rate the "outdoors" aspects of the parks as (extremely) important to those visitors (~90%). Here's press coverage about some research, for an example.

www.nationalparkstraveler.org

Study Shows Americans Visit Parks, But Not For Long

Americans love the national parks, and can name the last park they visited, but they don't visit for long, according to a telephone survey commissioned by the National Park Service.
www.nationalparkstraveler.org www.nationalparkstraveler.org

for better or worse, it appears that most people don't stick around in parks long (2/3 stay for a day or less).

Yes i hate the traffic; yes tourists approaching bison in yellowstone makes me hate people. But no, most people do not visit to the parks to go to the imax or ice cream stand. The NPS does research on this stuff, and the research shows that people go to the parks to get outside.
 
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It's a park not a wilderness, and there is a difference between preservation and conservation. Wishing for a list of approved activities that just so happens to align with the activities that I enjoy and think are appropriate is elitist bullshit, as is the assumption that the overwhelming majority of visitors are so much more ignorant, selfish, and uncaring than me.

There is a middle ground between a hands-off free for all and extremism such as banning all vehicles. Managing visitation via reservations and increasing things like shuttled access are reasonable steps towards an equitable and sustainable solution.
 
Again, I'm not suggesting parks be set aside for activities that align with the activities I enjoy. If nobody wants to hike, that's cool with me. I am saying that if we don't protect these parks and prevent the Disney-esque atmosphere, then we've lost the whole point of the park. To take your point to its illogical extreme, would a motorcross course in the middle of Yellowstone be ok, simply because some people would enjoy it? Maybe a NASCAR race track? Roller coaster? Of course not.

I don't care what activity anybody does inside a park as long as it does not destroy or infringe on the intrinsic purpose of the place to begin with. I agree there has to be a middle ground, but not at the expense of losing the whole point of the park in the first place. Which is decidedly NOT to allow people to "get outside." The whole point has always been to preserve a little island of land that roughly resembles what it was like before we destroyed most of it, so future generations might be able to see it, experience it and enjoy it. People can "get outside" any number of ways without going to a national park; the fact that too many people don't is a whole 'nother conversation. But I suppose we can agree that managed visitation through permits and reservations is the best that can be done under the current system...which is drastically broken, in my opinion.

As far as research on why people go to parks, that's not my point at all. I'm not saying that's why people go to parks, for the pizza and ice cream. I'm saying that stuff doesn't belong there. Get rid of that commercial crap - nothing inherently wrong with it, it just doesn't belong there. Let's focus the park experience on the essential purpose of the place, offer expanded opportunities to actually be part of the place (instead of rolling through it). In my vision, national parks visits should average a week or more if people are truly experiencing the place. A visit of 2/3 days means to me that all they aren't seeing much. That seems pitifully short to me. Schools should be sending kids on weeks-long trips to these places, sleeping in tents, walking, biking, painting, drawing, playing, learning. The power of these places is completely and fundamentally being missed and misunderstood.
 
Now do agree with you Goat and Thanks for speaking out. Now at 64 have been going to the Nat'l Parks for years. And it is really getting insane in my opinion. The last time I was in Zion, it was absolutely crazy! It makes me not want to go back! A few years ago toured the Southwestern Parks with a friend, so many of the places we went to were just being inundated with people. Now when you have maybe two thirds of the country's population living in major metropolitan places, and they go to a park or someplace wild, then you will get that Disney affect. It seems from a basic fact that this modern day culture is soooo divorced and out of touch with what I call the 'Real World' - the wild natural world. Do think it is going to get worse before it gets better.

Now a few years ago went from the Southwest to the coast in California. I took a shuttle out to the coast. It was a Sunday and the Interstate from Las Vegas all the way to Los Angeles was bumper to bumper traffic like rush hour, completely insane. Also I do not have a car and live without. This culture is sooooo automobile centric! What about walking and biking and such. It seems everywhere I go, everyone just wants to drive, drive, drive. I have come to detest automobiles. Am sooooo freaking happy that have learned to live without an automobile. Just recently heard that there was a two mile long line of cars waiting at the entrance station just to go into Grand Canyon NP. Yes in my opinion, it has became insane and something gotta be done in my opinion. But like I said, do think it will get worse before it gets better. I Personally put the blame on this current crazy culture we live in. The way we live certainly is not the way that the Native Americans and the Hunter-Gatherer cultures lived. Could say more but will not. Just my opinion!

Wishing Everyone the Best!
 
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