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Yellowstone, etc

Yeshuasdaughter

You know, that one lady we met that one time.
V.I.P Member
Although they are breathtaking places that one could only see once in a lifetime, I don't think I would ever want to visit Yellowstone, Yosemite, or any of the big touristy parks. I'm not even sure if I'd want to visit the Grand Canyon.

I've seen many videos on YouTube featuring miles of cars, just inching along, while disrespectful tourists photograph big game. Sometimes you see idiots get out of their cars to get close to the animals. It disgusts me.

I prefer the little, secret places. I don't tell people about them. I want them to stay pristine. I do not want my nature experience to involve crowds of loud strangers who do not know how to behave around wildlife. The minute I saw someone approaching the animals, dropping litter, or talking loud on the trail, I know that I'd become very irritated.

Yellowstone, and other crowded parks like it, sound like a nightmare. I would not enjoy myself at all.
 
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If the urge to visit the grand canyon ever does strike, I highly recommend the North rim. It is much harder to reach and does not attract the same number of people that the tourist trap of the south rim draws. It is not accessible in the winter time but the northern rim is a higher and much prettier view of the grand canyon. There is the added attraction of more scenic areas to stop and look at on your way to it,

Even though it has been almost four decades since I was there, I imagine it has not changed too much as the road there is narrow and it most likely would not have been widened as that would have cost inordinate amounts of money to accomplish with the cost benefit requiring talking people into driving the long way round to get to a view of the canyon. That would also impinge on the must have it now culture that seems to be part and parcel of the U.S.A today.
 
The US national parks are phenomenal. Visit during the offseason for the best experience.

I'll agree as well

I live very close to Banff Nat'l Park, and have my entire life

July and August are the worst months to visit, plus there are only a handful of the top places to visit within the park, so all the tourists go there, and only go to those places... It's a large park with lots of other areas to explore

The shoulder seasons are when things slow down and are much nicer

The famous Johnston Canyon? Try a winter hike, it can be done with the proper equipment...
 
There are many ways to enjoy some of the most popular parks. Yellowstone has such spectacular geology that I do not let the poor behavior spoil it for me. I have seen some stupidity like a family fleeing in panic as a bison chased them (they deserved it). Get out on a trail and crowds are left behind. I was there and in the Tetons for the solar eclipse of 2017 where I set up my camera equipment near a small parking spot in the sagebrush flats near the Snake River. There were quite a few people, not crowded, and everybody was enjoying it and totality was spectacular.

Some trips in National parks and wilderness areas allow you to see things that few visitors experience. River trips on either the Green or Yampa rivers through Dinosaur National Park are spectacular. I have done them by canoe, tagging along with a rafting group who carries my gear. To experience the canyon of Lodore and rapids that are unchanged since the time John Wesley Powell ran them; Disaster Falls, Triplet, Hell's Half Mile, is sublime.

In Glacier National Park there are two backcountry lodges that are in spectacular settings, Glacier Park and Sperry Chalets. Sperry was infested with Mountain Goats.You will not find lodging as unusual as these frequently. One needs to hike in or horsepack to these.

Smaller National parks offer their own delights. I like Great Sand Dunes, in Colorado and Badlands, in South Dakota. Many opportunities for good experiences there. Once I was in the Badlands with a niece and nephew and the camping at Sage Creek was full. As we were prepared for backpacking in the Black hills, we just got our gear on and headed out along the hills that overlooks the basin and had a great time camping a few miles away.

Alas, there are parks that are being overrun. Arches, while being a favorite of mine is now crowded. It does not help that Moab is overrun by Side by Side yahoos intent on imposing their gawd given right to batter the landscape on everybody because they do not have the personal skills to deal with slickrock and the desert conditions.
 
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I'm just grateful to have visited Glacier Nat'l Park while the glaciers were still there- 1974.

As for Yosemite, IMO it's been effectively trashed by humanoids. Again, happy to have much earlier memories of this park before it became such a popular tourist destination.
 
I think a lot of parks are experiencing the post-COVID dam burst of tourism. Seen far too many stories of animal attacks in Yellowstone. I went back in 2005 and remember being stuck in Bison traffic jams which was still cool watching the herds strolling around the cars. But honestly I don't regret visiting any national or state park regardless of crowds, although it is always ideal to visit during off-peak seasons.

I just find it sad that it's becoming harder to enjoy the natural state of these places.
 
Best to go in the Spring when the kids are still in school, there is water in the streams and waterfalls, the flowers are out in bloom, and the baby animals are out in the meadows.
 
I'm just grateful to have visited Glacier Nat'l Park while the glaciers were still there- 1974.

As for Yosemite, IMO it's been effectively trashed by humanoids. Again, happy to have much earlier memories of this park before it became such a popular tourist destination.
Hiking up to Grinnell glacier, I was amazed to see stromatolites from a billion years ago.
 
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If the urge to visit the grand canyon ever does strike, I highly recommend the North rim. It is much harder to reach and does not attract the same number of people that the tourist trap of the south rim draws. It is not accessible in the winter time but the northern rim is a higher and much prettier view of the grand canyon. There is the added attraction of more scenic areas to stop and look at on your way to it,

Even though it has been almost four decades since I was there, I imagine it has not changed too much as the road there is narrow and it most likely would not have been widened as that would have cost inordinate amounts of money to accomplish with the cost benefit requiring talking people into driving the long way round to get to a view of the canyon. That would also impinge on the must have it now culture that seems to be part and parcel of the U.S.A today.
I would like to see Powell's Great Unconformity in the Grand Canyon, but I'd need a river trip to see it. 175 million years of missing time in the geologic record there. It may have occurred during the glaciation of Snowball Earth
 
History itself shows that the national parks were very popular, perhaps too popular with some of them...

I've watched some history of American national parks via PBS... In the early 20th century when roads were built into the parks, Americans went in huge numbers with their Model T's or whatever else people drove back then... It was the "new thing" to do back then

Then after WW2, much the same thing happened, highways were much better as were the cars, many of them now towing travel trailers

As long as we have had parks, crowds have always been a concern, certainly during the summer months, when obviously parents with children have to take their vacations...

There are a few remote national parks in Canada up north with no vehicle access, I have been to Grasslands National Park on the southern border of Canada, pretty much almost the United States... You can drive into it, but it's quiet year round and it's free to drive through it on the one gravel road
 
When l lived on the reservation, the Grand Canyon was in our backyard. So we went, but you did see the start of tourists getting out of hand. We took my brother there, and Danny Devito was with his family there also on one lookout site. We all knew right away it was him.

I actually spent some of my childhood near Yosemite, but our house burned down, so that was cut short. I think l went once, possibly twice. I was at many eerie sites in Hilo, and Honolulu. Just a energy that was hard to describe.
 
Richelle-H wrote:
"If the urge to visit the grand canyon ever does strike, I highly recommend the North rim. It is much harder to reach and does not attract the same number of people that the tourist trap of the south rim draws. It is not accessible in the winter time but the northern rim is a higher and much prettier view of the grand canyon. There is the added attraction of more scenic areas to stop and look at on your way to it,"

I second this! If visiting during the hot months of summer, the North Rim is a good bit cooler. It is higher and more forested. As a bonus there are many 'points' (Timp Point, etc) just outside the park but on the edge of the canyon, where one can camp for free, and with a tremendous view.
Some National Parks and Monuments that I've visited have low attendance: Lassen NP, Death Valley, Great Basin, Lava Beds, Craters of the Moon, Glacier, Point Reyes, Channel Islands, North Cascades, Olympic, Dinosaur, Canyonlands (my favorite), Chiricahua.........and more!
I understand avoiding the crowded parks, it detracts from the experience.
 
I understand avoiding the crowded parks, it detracts from the experience.
A park where one may understand solitude is Voyageurs National Park and the Boundary Waters. The permutation of routes one may plan is vast. In a week we only saw one other party.
 
Has it changed dramatically in the past ten years? I've been to Yosemite and the Grand Canyon several times in my life because I live relatively close to them, and I never experienced anything like that, but that was all over ten years ago.
 
A park where one may understand solitude is Voyageurs National Park and the Boundary Waters.
That area is intriguing! I got kind of close last year: Silver Bay and Virginia, MN. The Canadian side looks to be half land, half water; scads of small lakes. If I take up canoeing that looks like the ideal region. I recall Gordon Lightfoot (pop-folk) used to take month-long canoeing trips in that area. Do you go often?
 
That area is intriguing! I got kind of close last year: Silver Bay and Virginia, MN. The Canadian side looks to be half land, half water; scads of small lakes. If I take up canoeing that looks like the ideal region. I recall Gordon Lightfoot (pop-folk) used to take month-long canoeing trips in that area. Do you go often?
Not frequently. But I have enjoyed the Sylvania Wilderness area near Watersmeet MI. Lots of lakes in a virgin Hemlock forest with quite a few black spruce bogs with carnivorous plants.
 
Richelle-H wrote:
"If the urge to visit the grand canyon ever does strike, I highly recommend the North rim. It is much harder to reach and does not attract the same number of people that the tourist trap of the south rim draws. It is not accessible in the winter time but the northern rim is a higher and much prettier view of the grand canyon. There is the added attraction of more scenic areas to stop and look at on your way to it,"

I second this! If visiting during the hot months of summer, the North Rim is a good bit cooler. It is higher and more forested. As a bonus there are many 'points' (Timp Point, etc) just outside the park but on the edge of the canyon, where one can camp for free, and with a tremendous view.
Some National Parks and Monuments that I've visited have low attendance: Lassen NP, Death Valley, Great Basin, Lava Beds, Craters of the Moon, Glacier, Point Reyes, Channel Islands, North Cascades, Olympic, Dinosaur, Canyonlands (my favorite), Chiricahua.........and more!
I understand avoiding the crowded parks, it detracts from the experience.

I frequently camped near the North Rim when I lived in Utah. My recollection is that it is on or near Native American reservation land which probably is why it has never been developed or "touristed" to death like the South Rim.

My husband and I camped for a week in Lassen and saw few other people. We did have a bunch of skunks visit our campsite every night, casually strolling around us, which freaked me out because I was afraid they would spray us. I guess people have fed them so they're looking for handouts. The mud pots and other features at Lassen are beautiful.

Death Valley requires strategic planning. Lack of water, constant wind and the heat will take a toll on you.

I had a friend whose parents lived in Idaho on Henry's Fork of the Snake River near Yellowstone. We used to stay at her parents' house whenever we had a break from college and ski into the park during winter and trout fish along the river during summer. We rarely saw anyone else. But that was decades ago and Idaho is quickly becoming "Californicated" as the locals call it. Same thing is happening in Southern Utah which used to be one of my favorite destinations.
 
I frequently camped near the North Rim when I lived in Utah. My recollection is that it is on or near Native American reservation land which probably is why it has never been developed or "touristed" to death like the South Rim.

My husband and I camped for a week in Lassen and saw few other people. We did have a bunch of skunks visit our campsite every night, casually strolling around us, which freaked me out because I was afraid they would spray us. I guess people have fed them so they're looking for handouts. The mud pots and other features at Lassen are beautiful.

Death Valley requires strategic planning. Lack of water, constant wind and the heat will take a toll on you.

I had a friend whose parents lived in Idaho on Henry's Fork of the Snake River near Yellowstone. We used to stay at her parents' house whenever we had a break from college and ski into the park during winter and trout fish along the river during summer. We rarely saw anyone else. But that was decades ago and Idaho is quickly becoming "Californicated" as the locals call it. Same thing is happening in Southern Utah which used to be one of my favorite destinations.
Utah has a lot of great places to explore! I have had memorable trips there. Spent a week around Delta and Millard County. Besides the Topaz Museum about the Topaz, Japanese, internment camp, I collected Trilobites at the U-dig quarry, dug up Snowflake and Mahogany Obsidian, Apache tears, and Dugway Geodes, and cracked slabs of Rhyolite to uncover Sherry Topaz crystals. Then, off trail Goat Packing in the Escalante was phenomenal. On the San Juan river with its sand waves came acrodd a patch of non-Newtonian mud (aka quicksand) that was solid if you stomped on it, but stand still and you sink in it. I could go on forever about the outdoor delights of Utah.
 
I grew up pretty much knee-deep in the Mojave. I've seen what man does to pretty places.

We used to go out to Joshua Tree a lot. And even in the early nineties, we'd always bring bags with us, to pick up litter on the trails. My dad would bring a rake, to get rid of all the footprints, and restore the trail to pristine status. It was always a big thing to leave no trace, so that the next person will feel like they are the first person in all humanity to see this place, and to keep it a good biome for wildlife.

We used to go out to Red Rock all the time as a child. I have so many memories of spelunking through the caves with my father and uncle. Now I hear there is a music festival there, and that it's totally touristy, with housing tracts right up to the mountains. It breaks my heart.

Another thing is that growing up, I was friends with a girl who was a Coachella Indian. That area was very remote, and the wide open spaces were very beautiful.

Now there is a music festival every year that sickens me. It's so "Hollywood" and trashy. The people of that valley are simple, country folks. The sky used to get so dark at night, and there was wildlife everywhere.

I'm so sick of people taking something beautiful, lonesome, and pure, and turning it into Disneyland.

"Leave us helpless."


"I didn't move to the city, the city moved to me. And I want out desperately."
 
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