Sad comment on our (not mine) "soc norms". Are things that dire that folks need to be managed or having law enforcement on their tail 24/7 ? Some folks have a problem with determination of right vs wrong ? Yet they know alternative facts, huh. After visiting many parks, my geezer pass gets me in there pretty much at no charge....not sure how long I will hold out or the parks closure continues, but I'll stay away from crazy.
Les
Yosemite is different. Almost all the Park system's positive cash flow comes from only four Parks - Yosemite, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, and Great Smoky. The rest are tax supported. So there's an incentive to pack people into there. The concessionaires also pay a token amount to the Park Service. Yosemite Valley is less than 8% of the overall Park. But other than the current glitch, even Yosemite Valley is tame most of the year. Due to the miserable summer heat in the San Joaquin Valley below, lots of people from cities down there treat Yosemite almost like a city park on summer weekends. Then there are the endless convoys of tour buses in summer, so everyone can get their 5 min glance of Half Dome maybe, if the smog and campfire smoke isn't too thick. But you can still walk for a week in certain sections of the Park without seeing anyone else. Yosemite is also unique because its the only major glacial valley in the Sierra accessible by car. Hetch Hetchy is flooded behind a dam, and the numerous other examples are in remote high country. But if you want a "Yosemite" all to yourself, no problem if you can backpack there, though I'm not implying actual trails exist to all of them by any means ... The TV news, just this moment, related the disgusting garbage and human excrement piling all over the place in Yosemite at the moment, Muir Woods here on the coast too. Funny how 98% of people gravitate to only 2% of places. You have to get parking reservations six months in advance for Muir Woods. But sometimes I park right on the road a little ways down, head to the opposite side of the creek, and hardly see anyone all day. Here we're surrounded by all kinds of substantial parks and open space, so there are plenty of nice places to photograph without worrying about NP issues for awhile. Across another river (the Kings) near my old ranch, is Kings Canyon NP, but the opposite direction from Yosemite. Now that's my idea of a Park! No gangbangers, no hippies, no meth freaks, no cars or tour buses, no concessions except at Cedar Grove, a tiny percent of the Park, and the only drive-in entrance. if you want to go further, you walk uphill, and it's the deepest canyon on the continent. This afternoon I printed an old 4x5 neg of the roof of King's Canyon, a whole row of ragged 14,000 ft peaks known as the Palisades. They're visible from quite a distance; but I was right up there, ice axe, Sinar, n' all.
Last April I went on a road trip through the Southwest visiting all the great NP's there. I waited an entire life to see them. You westerners should be thankful having these parks so close. Us Easterners are the really deprived group, garbage or no garbage. In any case, they soon be clean again and us Easterners will still be far away.
Flickr Home Page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/alanklein2000/albums
Mert Greenman, you might have known him Drew, was an old time cattleman and went to a meeting about reopening the old French Trail from Millerton to Mammoth. Land owners expressed concerns over fires in the canyon being started by campers. Ol' Mert got up and spoke something to the effect ain't nothing gonna burn, most of that land's under drip irrigation!Originally Posted by Drew Wiley
"I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White
It's not just crap and garbage - the spray paint taggers go wild whenever they get an opportunity. It's a horrible problem over here at the GGNRA, which is technically and Natl Park, adjacent to Pt Reyes Natl Seahore. And it's not too easy to undo a gunshot incident when or bottle getting broken over somebody's head when campers manage to get more drunk and rowdy than an attentive Park personnel presence would normally allow. Or else, somebody will ignore rules, leave their food out, and get mauled by a bear
that's already addicted to peanut butter and jelly. Yosemite Valley is in fact a city of over 30,000 people on some summer days, and apparently now too, but in this case, largely unsupervised.
"I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White
No "California" problems out here. The state has simply been sending highway patrol and county deputies. Local/regional people are pretty respectful anyway. In past so-called shut downs my state has actually picked up the tab to keep Mt. Rushmore open. They didn't this year because winter visitation is so low anyway.
Kent in SD
In contento ed allegria
Notte e di vogliam passar!
Kent, I don't think it's a specifically "Calif" issue. Lots been dumped unfairly on CA. If you had highly popularized park in the midst of SD (much like Yellowstone - not in SD) you'll have thousands of folks fly into Xxxxxxx, SD from all around the country and the world and it's doubtful the pic would be different. Disney-tification can happen at other geo locations. Strangely tho, I've worked with intl folks (public...on daily basis) and they were never part of the problem.
Anyway, some folks use the highway to get to vistas.....while others prefer to hike/walk some distance (from asphalt) away and enjoy environment on a different level. I'm not going to hit every variation, so I'll stop at this.
Les
Of course it's not, but he and others who would politicize everything can't help themselves from dumping on this state, messing up threads in a photography forum that bans politics. Sad.
We do have the Sturgis motorcycle rally every year. At least half a million people show up*, some of them "professional" trouble makers. A few years ago things started getting out of hand with a number of shootings, stabbings, open drug deals, drunk drivers crashing, vandalism, rampant prostitution, and general mayhem as hostile biker gangs clashed. The governor at the time decided enough was enough. For the next one there were hundreds of highway patrolmen brought in from all over the state plus North Dakota (reciprocal agreement,) hundreds of sheriff deputies brought in, plus uniformed police from many other towns throughout the state. There was a cop on every corner! There were a handful of drug dealers caught plus about one third the drunk driving problem. The police presence has since been scaled back but still no matter where you stand you will see a cop of some sort. So, I think it can be done, it's just a matter of will. The trouble makers seemed to have moved on to a location in Wyoming, but not for long. They were met with a similar response there too.
Kent in SD
*In a state of 850,000
In contento ed allegria
Notte e di vogliam passar!
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