It's early in the summer vacation season, having just passed the Memorial Day Weekend. With visitation to the National Park System strong and growing, are the parks and their concessionaires ready for it?
Sparking that question was an email from Lisa in Billings, Montana, who recounted her experience from a visit to the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park on May 20, five days after the rim opened for the summer.
"I had not been there since 2002 and was excited to show my friend the lovely 100+ year old lodge and surrounding trails. We arrived at 7:30 a.m., no ranger at the gate but we had our Annual Park Pass so we were good to go!," she wrote. "We went straight to the lodge area to use the bathroom facilities before heading on our hike. The ladies' restroom was filthy. And not as if there have been a ton of people using the facilities and no one has had a chance to empty the garbage. I mean, dirty toilets, counters, floors. Like it hadn't been cleaned since the season before. Mind you we were there on May 20th; the park opened (the North Rim) for the season May 15. We then left and hiked the Widforss Trail, which was awesome!
"My friend and I returned to the lodge area and hiked to Angel Point. The trail was well maintained and busy. We took a couple side trails that are paved and lead to the little observation point and lodge, but we were shocked to see how much the trail was damaged, in disrepair and quite unsafe,especially for folks who might be handicapped in any way," she aded. "There were large holes and broken pieces of blacktop strewn about the trail. We proceeded to go get some lunch at the deli as the lodge restaurant was not serving breakfast or lunch. Unfortunately, half of the items listed on the menu were not available but not to worry, we did not go hungry! We took our to-go lunch into the large room by the dinning hall in the lodge and sat at tables set up for folks. All the tables were dirty, dried ketchup, and sticky. Garbage cans overflowing...at 12 noon. There was no one there wiping tables or managing the area."
Tell us, travelers, have you had similar experiences in the national parks so far this year, or was Lisa's an outlier?
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Comments
Was there at the same time. Everything said is true. We were not disappointed in the natural elements but it seemed the staff was overwhelmed and did not seem to care. The restaurant was open for dinner but did not open for breakfast due to "COVID Restrictions". Even after only being open for two days the Ranger station was closed.
We just returned from 2weeks, 7 National Parks, 1National Monument, 3 State Parks in AZ, UT, CO and found the facilities that were open to be clean and ready for visitors. My heart is broken for Zion as we were there when they were still using shuttle tickets, and it was very overcrowde. That park is being loved to death.
Most of the comments seem to pertain to concessionaire issues.
The facilities mentioned in this article are all run by greedy corporate concessionaire services. They hire unskilled, low wage, seasonal employees who do not have much motivation to go "above and beyond".
In the past Zion NP lodge concessionaire would drive a van to the Las Vegas homeless shelters. There the would "round up" seasonal employees. Then sign them up to binding indentured servitude type contracts. Paying them next to nothing wages, all while collecting multimillion dollar contracts.
They also recruit many international youth to the same type of contracts.
Visitors should not expect 4 and 5 star facilities if they are being run by staff receiving 1-2 star equivalent compensation.
As a college student who currently volunteers at a park property and has aspirations to have a career in the park service, I can assure you that not everyone shares the same lack of motivation! I too have run into workers who I wondered why they even took the job, and I am very sorry you had to deal with people like this! While the wages may not be ideal for some, I feel that if you love something and love where you work, you will never truly work a day in your life! I have heard the saying that park employees are "Paid in Sunsets" and I really feel strongly that, at least most of the people I have come in contact with, can resonate with this. I feel more valued when I help a visitor find the perfect trail or help them with a safety issue than anything a paycheck could ever show me. I hope you know that not all staff are 1-2 stars!!
In the NPT article entitled Is The National Park Service Struggling To Stay With Its Mission? (https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2021/05/national-park-service-stru...), expert sources confirmed that our national parks are not doing well. In that article, the authors of numerous internal NPS studies, as well as the new book entitled American Covenant: National Parks, Their Promise In Our Nation's Future, warn us that they "don't think anyone ...really understands both the value and the costs" of our national parks and that, especially the science and education missions of our parks, are running "in many ways, on vapors." They believe that, when it comes to funding and its allocation, the NPS is "always very much off balance."
According to these expert sources, "the last four years have ...taught us how attitudes," at least toward science and science education in the parks have suffered. They lament being "shocked at the amount of damage that was done" and not "so much that it was done, but how easy it was to do it." Since science is what is supposed to drive the management of the parks, it's logical to expect some damage to the parks generally.
However, earlier comments to this current article are correct that this current article actually addresses concessionaire issues. And, from my experience, the sources of those issues are that the concessionaires, always focused on their corporate bottom lines and, especially this year, eager to recoup last year's lost profits, 1) do not pay enough to recruit or retain enough workers, especially not enough of the right kind of workers; 2) do not provide acceptable housing to recruit or retain enough workers, especially not enough of the right kind of workers; and 3) try to keep their housing and recruitment costs down by working their crews too many hours in the wrong settings, exhausting them and giving them no real chance to take advantage of the alleged opportunities afforded by working in the parks, opportunities that the concessionaires effusively and cynically boast about in their recruitment spiels. Concessionaires often show disdain for educated or experienced workers who might hold conservation beliefs or be able to inform visitors about the parks, instead seeking out less educated recruits and adopting a "hire to fire" approach to minimize the possibility of workers lasting long enough to learn about corporate practices.
Everything stated here is correct. From the low wages, even for park rangers, to its all about the corporate bottom line.
it's sad and discouraging because 20 years ago when I lived 30 min from Grand Canyon it was very nice. They done 'improvements' which seem to have made it worse.
now all the parks are suffering ftom lack of fund to overcrowding. But staffing and clean facilities shouldn't be such a sore eye on the parks.
Been to New River Gorge NP & PRES the weekend before. Services were still somehow reduced (all visitor center except Canyon Rim closed), but the trails were fine and well-kept and the park in an overall good condition.
Ahhh, yes, if only I could be so young and naive again, good times, good times. Well, Levi, those days really weren't that good for me and, unless you have family money, they might not really be that good for any family you might have in another twenty years.
Look, I admire your idealism. In a few places, park employees really are "Paid in Sunsets" and, you're partially right, many staff certainly do not provide service at a 1-2 stars level. I certainly never did and luckily never needed even what I was paid. But, the fact is that almost all staff members really do need their paychecks and what the previous commenter claimed is true; most of those staff truly are receiving only 1-2 star equivalent compensation.
And, as that previous commenter also indicated, most park facilities truly are run by greedy corporate concessionaires and, although there are energetic young kids like yourself doing a good job, those greedy concessionaires actually do fill out the rest of their workforce needs with unskilled, low wage, seasonal employees.
I can't vouch for the stories about Zion concessionaires recruiting seasonal temps at homeless shelters in Vegas; but, those stories have been around for a long time and that has been done in other places. As for stories about concessionaires using binding indentured servitude type contracts, especially for foreign workers, paying those workers next to nothing, and pocketing the profits off multimillion dollar politically connected sweetheart contracts; I can sure vouch for those stories.
I can also attest to park contractors, not just concessionaires, working their employees far more than what should be a full workweek under the conditions and doing so solely to reduce employee numbers for the purpose of limiting housing and transportation costs. I remember calling for medical assistance for a five foot tall, roughly seventy pound, teenage concessions worker from Slovakia, exhausted to the point of being unsteady and unable to stand and weeping uncontrollably, who was fired by the concessionaire with a housing bill, no way to get home, and no working rights in the US outside the park when, after a near eighty hour workweek, she couldn't continue to adequately bus tables by herself.