https://dailyyonder.com/the-national-park-crowd-dilemma/2024/07/31/
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Why have I never heard discussion of different rates for non-residents? State parks do it. I don't think it's nationalistic to say that if you don't pay taxes towards the park, you should pay more to visit it. Especially considering that flights to get there are an order of magnitude more expensive than entry fees, the parks should be making some of that money.
This is quite commonly done in many places, but it usually does nothing against tourists crowding out locals and once operators notice they can raise prices a lot without much difference in visitor numbers, things tend to get more expensive for everyone.
My counterpoint is even if it doesn't reduce crowds, at least the parks will be making 20x more revenue, so they can improve infrastructure to handle the crowds.
Yeah, but this isn't just a problem for national parks.
Holiday planning seems to boil down for most people to typing "location must see" into Google, which leads them all to the same three heavily SEO optimized travel blogs, with the same few locations everyone then tries to go to.
Colorado has a bunch of examples of this. Rocky Mountain National Park, like they mention in this post, has a timed entry permit system. Mt. Quandary has parking permits in the summer. The Four Pass Loop needs permits. Etc. There are places that need to get on a system like that, like the Grays and Torreys trailhead that just had a huge ticketing and towing operation because of all the illegal parking.
It's a good problem to have that so many people want to go outside and have fun, but it's still a problem. It's kind of nice that most tourists get funneled to National Parks and leave the "local spots" alone, but those get overrun, too. I've taken to just doing class 2+ 13ers and only going to popular spots in the cold and snow to avoid the crowds. Summiting a mountain while dealing with traffic jams and bluetooth speakers, then seeing 20+ people sitting around up top just isn't how I want to spend my free time.
I also believe there needs to be steep fines for people that book days, and don't attend.
So many folks just shotgun the calendar, then just make other plans. It's very frustrating to not be able to get tickets without playing the Taylor swift concert tickets game
Edit clarification if you cancel, no fine. No show no call is what I'm referring to
Agreed! No-shows are really annoying with campsites, too. I've snuck into the "last available" campsite reservation a few times only to see a bunch of empty ones. I'm sure the hosts don't mind dealing with fewer people, but it stinks for the people who miss out.
Very often the booking sites just fake "last available" though. I was once the only guest in a hostel and I booked it as "last available" 🫠
Oh, the examples I was thinking of were through recreation.gov, which shows a calendar of sites and availability. A lot of National Park and National Forest campgrounds are on there.
Well I guess a government website would not cheat like that. But it is also likely that the campsite is reporting a slightly lower number of spots to the website, so that they have a bit more flexibility with people having emergencies or such.
My experience is that if you can get a mile from asphalt or concrete then all of this melts away. I've been on a beach with no other person, horizon to horizon (2mi hike to the beach). I once walked a trail in possibly the most crowded part of the most crowded park (Cades Cove) and the only encounter my group had was with a copperhead snake.
Yea, but anything you can drive up to is going to be a disaster.