Ten One-star Reviews of Utah's National Parks

[Absarokanaut]

When I was at Canyonlands the Bringem Young Bikini Team kept me up all night, wouldn't leave me alone. Oh, wait, they want complaints. Never mind.

 

[Dave]

When I read the sentence above, I assumed that you don't enjoy overrun parks, therefore wish they weren't as publicized and discovered. If I misinterpreted your simple statement of fact, as a gripe, my apologies.

I personally do not like overrun parks. That is true. The disconnect is in assuming secrecy is what I view as a solution.

In some cases, limiting access is necessary. In others, it's special land designations such as wilderness that impair unabated human access. It is a complicated issue that I foresee growing more so in future generations.

The very fact that this is a debate we're having though is healthy. It's a sign people care enough to have opinions.

 

[Nurrgle]

The point I was trying to make with my comment about the diversity of Utah was that there is something for everyone. I love that National Parks exist, they give many people their first and only exposure to the outdoors and often provide a safe way for inexperienced folk to get their feet wet so to say. When I tell people I am from Utah on my travels, they always mention Zion and how much they loved it.

At the same time, I am another one that does not like crowds much and prefers to leave the busy city life and people behind me when I head out. I grew up camping and backpacking throughout Utah, I broke my arm falling of a small cliff in the Swells when I was eight and was back camping in the same spot with my cast on. Back then, I can remember meeting people on the trail sometimes, but it was rare. When we did meet them, I remember my Dad having long conversations over a flask and a joke.

Every panel we found seemed like we were the first people to discover it since the Natives put them there. Every campsite seemed untouched.
Each year as I have gotten older, there are more people in my favorite haunts Escalante, the Swells, and the Water Pocket Fold. At first I was stoked, the oil companies want to come in and exploit everything they can, and the more people that realized that no where on Earth had the mystery and beauty of Utah the better.

But then slowly, I started to notice more old fire pits in canyons, not even covered up and the trash from that morning breakfast not even burned. I noticed more chalk on panels so folks could get a better picture. I started to see people picking up pot shards and other relics as souvenirs. If this continues, our Utah parks will be more like the ones I have visited in more populated areas. More like a nature park, lots of guided tours, carved graffiti on sign posts, gross destroyed toilets, and trash everywhere.

So I guess I am a guy who does not like change, but I am also a guy with very little respect for man in general and their ability as a group to not turn everything they touch to shit. Think about the panel along Wild Horse Road just west of Goblin and how badly it is damaged, this is the result of large groups of people having access to precious things. I am not saying that all of the damage and stuff has started recently, it has been going on for hundreds of years. But I do believe that it has been expedited by the crowds.

“You can't study the darkness by flooding it with light.”
― Ed Abbey

 

[Nurrgle]

Blah, reread the above post and realized I sounded like an elitist prick. But I spent so much damn time typing it I don't want to delete it.

It is awesome that people are getting exposed and enjoying National Parks. I hope they stay so busy that it takes at least six months so get a camping reservation and they can continue to bring foreign folks over to staff them. It a great way to share what there is and I assume that our domestic kids are getting sent overseas to help with their stuff and that is a great program.

I just worry about how we will be able to maintain what we have as more people come to experience the backcountry.

 

[WasatchWill]

Great discussion points above. It's all a bittersweet thing and a two edged sword. For many of us, we cherish solitude in the backcountry, as we feel we are better able to connect with the natural beauty and ambience that surrounds us without the intrusion and distraction of others. There's a certain peace that can't be experienced when other people are present. I'm certainly one of those people who enjoy the feeling of being the only person in an area of serene beauty, whether it's by myself, or be shared with great friends and company I've group with. There are spots where you want to capture your own photo without anyone else in the way and with some areas it can take a long wait or an early am arrival to get such a shot. There's also times where you may seek a specific backcountry campsite with an unbeatable view or other natural feature only to be disappointed to find it already taken upon arrival. So there are certainly a lot of benefits to visiting places free of crowds.

However, I must agree that the more people experience and cherish these precious lands, the more power there is to save them and preserve them. At the same time, as has been said above, with the good people who care about being good stewards come a few bad apples who either don't take the time to learn and practice proper LNT techniques, or just plain don't care and trash every area they settle into. I still can't wrap my mind around the fact that there are people out there who value the experience of a certain area to put in the work to get there, only to trash it and have no courtesy for others after them.

We have the Internet and social media sites and platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, and even all the marvelous trip reports and photos we enjoy here on BCP to credit for the influx of traffic into areas that were recently "off the map" and relatively crowd free. At the same time, I'm very thankful for these platforms as we all benefit from being able to discover new places to visit and build our bucket lists. It's give and take.

Anyhow, I much rather be sharing any given area of pristine beauty and wonder, be it in the frontcountry or the backcountry, than not having such land at all. There are many areas now where you just have to accept and tolerate that you will have to share with others almost every time and that they have all the same rights to be there as you do. Other times you will get lucky and hit a very popular area with few to none others present. And yet, we can be thankful that there are still many areas full of their own unique beauty, where at least for now, you only need to hike off the road for a couple miles and feel like you have the whole world to yourself. I think we are lucky in Utah in that the number of national parks and ski resorts that get the most publicity serve as great magnets for the bulk of the crowds seeking a recreational adventure, and with few other exceptions, it doesn't take too much effort to get a few miles off the main roads accessing the national forests, monuments, and wilderness areas to obtain some solitude and have that one-on-one unadulterated wilderness experience. In other words, I'm fine with the parks getting all the crowds. Living nearby, you can go experience them with solitude in the off-season, and then hit all the other great Utah treasures elsewhere.