Social National Parks facing massive crisis

[Scerpi]

Holy shit, image hosting is a joke. Wtf is that about, the first link was already completely taken down. Don't Compress & Resize my files, fa99ot. My bad, superking.

There's an amazing road near Vernal, Ut... Hardly anyone knows about it. It goes North off HW 40 near Dinosaur National Park and literally cuts through the pass in a couple places. Fuck me, I wish I had pictures now. Just a narrow cut in the rock next to a small river. Barely squeeze through.

But after you get through the pass, it dumps in the plains of Wyoming, near the Green River. (This is the near the Tri-State Area, where Colorado/Wyoming/Utah meet).

I fucking love this terrian.

Anyway, it'll eventually bring you to Dutch John near Flaming Gorge Reseviour.

The Green River below the Dam has some of the best fishing I've seen. The water is so clear and you can literally see fish everywere. My brother was a fly fishing guide for years and we'd float the river a few times per year.

 

[Track Jipper]

So why not just designate - or leave them - as national monuments? They'd still be federally protected and preserved under the purview of @jk7707 and the rest of the fine folks at the NPS. I don't have anything against those places - and my post was flippant - I do have extremely high standards and am something of a minimalist. I just feel like the highest ranking should be reserved precisely for places on the level of Yellowstone, Yosemite, Sequioa, Grand Canyon. Glacier is also up there but is unfortunately rapidly losing the feature that gave its namesake.

I'll just agree to disagree, as I don't mind other places getting the shine....but maaaaan, Glacier is easily top 5 in terms of beauty, and I've been to Yosemite, Yellowstone, Zion, etc

 

[Ron Mexico]

Some of you guys are so aggressively racist if makes me weep for the species.

Someone in another thread just said assaulting a Nazi was a hate crime.

Truly despicable people.

White people have no business making reaction videos
There, I said it

 

[Deorum]

There's an amazing road near Vernal, Ut... Hardly anyone knows about it. It goes North off HW 40 near Dinosaur National Park and literally cuts through the pass in a couple places. Fuck me, I wish I had pictures now. Just a narrow cut in the rock next to a small river. Barely squeeze through.

But after you get through the pass, it dumps in the plains of Wyoming, near the Green River. (This is the near the Tri-State Area, where Colorado/Wyoming/Utah meet).

I fucking love this terrian.

Anyway, it'll eventually bring you to Dutch John near Flaming Gorge Reseviour.

The Green River below the Dam has some of the best fishing I've seen. The water is so clear and you can literally see fish everywere. My brother was a fly fishing guide for years and we'd float the river a few times per year.

Spectacular, Scerpi.

I'll just agree to disagree, as I don't mind other places getting the shine....but maaaaan, Glacier is easily top 5 in terms of beauty, and I've been to Yosemite, Yellowstone, Zion, etc

I went to Glacier only once when I was really, really young; about half the age of the childhood family trip and itinerary I recommended to @Uncle Cool Dude earlier through the Badlands NP, Black Hills Forest, Mount Rushmore and then over to the climax of Yellowstone and Grand Teton in Wyoming. But yeah, it's damn pretty. I've yet to see the fantasy land granite cliffs, waterfalls, and valleys of Yosemite in person. I don't regret opting for Sequioa from being short on time.

Most crown jewel NPs have different attractions or features that make them unique -- Yellowstone is quite beautiful in its own right, but its claim to fame is really based around the supervolcano, possessing over half of the world's geothermal features and housing an abundance of top notch wildlife like bald eagles, gray wolves and grizzlies. I mean, Grand Teton down the road is more beautiful than Yellowstone, IMO. Is it a greater park overall? Hell No. The only thing I don't love about the latter is the crowds.

 

[Yehudim]

White people have no business making reaction videos
There, I said it

So true

 

[Deorum]

It's an absolute no brainer. It also gets you into anything "National" for example Lake Mead in Nevada because it's a National Recreation Area and Red Rock Canyon outside Vegas which is a National Conservation area.

Man, you have such an enviable jump off point for the truly elite tier national parks that aren't in Wyoming. I'm down in Phoenix, so it isn't that far off compared to a vast majority of the country but even the Grand Canyon is about equal distance to Vegas as it is AZ's capital.

 

[mb23100]

Man, you have such an enviable jump off point for the truly elite tier national parks that aren't in Wyoming. I'm down in Phoenix, so it isn't that far off compared to a vast majority of the country but even the Grand Canyon is about equal distance to Vegas as it is AZ's capital.

Yeah we go to Great Basin, Death Valley,Joshua Tree, Zion, Bryce and Grand Canyon at least once a year. Zion and Death Valley usually several times. Did Channel Islands for the first time last month and it was awesome.

 

[Deorum]

Yeah we go to Great Basin, Death Valley,Joshua Tree, Zion, Bryce and Grand Canyon at least once a year. Zion and Death Valley usually several times. Did Channel Islands for the first time last month and it was awesome.

That's the fuckin' life, so awesome. I nearly bumped your NP thread in the Berry, but the WR is my sub even if I don't care about politics anymore, or even really post on SD these days. I just went to Death Valley this July (intentionally), which is why I'm still so gassed up about it and national parks in general. The heat isn't a novelty to me, but I was actually curious to feel something even more extreme than Phoenix, and I damn well got it. Absolutely Surreal.

So, I did a predominantly auto and light walking tour of the primary spots like Badwater Basin, Devil's Golf Course, Natural Bridge, Artists Drive, Zabriskie Point, Dante's View, and the Mesquite Sand Dunes. But there wasn't much in the form of (realistic) camping or hiking opportunities, especially since I had my young son with me. So the next trip is going to be this fall or winter if the Hurricane Hillary run-off doesn't leave long-standing devastation in its wake this weekend. I'm also definitely going to have to rent a jeep or something with 4x4 high clearance when I get into Furnace Creek so I can actually get out to the Racetrack, Eureka Dunes, and Telescope Peak trail.

This place will straight up kill you and doesn't give a single fuck what you think. It isn't striving for beauty (which it still absolutely is in spades) like these other parks around the nation, it's a certified Badass. The Baddest MF of the NPS. I love it to death.

 

[mb23100]

That's the fuckin' life, so awesome. I nearly bumped your NP thread in the Berry, but the WR is my sub even if I don't care about politics anymore, or even really post on SD these days. I just went to Death Valley this July (intentionally), which is why I'm still so gassed up about it and national parks in general. The heat isn't a novelty to me, but I was actually curious to feel something even more extreme than Phoenix, and I damn well got it. Absolutely Surreal.

So, I did a predominantly auto and light walking tour of the primary spots like Badwater Basin, Devil's Golf Course, Natural Bridge, Artists Drive, Zabriskie Point, Dante's View, and the Mesquite Sand Dunes. But there wasn't much in the form of (realistic) camping or hiking opportunities, especially since I had my young son with me. So the next trip is going to be this fall or winter if the Hurricane Hillary run-off doesn't leave long-standing devastation in its wake this weekend. I'm also definitely going to have to rent a jeep or something with 4x4 high clearance when I get into Furnace Creek so I can actually get out to the Racetrack, Eureka Dunes, and Telescope Peak trail.

This place will straight up kill you and doesn't give a single fuck what you think. It isn't striving for beauty (which it still absolutely is in spades) like these other parks around the nation, it's a certified Badass. The Baddest MF of the NPS. I love it to death.

Nice. May I recommend Ubehebe crater as well. I hiked to the bottom last time I went. It's tough but really cool.

Be warned the road to the racetrack is ROUGH especially after a rain. I tried it in an all wheel drive Suv and had to turn around. You need a pretty serious off road vehicle to make it.

 

[Deorum]

Nice. May I recommend Ubehebe crater as well. I hiked to the bottom last time I went. It's tough but really cool.

Be warned the road to the racetrack is ROUGH especially after a rain. I tried it in an all wheel drive Suv and had to turn around. You need a pretty serious off road vehicle to make it.

Thanks bud, and yeah I've heard the road to get there is absolutely notorious. Also speaking of off-road, this sort of stuff really pisses me off. They ought to up the ante to $75,000 and six years in federal prison. Fuck these shitheads.

 

[Deorum]

The infrastructure backlog is MASSIVE and the pay and living conditions for rangers frankly, sucks. I feel like people in this country would be cool with literally doubling the budget of the NPS considering how popular the parks are (3.5 billion to 7) and many of these problems would disappear.

The most favorable agency in the country.

 

[cmw43]

One solution is to give like half off or even free admission to people of color to help make the numbers more fair.

as for the workers, they could do something like the "Rooney Rule" in the NFL. Anytime their is a job opening, they would be required to interview a minority first

75% of the parks are free.

Over in the UK all national parks are free but you still don't get many minorities interested in visiting. I guess it's a cultural thing.

 

[Deorum]

No sweat, brah. I'm loving all the pics you're putting in this thread. Good to have you back!

Have you even ever really been to the western US?

If not, you're going to be fucking baffled by the scale and size of it, like how far some of the distances are from point A to point B. Wyoming alone is as big as New York and Pennsylvania combined, yet barely cracks the top ten in total land area among American states. Fortunately, aside from the ultra-lib coastal cities, the population density is virtually nothing compared to what you're accustomed to up there.

The tentative (?) trip nationwide tour you've got in mind is colossal, and I'm so excited for you to experience and see some of the places that I've gotten to and likely a good handful that I still haven't. I think you should at least start reading, planning, and preparing seriously for it as soon as possible tbh, if you haven't already. I know you fairly well (internet forum-wise), but I couldn't even guess which ones you'll most take to and be taken aback by.

 

[Deorum]

75% of the parks are free.

Over in the UK all national parks are free but you still don't get many minorities interested in visiting. I guess it's a cultural thing.

I think it's fantastic that 'minorities' never visit the parks (allegedly), and l wish millions of other white people followed suit tbh. I don't even know when I'll realistically get over to Yosemite -- It was John Muir's favorite place in the world and may well be the 'most beautiful park' in America albeit isn't particularly geologically extreme, relevant, or unique on a global scale; but the place is constantly slammed to major detriment, and even its most acclaimed waterfall is apparently seasonal (wat).

In any case, the National Park Service is too underfunded and understaffed to deal with it, the real crisis here. Granted, parks that Yosemite is often put on par with such as the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone (including as a UNESCO "world heritage site") both get major traffic as well. But the former is in my state of residence, only 10% of its annual visitors see it from the North Rim, and I've got my own spots scoped on the more accessible and crowded South.

 

[jk7707]

I think it's fantastic that 'minorities' never visit the parks (allegedly), and l wish millions of other white people followed suit tbh. I don't even know when I'll realistically get over to Yosemite -- It was John Muir's favorite place in the world and may well be the 'most beautiful park' in America albeit isn't particularly geologically extreme, relevant, or unique on a global scale; but the place is constantly slammed to major detriment, and even its most acclaimed waterfall is apparently seasonal (wat).

In any case, the National Park Service is too underfunded and understaffed to deal with it, the real crisis here. Granted, parks that Yosemite is often put on par with such as the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone (including as a UNESCO "world heritage site") both get major traffic as well. But the former is in my state of residence, only 10% of its annual visitors see it from the North Rim, and I've got my own spots scoped on the more accessible and crowded South.

You should visit Yosemite. It's great in the late fall (if the state isn't in fire) and it is plenty geologically extreme. El Capitan is the tallest exposed granite face on the planet and the scenery created by these huge pieces of granite jutting up from the ground is breathtaking.

 

[I Am Legion]

It is so funny the narrative is so different from one place to another. At this point because of the massive migrants being shipped here, we only use our town parks and beaches where you need to be a resident. All of the State and National Park are filled with Migrants. By me it's mostly Mexicans and Central Americans in the State Parks. Very strong cultures, so unless you share their culture, the atmosphere is not always your cup of tea. They do not read signs or follow the rules, so even in no radio zones and no alcohol parks, that is out the window. A perfect example Latin Music will blare incessantly with no regard to others. And people will go in the water in street clothes. Then they will use the public rinse off showers to take fully naked showers, and not just the little kids. Fat grandmas up in there. It is just a different culture. They do not mean others harm. But they also do not respect local laws and customs. I can't imagine going to El Salvador and taking over a park.

 

[CrimsomSky]

Id like to visit a few American parks someday. I’ve read recently that camping there is getting dangerous because junkies roam camp sites to assault and steal to pay for drugs. Is it that bad?

 

[CrimsomSky]

So why not just designate - or leave them - as national monuments? They'd still be federally protected and preserved under the purview of @jk7707 I do have extremely high standards and am something of a minimalist. I

pics of twinks for evaluation. That aside I believe America have the most beautiful collection of parks in the world in one country.

 

[jk7707]

Id like to visit a few American parks someday. I’ve read recently that camping there is getting dangerous because junkies roam camp sites to assault and steal to pay for drugs. Is it that bad?

No.

 

[Deorum]

I can't imagine going to El Salvador and taking over a park.

Ecuador.

Seize Control of the Galápagos.