| Page 1601 | National Parks Traveler

This annoyed me on a summer-long road trip in 2000. I was still in college and didn't have much money, fortunately for me the booth attendant was a similarly aged college girl who gave in to my wily charm and let me in for freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Aren't there free parking lots way down the hill? Its been six years and I don't remember too much about it.

Woman Dies in Fall From Angel's Landing

Oct 10th - 18:36pm | matt

I hiked Angel's Landing a few years ago in spite of my fairly significant dislike of heights and exposed climbs. I did it because I heard it was phenomenal (it is) and it looked like fun.

Sep 23rd - 08:35am | RGR

I have hiked angel landing 3 times. Most recently around the first of August.I noticed the amount of work they have done on paving the trail. I wonder if people get the wrong idea of how dangerous this trail is at the top.It is my favorite trail. People need to be carfull.

Sep 18th - 16:23pm | Sarah

I was recently at Zion and hiked up Angel's Landing. It is an amazing hike and view once you get to the top. I would do it again. I do not believe trails such as these should be shut off because of accidents. A close friend of mine died in a car accident recently. Were cars recalled? No. That would also mean we need to quit playing sports, riding in airplanes ...

Sep 18th - 15:12pm | DD

I just hiked Angel's Landing for my 47th birthday and it is an experience I would not wish to have missed. My husband and I are extremely athletic, (skydived, flying trapeze, bike racing, etc.)

Send Mr. Pearce Back to the Oilfields

Oct 10th - 08:59am | Snowbird

Another fox to guard the hen house. Rep. Pearce 's only goal is too solidify the wealth of the CEO's that run the recreation industry in the National Parks...the more noise and pollution the better! Right Rep. Pearce? Despite the majority of the general populace, most American's want less intrusive crap in the Parks that Pearce adovcates for.

Is The National Park System Headed for Yard Sales?

Oct 9th - 09:51am | Ed Smith

the cash fees that you now have to pay just to go into a National park is just a under handed (unconstitutional) way to tax (extort) money from the people. The Park ranger is now the tax (extortion) collector, at gunpoint. (they now carry 45 cal guns.(is that legal) NO its not, They have no authority to carry a wepon.

Time For A Change: Send Mr. Pombo Packing

Oct 9th - 08:27am | Snowbird

This fake cowboy (like Bush 43 born with a silver spoon in his mouth) has no concept what conservation and natural resources means...he's just another pimp for the oil industries.

Bomar Confirmation Hearing Set for Thursday

Oct 7th - 16:06pm | simon pleasance

My wife and I are unconditional US Nat Park-lovers. the recent moves by the Bush High Command to open the Park system to the corporate wallahs was extremely alarming. It seems the main danger has been averted, perhaps only temporarily.

Burlington Northern's Bombing Plans For Glacier, Part Two

Oct 7th - 09:42am | Alan

Subsidized public lands grazing. Subsidized killing of native wildlife on behalf of public lands ranchers. Subsidized road building on national forests to benefit private industry. Subsidized logging of those same forests. And now a railroad gets a hand-up too?

Oct 7th - 07:09am | Chance Finegan

I e-mailed Mary Riddle, a ranger at Glacier asking if A) the park is preparing an Environmental Assessment or Environmental Impact Statement and B) Who will retrieve the unexploded bombs - excuse me, ordnances. Her answer is as follows: We are preparing an EIS on Burlington Northern's request. It should be back from the printer by the end of the month. It will be available online.

Yosemite's Merced River Plan, And Other Legal Contortions

Oct 6th - 18:44pm | Parkaholic

Amazingly enough the Park Service i.e. Yosemite has spent millions of dollars and countless hours studying and doing research on this issue. Their intent seems to be to find a balance between making Yosemite "available" for the public and "preserving" it for future generations. Now Yosemite must spend millions more to combat organizations trying to do the same thing... I don't get it?

Oct 4th - 14:53pm | James

RE: The Bear News The NPS has really gotten serious about education. Before my visit I got a postcard in the mail informing me that I would have to store all my food, ice chest, and any fragrances or toiletries with strong scents in a bear locker. These lockers are great - strong metal with a locking mechanism that a bear could not operate.

Oct 4th - 08:52am | Kath

I agree that the number of campsites should be reduced, not increased, not only for the traffic situation but for bear management.

Oct 3rd - 14:53pm | repanshek

James et al, You can find details of the park's plans at: http://www.nps.gov/archive/yose/planning/mrp/ Kurt

Oct 3rd - 14:44pm | James

It is difficult to form an intelligent opinion because there are no links to EXACTLY what the NPS intends to do. Nevertheless, having just returned from a four day stay in the Yosemite Valley, I do have some eyewitness opinions that bear upon the matter.

Rep. Pearce Carries Water For Sagebrushers

Oct 5th - 09:01am | kath

I agree. National Parks should be hands off for any purpose other than protection of the land. And it's not only roads. Just before one gets to Furnace Creek in Death Valley, the federal government allowed an Indian tribe to build a community (thankfully with the provision that no casinos could be built).

Oct 4th - 18:56pm | Alan

Pearce obviously believes he can win (earn?) political support (read campaign contributions) by staking out the standard anti-conservation position on this and related public lands issue. Conservationists should call his bluff and expose this attack for it really is.

Railroad Wants To Bomb Glacier

Oct 5th - 05:46am | Judy Tyler

They have lost their minds! What do they propose about "unexploded ordinance"? I am sure that it has not been mentioned at all. Why would we let them turn our National Park Lands into mine fields?

New Cave Discovered in Sequoia/Kings Canyon

Oct 2nd - 16:19pm | Ted Lingley

Kurt, I searched the internet after hearing about this new cave discovered in Sequoia. After reading about it, I was very excited. However, as I read on, I see the powers that be intend to keep this special place to themselves. Naturally, if this is in a public park, National forest, or any other non-private, citizen owned public land, we as citizens should have every right to view it.

Sequoia's New Cave is Pretty Spectacular

Sep 28th - 07:58am | Hunter H. Cash...

So is this place going to be strictly a research phenomenon for the forseeable future? Hunter H. Cashdollar

Sep 28th - 07:57am | Hunter H. Cash...

This looks awesome. Is there no way to access it for regular folks? Hunter H. Cashdollar

Sep 26th - 11:38am | kath

Too bad none of us will ever be able to see this cave.

Poll: Overwhelming Majority Wants Limits on Snowmobile Access

Sep 25th - 12:20pm | kath

I'd applaud elimination of snowmobiles and jet skis from the National Parks. They are simply too noisy. But in the same vein, I'd ban any noisy vehicle. The desired quiet of my last visit to Yosemite's Tuolumne Meadows was blasted by noisy motorcycles. They travel in packs, gunning their engines and roaring off. It's just too much.

Park Service Explores the Thorny Issue of Benefits Sharing

Sep 22nd - 14:40pm | kath

These extremophilic bacteria have also been used to improve DNA testing. As I understand it, no damage was done to Yellowstone's hot pools when the first of these bacteria was collected for research. Now I'd imagine the bacteria are grown in a lab.

Fran's Handing Off More Red Ink to Mary

Sep 22nd - 09:10am | kath

Re: Volunteers handling ranger duties. If the parks can get volunteers which cost nothing to replace rangers, isn't that just smart fiscal management? I've seen volunteers being used to hand out maps, answer simple questions in the Visitor's Centers and things of that nature. One of these day, when I'm retired, I'd love to be a volunteer myself. It's called serving community and country.

Sep 21st - 19:35pm | Sabattis

The problem is, I wonder how many people (outside of card-carrying members) take that $815 million figure seriously?

Sep 21st - 17:17pm | Alan Gregory

"They can, but will they?" Not while spending $1B a month in Iraq, and beefing up the active duty Army, and buying jet fuel for Air Force jets, and watching tax dollars flow out the door to those who hardly need more cash on hand, and buying speech platform backdrops for the president, and jetting around in Air Force One.

National Geographic: Over The Top?

Sep 22nd - 08:23am | kath

It is a good conversation and one worth having. Yosemite has, in my opinion, too many visitors (and I don't know what you do about that. The U. S. population will reach 300 million soon). On my latest trip to Yosemite, there was literally no where I could hike on a day hike and be alone. The trails were as congested as the Hollywood Freeway.

Sep 21st - 19:19pm | Sabattis

Looks like I sparked quite the conversation!

Sep 21st - 17:45pm | repanshek

We're moving in the right direction, folks. The question is whether this will be merely a ripple in cyberspace or the beginning of a groundswell?

Sep 21st - 16:24pm | James

This is a good thread! These issues need to be openly debated by a large cross-section of the public and a consensus generated about the future of the National Parks. It is my belief that at best, things are in a holding pattern regarding what trickles down from the federal gov't.

Sep 21st - 14:12pm | Kath

There's a blight in Yosemite National Park that is so far unmentioned. Hetch Hetchy. The city of San Francisco pays a paltry $30,000 per year for this continued desecration of that other Yosemite Valley. That's the same amount the city of SF paid in the 1920's. There hasn't been an increase in that fee in the past 80 years.

Sep 21st - 13:04pm | Parkaholic

Some really amazing opinions stated here. As for Yosemite about 80% of Yosemite is not accessible by any other means than hiking. I would venture to say that those wilderness areas are pretty pristine rather than trampled by the footprint left by humans.

Sep 21st - 11:50am | kath

Snow Bird, Specific examples please. I honestly don't know what a 'holistic overview of it's lacking resources' refers to. Roads? Trails? Ranger programs? What?

Sep 21st - 10:33am | Snow Bird

Kath,take a good look at the big picture of Yosemite, not a small microcosm of the Park that suits your eyes, but a sincere holistic overview of it's lacking resources that's leading to it's demise.

Sep 21st - 10:26am | Snow Bird

Kath,take a good look at the big picture of Yosemite, not a small microcosm of the Park that suits your eyes, but a sincere holistic overview of it's lacking resources that's leading to it's demise.

Sep 21st - 10:12am | Kath

We also need to consider how our National Parks stack up against the parks (or the lack thereof) in the rest of the world. If Mt. Whitney were in Europe, for example, there would be a funicular railway to the restaurant/bar on top. (These sorts of establishments crown every mountaintop in the Alps. Not exactly a wilderness experience).

Sep 21st - 09:51am | kath

There's lots of moaning about the supposed 'dying' of the National Parks, but few suggestions as to what to do. As a frequent visitor to Yosemite, I haven't seen any infrastructure deterioration, I've seen the opposite. There's a new more beautiful approach to Yosemite falls. A new overlook is being built at Olmstead Point with private donations from the Yosemite Fund.

Sep 21st - 09:33am | Len Borg

Many years ago, after the famous Yosemite naturalist ranger Carl Sharsmith (deceased) gave his annual summer nature walk through Tuolumne Meadows(A Reminiscences

Sep 21st - 07:09am | x-ranger

Sabbatis is using the 95% satisfaction figure out of context. It does not represent what the general public thinks about how our parks are doing. Instead it is a survey administered by the NPS to measure the visitor experience of the actual people who visit parks.

Park Visitation: Some Bright Ideas?

Sep 21st - 04:58am | Tim Kieper

Just could not resist the "Bush Bashing" ! ( I wonder if that could be a result of the administration's foreign policies? ) Maybe there is just too much land "locked up" for a handful of tree huggers ?

Sep 16th - 20:50pm | John D.

Bill: What you are missing is that the more people that visit the National Parks - places like not just Yellowstone, but also places like Gettysburg NB, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, and Nez Perce NHP - the better for the country. John D.

Sep 16th - 17:19pm | Bill Gottschalk

Wait a minute, we have a conundrum here. The parks have had their funds reduced to such an extent that they cannot provide the amenities and upkeep to take care of the people that do visit. So why are we concerned about increasing park visitation? Or am I missing something here? The fewer people that visit....the better for me.

Sep 15th - 21:02pm | Anomynous

Time restraints also limit the public to go to a National Park. Many people simply do not have the time to visit a national park or they might believe that its not worth visiting a national park. Some do not even know if there is a national park near them. The NPS needs to promote National Parks more in other ways besides just a few newspaper articles or brochures.

Sep 15th - 09:57am | kath

The Alaska parks saw increases probably due to the tremendous amount of television and print media advertising done by the state of Alaska augmented by the large amount of advertising done by the cruise ship and tour industry.

National Geographic On Parks

Sep 20th - 04:29am | Sabattis

I recognize that it is in the activists' interests to make the state of the Parks seem as deplorable as possible, but this post seems over-the-top. You often cite the statistic that 95% of Americans are satisfied with the National Parks.

Blue Ridge Parkway: Running Out of Staff?

Sep 19th - 18:04pm | parkaholic

Once again the media and or bloggers have stirred the fires of budgetary woes against the Bush administration. Interestingly enough if you look a little deeper Blue Ridge had 268 employees in 1990, By 2000 that number had dropped by 36 to the exact same number this blog says they have today. It would be a little hard to blame that on the Bushies.

Sep 18th - 17:18pm | Alan Gregory

This plays right into the privatization happy Bush administration. Starve an agency's budget, then look on as operations stall, then claim that only private industry can run the park. (See, the Park Service can't run the Parkway. Disney can do better).

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