It's always the hype. Whatever the mass currently likes is in short supply - you live a lot easier not following the trends. (Although it should be said that there is an increasing monetization of the intentional opposition of the trend - aka "Hipster" - as well, so this has supply issues as well.)
At 19:52, the sign that should've appeared on the screen might say this: You are entering Maine's largest wilderness - Your safety is your responsibility - Set a turn around time and stick to it - Your destination is your safe return to the trailhead - Rescuers can be many hours in arriving
I work at a state park. The amount of people coming and destroying the beautiful landscape really took all of my faith in humanity as being good natured and shoved it down the drain. Shit on rocks. Crazy amounts of trash in camp sites. KAYAKERS ATTACKING LOONS. One time I was going to clean up a campsite before campers arrived, and the previous campers were packing up. They had just had a water balloon fight. A little kid in the family asked his mom "Mommy, why don't we clean up the balloons?" His mom shushed him and quietly told him not to say that in front of me. People screamed at me and other staff for telling them that dogs were not allowed in the park. Fights. Drugs. Used needles. When pigs walk free, they make the world their pig pen.
I'm so sad when I read your comment. In Germany it doesn't seem that bad yet, but the Alps around Munich are also flooded by unprepared folks. We have the additional problem that naive hikers start dangerous or difficult trails (even via ferratas) with no equipment. But then they get stuck and can call a helicopter "for free" if they have a membership card of the Alpenverein. This was meant for emergencies, but has now become the easy way out if one gets tired, twists an anckle or simply started too late and got into a storm or darkness. At least I hope they learn from their failures. But the cases that you describe are just beyond... So sad... But please keep on for the few good folks and hopefully they will limit access to some sites or people have to register with their credit card and only get the deposit back once the ranger checked the site....
"Water Balloon Fight" that's one I also have picked up after. also birthday parties at campsites. the burst balloons create tiny shreds of rubber & plastic that wash into the lakes, rivers, seas .. everyday when we camp & explore .. we take garbage bags & gloves w/us .. WHY go into woods & nature TO POLUTE ??
People litter and don't care how their actions impact other people and society as a whole. That kind of attitude permiates all aspects of American culture.
I’m sorry but pigs are better than humans. They are smart, sassy and clean. And they would never destroy nature like humans would. Not sure why ppl always use pigs so negatively.
I live in Moab. I grew up here for the last 30 years. I now manage my family's hotel. I am impressed with how well you tackled all of the problems there are of being a local here, with the ever-growing number of tourists. They have become the necessary evil of anyone trying to live here. I get asked all the time "where do the locals go to eat, hike, hangout in town". The answer is locals do not have any places of their own. Everything has been discovered and shared with tourists, restaurants only cater to them and charge ridiculously high prices. Even our local grocery stores are so overcrowded that we have to push our ways to get our marked-up items and a trip to the grocery store takes 2 infuriating hours. Millcreek that you showed on a map used to be a watering hole that only the locals knew about. It was only within the last 10 years that we saw tourists going there as well. Now there is a line a mile long to share the trail and get to the water. It is true that without tourism there would be no Moab but Moab is now unlivable for most people that have been here for a long time or are just trying to move here and work.
I grew up in Utah so I can sympathize. I live in California now and one thing that comes to mind is that some major tourist destinations and area amenities around them charge less if you're a California resident. I don't know these days how many business owners exist in Moab, but it might be worth trying to bring up the idea of a cooperation that people who live in Moab get a discount at the local restaurants and grocers? Something like you can voluntarily show your ID at checkout and get a discount so that you aren't playing tourist rates for basic goods in your own town. It won't fix the other problems, of course, but maybe it can ease the price pains for the locals. Probably won't hurt that much either if most your sales are going to tourists.
That's a really good point about the catch of telling tourists where the locals eat. It's something that lots of famous foodies and TV personality travelers promote. It is well-meaning, but now that you bring that up, that sounds like a nightmare!
Leave No Trace (LNT) ethic should be mandatory curriculum in elementary/high schools. The 7 principles fit on an index card. Going through an online primer could be integrated into camping reservation or backcountry permit systems and it costs nothing. You can't hope to completely perfectly manage every visitor but you can make sure they've all been given the same guiding information.
In Norway, the "mountain safety rules" are printed on every chocolate bar of the most popular brand. (Then it's even more annoying to find those very packages lying around on hiking trails... fortunately that happens rarely, Norwegians generally are good at Leave No Trace.)
plenty of people live in urban areas and don't go to parks. this is a job for parents, not schools. they've got enough to do teaching math, history, science and all the rest.
I'm from Manitoba, Canada, and every summer, me and my buddies canoe out to one of our thousands of backcountry lakes that are not road assessable. The experience of being completely in the wilderness is so incredibly surreal, and I consider myself very fortunate to have that opportunity.
im in Nova Scotia. There are hundreds of beaches but a handful with easy access and good photo opportunities are destroying neighbourhoods. I hike into the woods often. Im terrified that recreational hunting and fishing is going to manicure the nature i enjoy.... well that or it burns down.
Canada is amazing in terms of wilderness and really isn't experiencing near the same issues that the states are in terms of overcrowding. Definitely helps that the entire country is near the size of Russia with only the population of California. As an American who loves the outdoors, I'm jealous of the vast tracks of hundred of thousands of kilometers of wide open wilderness that Canada has. Nowhere I've ever been compares besides Alaska and I've thoroughly enjoyed the time I've spent in the Canadian wilderness.
This is purely an observation I've made after exploring some parks this year, a lot of people visiting right now are by no means outdoorsy people, or not at all versed in moderate to advanced level hiking, sure some of the picturesque locales I've seen have been crowded, but as soon as you delve into an actually challenging section few will participate and sweet solitude can be found
This has been my observation as well. We just got back with my wife from trips to Grand Teton and Yellowstone and both places were really crowded in the immediate areas of the scenic overlooks by the roads/parking lots, but as soon as you start hiking and you’re more than 5 min walk from the parking lot area or the road there were barely any people.
@@micahwilliams1826Yeah, no shit, I'm not so entirely devoid of self awareness to disregard this, nor am I audacious enough to claim to have a solution; this is simply an observation I've made. Also... * a part, not apart
It destroyed the place where I grew up and lived. The price on our family home increased so much that my elderly parents thought they were doing a great thing by selling it for $850,000.00. They did not discuss this with me or my sister. They got screwed and it is so depressing. The house is now an Airbnb that I cannot comfortably afford to stay in with my children. It is heartbreaking and the island that holds my best memories is now a disgusting tourist trap.
@@kombuchas4684 they were renting the house through a vacation rental company on Tybee. The manager/owner introduced them to a “sweet couple” that were planning on making it their family home. Neither my sister nor myself were in a position to live there permanently due to work, school, etc. I mean, once my graduated I was hoping to live there but..I digress. The couple were actually people that renovate houses and then rent them as Airbnbs. So they were fed a crock of shit and yes, they could have received 1.5 million on the lot alone. They accepted way below what they should’ve and they didn’t consider what it would do when it was time to file their income taxes. It has been a total shit show.
This is happening in Canada too. My favourite way to explore is getting lost and finding new spots that are a bit more remote , but people are so disrespectful. The rule is always pack out what you pack in, people !!
There is a lot of good wilderness in Canada, so there should always be places that can be found with less people around. More unique places like Banff or Lake Louise are probably gonna be victims of overcrowding, but if you're a fan of paddling, the amount of great canoeing lakes with campgrounds should be pretty immune to overcrowding all of them.
@@reaganharder1480 I agree ! There is lots of great places to explore , and PLENTY of “crown” or “public” land. As long as it’s not a national park or private property, you can camp for 14 days on it
@@reaganharder1480I work the oilfield just east of the parks and a lot of the roads are going be closed. The amount of access to the crown land via logging and oilfield roads is going to decrease to the general public. I notice new gates almost daily. Not only that but the general public really messed the back roads up during the wild fires. 99% of them were traveling on a radio controlled road with a radio which is stupidly dangerous. The unscheduled traffic also increased the rate in which the road degrades.
I lived and worked in Yellowstone National Park doing wildlife research for a summer in 2016. This is 100% accurate. You get all the drawbacks of living in a remote area with lots of big city problems like traffic, noise, disease, etc. It's still true though that as soon as you get on any non-major trail, these problems usually go away. However, when the major solar eclipse occurred it was like a nearly literal apocalypse where you couldn't go anywhere for the 3 days around it due to traffic. There's very little these parks can do to accommodate this increasing tide of people. I don't see any solution other than limiting access to tourists.
Those disgusting urbanite bug people need to get back in their pods. They don't deserve nature. Only those of us who live there deserve it. And no, building a summer-home-mcmansion is NOT living there. Stay in your hive cities. You deserve them.
I’ve been there three times and every second of looking at a traffic jam kills everything. People are extremely disrespectful to this amazing unique place, because it’s become a ho hum regular place to Americans, where they don’t even need to camp. People getting smashed, littering, stupid kids throwing things into geysers, it’s absolutely crushing.
Yeah because forest service rangers and workers at these parks are lazy and corrupt. Forest service gets tons of Money but they can't even maintain trails and roads.
My girlfriend and I went on one of our earliest dates to Acadia... in March. There was nobody there, clear roads, empty rocky beaches, and that made it 100% better than visiting in the summer. We watched the sunset from the top of desert mountain literally alone. If the parks encouraged people to visit more in the off-season, and promote the benefits of the park year round they would even out their visitation. All these parks have something to offer year round but visitation is concentrated on 4-5 summer months.
That's what confuses me. With more remote work, we should see MORE visitation in off seasons, it seems the opposite is happening instead. If you can work remotely, that means you can go cool places in April or November and be completely alone. Why wouldn't you want to do that?
I would just like to point out that families with school-age children are forced to only take trips during official school breaks. Attendance policies have now gotten so strict that you can be expelled for missing only 14 days of class in a school year.
As someone who lives in Utah, participated in the scouting program when young, and still loves cycling, it's because the dangers of the outdoors are limited in those few months compared to the rest. one of the problems they are trying to deal with is a lack of resources, now imagine have more people going during the times they would have to spend more resources getting to people needing to be rescued. And as the narrator pointed out, they already have a tough time preparing people for the safer times, they would have to spend even more preparing people for the off season. One solution I can see is for more people to learn more, prepare more, and not treat nature unseriously, but telling a sixteen yr old that has never worked. It's why I'm thankful for my time in the scouts, as it exposed me to all the things I needed to know, but didn't have the life experience to understand.
This all reminds me of the poppy feild incident in California. Groups of people addicted to social media kept stomping and crushing flowers just for pictures to their Instagram or something. The flowers started dying out because of it. So the local authorities had to step in and ban people. We really can't have nice things out here.
I live north of NYC. All the city folk come up to the mountains and ruin everything. It's horrible. We definitely need a cap on how many out-of-town people can be up here.
@@0783155I have tulip fields where I live, but they usually have paths through them in rows? Or do people just step off the paths anyways??? Or are they like private farms not to be stepped in at all?
One factor is when everybody is working 40+ hours a week, they don't have time to research and explore. So they have to go with options that are widely recommended for outdoor locations to not waste the time they don't have available.
Full time work takes up about 9-12 hours of any person’s day. The rest of the day is spent either doing housework or doing one thing outside. There’s too little time in the day
Add to that the absurd fact that completely undeveloped land can still be considered "private property". The very idea that someone could go "hey, you can't go into this forest because I have a piece of paper saying I own it" is laughable to me living in a right-to-roam country, but it's sadly the reality in most of the world.
Living in Lake Tahoe for the past 18 years, I’ve seen a clear distinction between pre and post Instagram Tahoe. There used to be certain beaches and trails that only locals and the most adventurous visitors would ever see, but ever since social media began blowing up every hidden gem there have been more people in more places. In some aspects it’s nice that more people are gaining an appreciation for the natural environment, yet there are so many disrespectful people who are now coming up just to boost their social media profiles that negatively impact our community and environment here. It’s important that we consider the changing uses and impacts on our natural resources so that we are able to adequately manage and preserve our natural resource assets for future generations to experience.
When someone comes to "boost their social media profile", how could that possibly "hurt the community"? Please explain that. Otherwise, like many others on here whining, you are just mad that someone else had the audacity to enjoy something that you also enjoy. Worse yet, they _dare_ try to enjoy a spot that is less crowded!?!? It's amazing how many comments there are like this on this video, and literally none of you see the glaring irony and downright hypocrisy.
@@Well_Earned_Siesta Horrible traffic, skyrocketing rent for locals due to long term rentals being turned into airbnbs, more noise and trash due to inconsiderate off roaders and tourists. Tourists have been filmed damaging rock formations that are thousands of years old. Yeah you're definitely one of THOSE people. Only focused on yourself and getting your IG pic and the locals that actually live there be damned. 🙄🤡 The video itself clearly refuted your sad argument.
@@Well_Earned_Siesta the classic me me me attitude everybody comes to expect from tourists who must consume and devour everything they come into contact with. There is a serious problem in Tahoe of overdevelopment, pollution of the lakes and watersheds, and destruction of forest land, wilderness and fragile ecosystems. For example, Squaw keeps pushing to build water parks, beaches get trashed with everybody's plastic and trash, snoparks and winter recreation areas are littered with broken plastic sleds and pollutants from cars are going into the lake. Overtourism and overloving places is a serious issue and deciding who gets to visit said places is a complicated issue but it is an issue nonetheless. Don't just hand wave legitimate issues just because you don't like to hear that you're destroying these places. In my opinion, there needs to be a serious push for people to be recreating more locally and traveling to recreate much much less.
@@thegrizzly52 your "me me me" attitude made you commit to living there so you can consume the beauty for yourself, without limit. You are literally part of the "too many people" problem that you are complaining about, and you refuse to see it
This reminds me of a video I saw recently about how the location of the largest redwoods needed to be hidden because of all the plastic litter that was accumulating around them. Unfortunately the locations were discovered, disseminated online, and the degradation of the oldest redwoods now continues by individuals who should know better.
Clearly, the solution is decoy redwoods. Disseminate information that there's a huge redwood at some location, but when they get there, all they find is a cardboard cutout of a redwood. It's a flawless plan and I will not be accepting feedback.
Ha! I remember going on the Monterey "scenic seaside" road... got more of a glimpse of multimillion dollar mansions, even saw some in construction, backhoes tearing up the vegetation to make way for someones gigantic vaction home they visit once a year. Humans are doomed to destroy this place... the only thing you can do to save it is to not create more humans
I got sick in late 2019, and was bed ridden through late 2021. Basically, I missed out on what Covid did to our culture. After recovering, I set out across the U.S to experience the things I thought I never would. I didn’t go see the outdoors because I was bored, looking for something to do. I went outdoors because I once thought I never could again. I saw the national parks because just months prior, it was a pipe dream. The amount of tourists that had never walked half a mile before was baffling. The trash disheartening. The disrespect, to the land, appalling. I hate that these places are starting to limit admission, but I understand why. I do admittedly feel slighted. I came the outdoors to celebrate my return to life. I came to the outdoors to see things that my health had once prevented. I came to do things and conquer more that few have in spite of my condition. Yet here I am at a trailhead with Karen and her cheeseburger complaining and lecturing kids playing on the rocks that they’ll get hurt. It’s disheartening.
So it’s wrong to go outside if you’re bored? Only certain people should have the chance to enjoy things? I’m guessing you prefer fat people stick to the food court and out of your eyeline. God forbid they should try to exercise and improve their health too 🙄
At 19:55, I think this is the sign he’s talking about. YOU ARE ENTERING MAINE’S LARGEST WILDERNESS - your safety is your responsibility - set a turn around time and stick to it - your destination is your safe return to the trailhead - rescue can be many hours in arriving
I’m currently reading Edward Abbey’s “Dersert Solitaire” and his chapter *Industrial Tourism* made me want to become an activist. One of his solutions to overcrowding national parks is to stop paving roads all the way up to the sights of interest. Make people hike, bike, or horseback.
Same! Read it two years ago during a long stint in the desert southwest. It's amazing how spot on insightful he was. Just incredible. I was so inspired by that book I now have a small framed print on my wall I made of Abbey with a quote of his on it.
Yup, I admire the gates of the arctic for that. Alot of these complaints are annoying for that reason. "OH there's too many people hiking half dome and we have to permit it for their safety" kinda also sounds like "we put chains here so more people can do it and we can make more money"
I've lived in a van for 8 years and the pandemic seemed to be a tipping point for outdoor overcrowding. Places where I used to camp for weeks without seeing another human are now crowded. I know I can't be mad; I'm out there too. But when people poop on the surface and leave their TP strewn around, or just garbage, or don't practice fire safety... White. Hot. Rage. 🤬
I feel you! In southern Germany the situation is very similar. Nature is being degraded to an adult playground and part of the obscene consumerism. Mountain trips feel sometimes worse than a walk through your neighborhood, as you have to greet any random passerby with "Servus", when you just wanted an amazing view, fresh air and some sense of grounding in the great outdoors 🥳
I know a know a man in Eastern New Mexico and he tells me when he heads off to the mountains he has to deal with the same problems you guys have to deal with. He said it's better to camp in the winter when nobody is around.
My grandparents owned a Mercantile in Hurricane, Utah, “ gateway to Zion”. Us grandkids spent many summers in red rock country. My Dad would drive us up to the tunnel in Zion, let us kids out at one end, drive to the other end to read the paper and wait. We would run like maniacs the length of the tunnel, sit in the windows, play adventure games with each other , never saw a single car, person, tourist over those two three hours. This was in the 60s. Now, as a grown adult I don’t go back to my childhood/adolescent haunts. It grieves me so to see Southern Utah destroyed by too much of too much.
I have so many thoughts about this. A lot of them come back to just making things nicer closer to home. More small local parks, trails and campgrounds. More greenspace and plants in cities. More spaces where people can hang out for free. I don't want limiting access to be the go to way of protecting an environment. I think we should just make those places feel less appealing by making the places we already are more appealing. Then folk that just want a taste have more options and people that want a fuller experience don't have increased barriers to deal with. There should be more ways to dealing with feelings of isolation and disconnectedness than overwhelming a handful of large parks.
A big problem is that access to nature is already so limited in most places, forcing people to drive for hours to these sanctioned nature parks. The idea that someone can just own forest and prevent people from going there is ridiculous to those of us from right-to-roam countries, but it's a reality in places like the US. In my country, the law is basically that if you're not walking on tarmac, concrete or on a lawn, it's pretty much guaranteed that you're allowed to be where you are regardless of who the land owner is. I think that should be the rule everywhere.
Agreed but the parks near me have been taking over by latino people blasting music in Spanish over the last decade, sometimes with multiple boom boxes blasting over eachother.. No one enforces any noise rules because "racist." Ironically nothing will drive xenophobia more than giving them a legitimate reason to not like people (in this case, noise pollution that is supposedly OK if some people do it. I 100% know this is why white people go outside the city or even suburbs for recreation, but they're afraid to say it. Put another way, we need to make shit nice and be honest about what makes it not nice at times
@@cupriferouscatalyst3708Where exactly do you think this is the case in the US? Yes, there is lots of private property and no right to roam. There are also plenty of decent county parks in almost every county I’ve ever visited. (I say “almost” because I didn’t look for parks when I was younger.) Where can one live that’s not within reach of a park in under an hour’s drive?
Je suis d’accord avec vous; si on offrait la beauté et la serenité autour de nos habitations on n’aurait pas l’idée ni l’envie de s’en éloigner😊 . Peut être la raréfaction des carburants réglera ce problème et la civilisation des loisirs ne pourra plus gangréner la nature . Sans compter l’énorme énergie dilapidée par les Data des selfies et des réseaux sociaux augmentant l’effet de serre😢
We have that kind of music blasting at our lake now in MT and it hurt my ears so much that I wrote to the county sheriff later but never heard back. @@istvanpraha
As a Utah native I feel I can comment on this. There are thousands of trails and camping spots that receive no attention. Its definitely a problem of the 20% most accessible places receive 80% of the attention since they're so easy to reach. Even in Zion NP if you hike a bit further past Angels Landing into the wilderness there's an immediate drop in the number of hikers but the scenery is just as spectacular. Only difference is the trail isn't paved anymore, and it take more effort to reach. So if you want to avoid the crowds now it just takes a higher level of planning and physical fitness but it can be done, even in the most popular national parks.
Zion definitely has a lot of people, but almost entirely in the main canyon. I've found it to be true as well, although I wouldn't say I'm a Utah native. I've only been living here a year.
Agreed, but that's just inside parks. The main issue for locals is the over crowding on the highways, small towns, the trampling of fragile desert soils when van campers think they need a virgin spot, the thousands of firepits on blm, etc, etc.
These parks are getting loved to death. 40 years ago the entrance around Denali National Park was undeveloped and now in the summer it is a small town with multiple large lodging facilities and all the tourist shops and restaurants. The same even holds true for even going off road to rivers and lakes. Camping spots are getting harder to find and someone always leaves their trash in the fire pit. This summer over 1 million tourists are expected in Alaska which makes it hard for locals to even find campsites on weekends.
This is a prime example of why bringing 1 million illegals into our country every single year is crippling our system. You can see how a simple national park is getting destroyed, now look at that at a national scale and that's what taxpayers, farmers, and infrastructure jobs are having to face.
I spent the first 40 years of my life in Alaska. It’s insane how much it’s blown up in the summer. The drive down south to the kenai during fishing season is constant bumper to bumper with stoppages from constant road construction. Seward with the cruise ships. Denali National park is a literal town now. I’ve watched it change so much.
Living in a rural area that butts up next to national forest, life has become a lot less pleasant. Starting in 2020 I noticed a lot of our local swimming holes were appearing on lists of places you could escape the city to. I tried going out to them and they had no parking and far more people than I have ever seen by a large margin. Trash has been an issue, and picking up litter from out of town food joints is a guarantee on the weekends. The increase in traffic unfamiliar with our roads (built along old Indian walking trails so very very curvy) means we end up with convoys fifteen vehicles deep or more running ten below the speed limit for miles. It's getting harder and harder to be an understanding and respectful person when I see the nonchalant and disrespectful attitude people have for my home.
It feels like so many people are engaging in tourism in a such shallow way lately - and not just national parks. It’s to take an obnoxious amount of pictures, check a box, gamify the experience, or tell a story later, without actually appreciating the surroundings or having respect for them in the moment.
Uh that's pretty much the definition of a tourist, which is why tourists are hated by the residents of popular outdoor destinations and historical cities alike. The locals love the money but despise the shallow people.
This is a weird thing to complain about. While i hate waiting 2hrs to go mountain biking in my own city due to long lines. I've also taken vacations overseas, taken a few pictures and went home. Idk what to tell ya, its tourism and its not going to change.
Ya know how on dating apps everyone "loves" traveling. But I think people just like to show off where they have been as a status thing. When is the last time you really just went to a place to "be" there? Whelp, you can't, because EVERYTHING is commodified these days. It fucking sucks.
This seems to have got a lot worse in the UK since the pandemic - after the restrictions were lifted, loads of nature spots (and even just general towns / cities) seemed to be swamped with bad behaviour and loads more people than pre-pandemic. Really weird.
That's because the people who truly loved nature were already outside. There has been a new massive influx of people outdoors, and way too many of them are entitled and poorly behaved.
@@GrayDogNowIDKWhen my family went to Yellowstone some years ago, a kid just casually left the boardwalk, walked up behind a Bison, and took a picture of its behind with his 3DS. The lack of basic common sense, self preservation, and respect for nature among many of these visitors is appalling.
I had a work assignment in Moab a week ago and I was shocked. Shocked. The last time I was in Moab was roughly 25 years ago. I expected the town to be bigger, but it’s ridiculous. I was blown away by all the “beautiful people” behaving poorly. The downtown area was as congested as downtown Las Vegas
Yes very true! Was also in Moab a few times in the mid-nineties. I was also there in 2020 right as Covid hit and again last month. It is a totally different place. I call it the Disney Land for outdoorsy people, I met people from all over the country. A couple of decades ago you could roll into town, sleep anywhere for free, hardly see anyone on trails, get free water, borrow tools, shower in rolling shower units(or the bike shop). It was a chore to find a decent place to eat out. Not anymore, but…I don’t see it as a bad thing. It’s a town that knows it’s purpose and is thriving because of it. It is a well taken care of area and just as fun if not more fun then 25 years ago. With the exception of Arches I can still be on trails that are not overcrowded, disperse camp with no one around and do what I want without fees and permits. Not to forget the fact that Moab does have slow seasons and Arches was crowded when I went there two decades ago.
Wow. I went there mid 90s too. It was wild to be so isolated and how small the dusty town was. Probably have the same feelings as you though if I went back with my family.
I have been backpacking since I was a little kid. I was 4 or 5 my first trip in Montana. Through the years, I've noticed so many changes as everyone and their dogs and moms hit the trails. It's great to see people outdoors enjoying nature, but so many people now have so little respect for it, are woefully unequipped, and have no inkling of trail etiquette. I just took my daughter on her first backpacking trip, a short one since she's only 6. Shorter hikes mean easier access, so it's quite popular. Someone literally shit in our campsite and left their toilet paper and shit unburied just a few feet away from our tents. People were drinking heavily and had fireworks popping off until late into the night. For the most part, it was still great, but with some very disrespectful elements. Why go into nature and blow up fireworks? What's the point? I've also seen people just casually strolling up hikes with 4000 foot elevation gain, with like a Starbucks coffee and nothing else-- no water, no emergency provisions, no understanding of what 4000 feet gain in 5 miles really means... I've given countless people sunsceen or bug spray (or both) when I've seen them sitting miserable on the side of the trail in yoga pants the bugs bite right through. It's not a fashion show, y'all; it's bloody nature, and it'll bite back.
I love this.. even though it's negligent on their behalf... I live in Montana and have raised my 5 kids in the woods and trails. The mountains teach you about life and sometimes those lessons are rough 😂
Yea. As a montana resident it has changed alot. I have yo find areas far from anywhere to get a camp ground without a beer bottle. And 4000 in 5 sucks. And when i see someone go up a trail with a 2000ft gain in half a mile i just know they will look at it and turn back. And hooefully not try
Yeah I saw some people on my last visit to Shenandoah strolling up to a hike with no water or anything and I always carry emergency gear. It was a difficult hike, too. I’m not sure they would have made it back without any gear to be honest.
Ahahaha you give them supplies. That’s crazy. I backpack all over Colorado and constantly see unprepared people. I would never dream of helping them out. If you don’t prepare and plan for the outdoors you don’t need to be out there. If you die from dehydration cause you didn’t bring water that’s natural selection… who the hell goes on a strenuous activity and doesn’t bring water….. also, I had to learn how to move and be out in wilderness by trial and error. No one helped me I slowly learned hard lessons and how to prepare better.
Social media is probably responsible for much of this. If people couldn't post the selfie of themselves at these places on Instagram or Facebook, then these parks would have far fewer visitors.
Last year we did the Devil's Bridge Hike in Sedona, AZ, and I don't think I've ever seen so much dangerous trail behavior before. People were filming themselves running across it as fast as possible, performing precarious yoga poses right on the edge while shouting instructions to friends tasked with taking photos -- it was nuts. There were even arguments breaking out because people were demanding that others get out of their shots even though there wasn't enough space to stand anywhere else. Living in Maine, we at least have a lot of opportunities to experience solitude, but it's definitely busier here that it was when we first moved 10 years ago.
The whole issue is that honor and discipline are not important to people anymore. America is becoming a free for all country in all the worst ways. Also, the fact that the outdoors is now considered a finite resource blows my mind. Our species has spent its existence trying to escape the wilderness only to now crave it and covet it in modern times. Kinda nuts to think about.
We are turning our wilderness into home, when we should be making our home a little more wild. A philosophical statement in part, but in practice this means making sure densely populated areas, which serve as economic hot spots, are livable - we need to be more creative than the endless strip malls which define Los Angeles.
Perhaps people wouldn’t be nearly so desperate for a taste of “the great outdoors” if they didn’t spend their lives in hideous wastelands like suburbia.
A big reason for the massive increase in people during the summer months besides the weather is our public schools breaks/vacations. Families can’t take a week or two at any time other than summer. Also there are many parks that don’t get any attention at all. Just the super fantastic ones like Yellowstone and Yosemite. Also, the number of foreign tourists has increased dramatically over the years.
Very true, it is always best to avoid peak seasons. Also, let's not forget Pos-pandemic Revenge travelers. Tourist destinations have been crowded year round ever since.
Benefit of homeschooling/unschooling: the ability to visit the most popular parks in the shoulder season when it's actually enjoyable AND make it part of the lesson plan.
It’s because of social media. 25 years ago my wife’s aunt and uncle only heard about Angels Landing from another hiker that told them about it. Now people can see all sorts of awesome pictures and videos online and decide they want to go see it too
The overcrowding problem has hit on the local level. In my small NH town and in those surrounding, we have scenic spots along brooks, waterfalls and ponds. We have mountaintops with spectacular views. We have groves of old-growth trees and a variety of native flora. And we have wildlife! In recent years, parking to access these places has blocked our narrow roads. Trash litters the trails and graffiti adorns treetrunks. Some publicly-owned areas have had to be closed for months at a time, and the owners of private property have had to put up "no trespassing" signs. The places that I used to explore freely as a kid are becoming restricted because too many people, and especially too many thoughtless slobs, are overwhelming them.
I’m from NH! My small mountain town that my family has lived in for three generations is ruined- alllllll due to over tourism. Some of my favorite hidden gems have leaked online and now it’s too crowded. I miss when I was a kid and hiking was an escape. Now it’s just a tourist trap.
@@Favorites939 Another problem can be overdevelopment. Some of our scenic rural places - or access thereto - are now in somebody's back yard. That's why my 50 acres along a beautiful brook are under easement. After I'm gone it will remain as it is for the foreseeable future.
Ugh agree! I'm the only person I see walking around picking up litter. Even our north woods are busy now due to the solar eclipse bringing tourists north. It's hard to find solitude even in Umbagog this year. All the state parks were booked all July. We're too tiny for 1.4 million residents then adding all the tourists. Edit - even Pittsburg was bumping all summer. The only solitude I found was off the back roads on East Inlet. My point is I've never had to travel so far down the back roads just to find peace and solitude.
An amazing video, as a Chilean, I empathize with the subject as a lot of our national parks are starting to suffer from littering and overcrowding is now common in torres del Paine. It's nice that a lot of people get to know the beauty of this country, but it needs to be in a controlled way, nature needs a lot of space to function properly.
In Australia, we closed the climb on top of Uluru, not just because of cultural sensitivity, but also because a lot of people were pooping on top of the rock because it's such a long trek.
TdeP is amazing. One good thing about it being so popular though is that it acts as a honey pot that attracts all the people so meaning less people at other places. I did the Dientes circuit on Isla Navarino a few years ago and rest assured that most definitely is NOT crowded as it is difficult to get to and not on the tourist circuit (yet).
From somebody who spent the first 9 years of my life in Maine and then the next 10 years living 10 minutes outside of Joshua tree National park in southern ca, this hits home. Along with this is small towns being built up overnight and pricing out the locals. I saw on airbnb the other day a house in Joshua tree that was renting for $6500 a night, nice house but nothing magical. I remember my mom renting a 3 bedroom duplex 15 minutes away from that house just 8 years ago for $600 a month. People are overcrowding precious areas for sure. That’s why I’m planning on buy land way way up in Maine where it’s super rural.
This is even a problem at smaller forests/parks. I used to live right next to a state forest that is part of the Appalachian trail and over the years it got so busy, trails got dirty, locals got priced out of houses and could no longer shop at businesses that were now catering to, and towns really don't have the infrastructure to handle so many tourists at once. I don't want to gate keep nature because no one should, but so many people come up and have no idea how to treat the land. This video does a really good job explaining some of the issues people living in these areas face.
As a Moab local, this video is both accurate and terrifying. Terrifyingly accurate. The tourists have gotten so out of hand. During the increasingly longer tourist season, I have to plan my routes so i don't have to make a left-hand turn onto Main street. :'(
Couldn’t agree more. I’ve spent my entire life here in St. George and thought I would be here the rest of my life. I’m currently going through the process of selling and leaving my hometown because it’s been absolutely ruined by massive tourism influx. It’s completed priced out the locals like me and is a shell of its former self.
My family visited you guys. Drove for three days just to get turned around at the gate. I'm still bummed about it. I feel bad for you guys though. We don't have to worry about tourism where I live, lol.
As a Utah resident and lover of getting out and away, it frustrates me how busy key areas have gotten with "click and go" crowds who only want proof they were there. However, it has pushed me to find new lesser-known areas. Some of which require me to increase both my physical and survival skills. I truly treasure finding and taking the paths less known. All of that doesn't mean that don't wish I could visit the big 5 whenever I wanted, it means that I only go during the dead of winter when the single digit temps greatly reduces the number of tourists. I don't know what the right answer is, I just know how I deal with the problem.
Dude, the problem is us Utahns. Literally everyone takes weekends to go from Salt Lake to Zions park and Moab. We grew in population as a state like 1 million people in 10 years, a ton of them just from births.
@@SpaseGoast I live in a tourist town myself and though 99% of the year it's fine, the time when the major festival of my town rolls around is the time when California plates start parking in our driveway. That's pretty frustrating. Also, people just going to get a click and blocking traffic is pretty annoying when you are just trying to go about your day but I also understand that this fella is complaining about doing pretty much the same thing he does. But at least he has decided to adventure a bit and try to find other places
Yeah, my family are native Utahns and have watched the same rapid rise in attendance. It's telling how as soon as you go on a hike that's not crazy advertised, or one that's long, the number of people thin out significantly.
Happy to see this talked about! I'm an avid backpacker who went to Yosemite for the first time a few years ago. I was *disgusted* by the overcrowded campgrounds, buses, packed parking, trash, etc. I felt like I was at "6-flags over California"...not at a national park wilderness. The scenery was beautiful - But the number of people taking selfies on the trail totally ruined the experience.
As a native Californian who spends a lot of time outside all over the state I have come up with the opinion that there is no secluded wilderness left in the state(far north as an exception). The Coast, NP and State Park system, even the deserts and forget the Tahoe area….all full of people.
@@jeffreyriedenauer9052I actually adjusted that trip - and instead of spending the entirety at Yosemite I only spend a few days there to hit the highlights, then I spent the remaining 1.5 weeks exploring the Ansel Adams Wilderness next door. It was only about a 1-hour drive from Yosemite to the trailhead, was *just* as beautiful (if not more), and I didn't see another person the entire time I was out there!! Since then I've highly encouraged everyone to look for nearby Wilderness areas when looking for seclusion...you might want to check that one out as well!
It’s not just social media. Horseshoe Bend in Arizona used to get 4,000 visitors per year. Then Microsoft put it as their screensaver. Now they get over 2 million visitors per year. Same story for “the wave” in Kanab, Utah. Both because of screensavers.
Visiting from Europe, all of these parks are amazing. We visited Yosemite last year but were not aware of the visitor limited that was implemented there. That forced us to visit at 5.30 AM. In fact, in hindsight, that was such a blessing. When hiking the Upper Yosemite Trail, we encoutered about two people and one black bear :) When hiking down however, we encountered hundreds of people walking upwards in a line. I simply couldn't believe how many people were hiking this trail in one direction. It must have been such a mid experience for these people. I underline your statement that many people visiting, not only the same park but also the same highlights, is not right for the park. It does not only endanger the conservation of precious nature, it also decreases the overall experience for everyone involved (visitors, employees and nearby residents). I hope the USA can find a solution/opportunity for visitor spread!
Also sounds like there aren't enough trails in US parks. You could probably spread the people around, though that'd require even more resources to maintain... I guess it should just be acknowledged by the government and funding raised drastically for the park service?
Honestly, its sad that people will travel all the way to a National Park and plan to spend THE DAY. Acadia gets crazy overcrowded. But if you go at sunrise or later in the evening (not at places like Cadillac Mountain) you'll get to move freely and see some incredible beauty during golden hour...
@amunak_ I don't think it's a problem of bad infrastructure. The problem is all the people want to be in the same finite/small area at the exact same time. The only government funding I can think off, is spending on promotional campaigns for lesser known parks/forests to create more spread.
It’s not just social media. Horseshoe Bend in Arizona used to get 4,000 visitors per year. Then Microsoft put it as their screensaver. Now they get over 2 million visitors per year. Same story for “the wave” in Kanab, Utah. Both because of screensavers.
@@primarytrainer1 For me this is dissapointing. I discovered Antelope canyon not because of social media or the like, but because I was researching the Navajo and wanted to see places to visit once I could rent a car. Fast foward 8 years later, and im now able to (affordably) rent a car, but since then Ive found out that Antelope is now a place with a mob of tourists.
That's really the simmer point for all of this, isn't it? People so focused on going viral, doing anything they can to get the photo they want. I grew up on family land that butts up against a state park/protected wilderness area, and I could tell off rip who was there for nature and who was there for instagram. No respect for nature's power, most of them end up getting hurt somehow or getting lost. They ALWAYS left trash behind, sometimes enough to look like someone dumped household trash. So many of them would end up somewhere on our land after getting lost on the trails and then would have the audacity to get mad at us for telling them they were on private property and were on the wrong trail. I can't help but feel a truly huge amount of disgust for anyone that shares delicate natural sites online, because it always ends up destroyed in some way by the influx of people looking to get a little piece of the clout pie. I think the people who feel the need to share their hiking accomplishments online, especially those who live as 'trail influencers', are incredibly stupid and shortsighted, and I do not believe they love the outdoors the way they say they do. It's all about the attention and the money.
It obviously causes a lot of problems, but I wouldn’t say it’s all negative. It’s also helped connect a lot of people, especially those with disabilities who can’t get out as much or who belong to marginalized groups. And it’s help bring attention, and possibly solutions, to many issues that have normally gone under the radar.
My family has been climbing mt. Katahdin for 4+ generations, and my parents and grand parents comment each time that it's much more difficult now logistically than it was in the past. The only reason we can still make it is by reserving months in advance, and having a car with a state of Maine license plate. With that said, those rules do work. Every time we go the park is clean, and not over crowded.
Baxter does an amazing job putting conservation first. Other should take note. Even as a Massachusetts resident I don’t mind not being able to reserve a spot earlier since I know how important it is. Instead I go to some amazing places in western mass or New Hampshire
@@paulfinneran4244 What are some of your favorite spots in western mass? I recently moved just west of Worcester and I'm looking to get out for some weekend hiking.
The strict rules and regulations cull a lot of people who just want to summit for social media content. I’d say enact the same rules for every mountain with a summit above the treeline. Post a minimum gear list and turn away anyone who doesn’t have it. If that had been the case in Franconia Notch then Emily Sotelo would still be alive.
The vapid vanity of social media influence is a disease. I am from southern Utah and grew up a frequent visitor of public land, nowadays it’s so infested with campers, off roaders and people shooting guns that it has lost the solace it had just 5 or 6 years ago. Places I used to go to be alone are now infested with crowds and it’s nullifying everything I used to love about my home.
Same here in Maine! I can’t enjoy Acadia National Park in the summer or fall anymore since it’s swamped with tourists even in more remote parts of Mount Desert Island.
@@maggiebethturcotte4796 I always imagined Maine as being quiet and rural! I’m glad that people are getting out in nature, but to me fighting crowds for local tourist attractions decimates our ability to enjoy the nature alone. I don’t like that there is industry built around the hype of isolated spots. Definitely understand your grievance, I hope things improve!
@@Sam-xr8ne National and state parks are non profit public entities mostly paid for by tax dollars, same goes for state and federal protected land. Your comment makes zero sense.
Glad you mentioned the impact the increased volume in the parks has had on the search and rescue services. The problem with SAR services is especially bad in places like White Mountains National Forest, where people routinely underestimate the mountains and get into trouble with the unpredictable weather. I am 100% in favor of the reservation system both to limit the impact of people on these conservation areas and to force people to spend a little more time researching the location and knowing how to prepare.
Agreed. I’m a whitewater kayaker and see people who have zero experience on whitewater trying to run class 3 or 4 rivers. Inadequate kayaks, no PFD and no idea how to paddle in fast current. The big problem there is other kayakers are the first responders. We’re having to put ourselves into b dangerous situations trying to rescue people who have no business on that type of water.
Yeah, underestimating stuff is something a lot of people often do. For example, im my area (Southern Bavaria) we often have tourists from Northern Germany, especially from people near the sea. Hiking guides always go the beginner paths first with them, even if they are marathon runners, even if they complain. And guess what, they always get out of breath. Why? Because being multiple hundred metres above sea level instead of effectively at sea level is something their body just straight up isn't used to.
As someone who grew up in a small mountain town, stuff like this is why I usually avoid state parks in general. It's just so much more fun to go out into national forest where there aren't any tourists. You don't get charged for camping, and it's rare to ever see anybody. And if you're careful and know the biology of the area you're in, you can just wander through the woods. I really miss just going out with my friends, finding a nice spot with a campfire, and having a night of relaxing around the fire and hiking through the forest the next day
You understand the dangers of wilderness. City folk are idiots for the most part. I pray every day they don't find out about my local areas off the beaten path. They'll destroy it forever if they ever do
A nearly identical situation is happening in Yosemite right now. There are just too many people here and they are destroying the natural resources we want so badly to protect. Someone parked in a protected meadow the other day not only harming the plants (there are signs you're not even supposed to walk in the meadow) but they also parked on the helicopter landing spot in that meadow! How dangerous! Now there are shunts in place periodically through the day at the El Capitan Crossing essentially blocking off the east side of Yosemite Valley. You could wait hours to get into the park and then be turned around as soon as you get into the valley. It's nuts here right now! Passing through the town of Mariposa on your way here you'll see multiple signs trying to put a cap on how many airbnbs there are in the town. Employees have to drive an hour into the park every morning (a lot of the closer housing itaken by vacation rentals) and now that people are catching on to arrive early, the employees are stuck in the line too.
I’m a photographer in California and I love taking camping trips to shoot landscape photos, and friends have always asked me why I haven’t been to Yosemite, and telling me I gotta go see it. I always said it’s because there’s too many people, but I’ve never seen it first hand. I just took a trip to the Eastern Sierras two weeks ago and decided to take a detour to Yosemite. It was amazing up near Tioga Pass and Tuolumne, and I even did a backcountry night at Sunrise lakes and only passed a few people on the trail, but the next day I drove over an hour into Yosemite Valley and immediately turned around and left, didn’t even get out of my car because of all the people and traffic. You couldn’t even pull over to take a photo. The most beautiful views in the world aren’t worth dealing with crowds of tourists.
I don't understand how you can't park somewhere but you can fly a goddamn heli through and land there. Other than that the people who go into parks and trash them are not good people for sure
I do feel like this is a phase that's been instigated by the lockdowns, and it may not calm down for a few years still. Once people get the sight seeing out of their system they may do other things and hopefully towns and parks can finally relax a little. Larger cities should really put more focus on making nature (even if artificially placed) available to people within the limits of the city too, it could help.
Plenty of cities already do this. NYC has tons of parks, including ones that feel remote, just a bus or train ride away. Boston has the fens, SF has the Presidio, Seattle has Washington and Discovery parks, etc. The people who come out to nat'l parks to sight-see aren't city-dwellers, they're suburbanites who sprawled into precious agricultural and wild lands and now lack those kinds of natural wonders in their vicinity.
This kind of reminds me of what I've seen at Machu Picchu. Everything, from the train to Aguascalientes, to the bus up the mountain, to the site itself, needs an expensive booking, and bookings have to be made well in advance. And this is all necessary considering how crowded the site is.
that was my recollection of visiting there as well. those expensive amenities are a huge source of income for the region so I certainly support the cost
One way to help curb this problem is putting a cap on how many times or nights one person/household can reserve at a park. Another one is limiting space for non-local visitors and giving some priority to people who are local to the area. Right now in Vancouver, BC, it is impossible to reserve anything during the summer. Some boast "more than 40 nights in the outdoors over summer" while I can't even book one weekend. As a local who just wants to be in some nature and find some peace and quiet away from city life, this is very deflating. About poor etiquette, I was just talking with a friend about people pooping everywhere and not only not burying it, but also leaving "socks" behind because they apparently didn't have toilet paper.... We seriously need more robust fines as well as set up a good reporting system in order for all of us to keep each other accountable and conserve our parks. Absolutely despicable behavior. Also if you're an "influencer" that means that you taking up the space to "create content", is taking away from my opportunity to regulate my mental health. People only think for themselves and don't consider others at all.
I live in Hawaii for a long time. I watched tourism decrease the quality of life. Drive the cost of living to an unreasonable hight. Forcing many residents to leave, including myself. It is sad, but I am very grateful I was able to spend all those years living in old Hawaii before the insane growth.
Toward the end you highlight the pros and cons of the gatekeeping that has long prevailed in the climbing community, I appreciate your non-biased views in these videos and how you truly showcase the conversation while adding supporting facts.
@sundog aurora A lot of climbing crags were initially kept from the "general" community. In a tale as old as time, they get open to the public, abused, then closed. Its a growing problem all around the world; Boulders and route access often depends on the blessing of private owners, so simply gatekeeping access is often the only way to keep a crag climbable long term, even if its for a sliver of the community. I am of the opinion that everyone should have access to these spaces and they should absolutely belong to the public, but it's unsustainable for some of these spaces.
@@philipegoulet448And if someone legitimately loves doing outdoor activities, and puts in the effort to learn how to protect them, those doors will be opened. I can't believe so many people are freaking out about the assertion that we should gatekeep people who are mistreating the land.
I went on a highly technical alpine hike with tons of scrables and very difficult terrain to find a bunch of people in their 40-60's in sun dresses and button downs doing the same hike. Insane to see. I'm sure they turned back once they realized just how hard it was. Communicating difficulty is highly problematic as well.
I live near Boulder, CO. In the winter there's a trail up the mountains that's really fun with ice spikes. I saw people sliding around in sneakers, inches from a deadly drop off with no water
You make a good point about difficulty. My gf anf I are fit and can manage any trail around BUT she hates heights so if it involves some kind of climb or bridge it instantly becomes extremely difficult. Fortunately she is a beast so the few times its popped up she was able to push through. But now anytime i describe a trail i really try to highlight the elevation, the technical aspects, and what the payoff is. A paragraph description will always be more useful than a one word difficulty scale
I did an easy-moderate hike that was abt 2hrs in to see a waterfall, then 2h back out. When we were most of the way out we passed a mom and her young child (6?), both wearing crocs, who asked us if they were almost there yet. Uhhh, no.
@@jakel2837 Then there are people who start a morning hike in indian peaks wilderness with normal shoes. Then it warms up, they're a few miles in, and they start postholing...
Im in Canada. Ive been doing various outdoors activities my entire life. The pandemic ruined all of them. Idiotic city people crowd the wilderness and disregard common sense, litter, and generally cause disarray. We went for a hike recently that used to maybe have a handful of people on it at the same time as us, and there were literally thousands of people. It was like being at some huge attraction somewhere. My one escape from the idiocy of city life is now somehow worse than just staying in the city.
I want to give thanks to the park rangers in educating and maintaining the national and state parks. Without there hard work, none of the park experience would be possible.
The individuals who worked for the CCC should get respect, too. At least in my opinion. I love the buildings so much. They are so beautiful. I hope hope the CCC gets revived.
I live and work at Grand Canyon national park. People get super defensive when this topic is brought up, saying we are “gate keeping nature”. It’s incredibly frustrating how shortsighted people can be
You are though, you are gatekeeping it for the wealthy and powerful. It’s definitely not equal access. Maybe you’re the short sighted one, not seeing that these are experiences most people want to have for obvious reasons. Do i think its actually about “cOnSeRvAtioN”? 🤣 No. No i do not think that is the actual case. Even if it was, conserving it for who exactly? For why exactly? Oh its so the elites dont have to bump elbows with we lowly peasants.
@@GangusBong1 because it’s not about people, it’s about protecting the natural resources and landscape. If my or your presence is going to have a negative impact on those things, we are not entitled to visit or use them. It’s really not that complicated.
@@themegjake4000 thats where you’re wrong bucko, society in general is about people. Plus like conserving some dusty old canyon for the sake of itself its silly, idealistic, bullcrap that wouldnt and shouldn’t get funding. No. conservation is about posterity(preserving it for future generations of OTHER PEOPLE).
@@GangusBong1 you lost all credibility when you called a natural wonder of the world “some dusty old canyon”. It shows that you think of these places as somewhere for your entertainment and nothing else. Have a nice day 👍
It is gatekeeping. But the alternative is ruining it for everyone, forever. As long as that gatekeeping is as fair as possible that's really the best compromise we have so far.
It's such a bummer. I went on a road trip, where I did see arches, zion, and the grand canyon. Some of my favorite spots of nature were actually along the way. Trust me, it's worth trying to look for other, lesser known places, because the sense of discovery you get, and the stories you get to tell of places that people you know have likely never been. Photos of things that less people have seen. Also, these places are SO popular now that it feels like you're not even out in nature. I want to get away from people when I'm out in nature, not wait in lines. Haha At least, I hope that the popularity of national parks really pushes people to fight to not only keep the ones we have, but open up more nature spots in their local areas too. One of my favorite hikes is just in my town, not too far from where I live. Companies are BEGGING the city to let them build homes over it. We need to keep our local outdoor areas too.
Exactly. One of my favorite places was one I found in a local county park. I glanced over the side of an overlook with a picnic table to see the barest traces of a trail, which wasn’t on the map. I followed the spur out a ways, knowing it was a dead end, and found a rocky outcrop above a 40-foot drop to a creek. I stayed there for a few hours, have gone back a bunch of times, and have only taken a few close friends to see it. Don’t blow up the spot. There are literally hundreds of these kinds of places in just about every county.
I agree. Humans tend to spoil everything good and that applies to a lot more than just nature. Of course the worst of all imo are the extremely sexy, tight yoga pants wearing instagram th0ts. It’s beyond infuriating and soul crushing knowing you’ll always be invisible to such creatures; and if you do somehow manage to work up the nerve to present yourself in a way to pursue them romantically, at best you’ll be politely rejected. At worst, you’ll be any one of the following: beat up by chad white knights, plastered all over social media as a creep, arrested for harassment, pepper sprayed or kicked in the most painful spot. Then these same women will cry about them being the oppressed ones. What a wonderful world! 🤡🤡🤡 So imagine imagine how it is for people like us. Not only do we have to put up with garbage, fake ass people ruining our safe havens, but among those people we see multitudes of guys just casually walking around with the most high quality breed stock on the market as though they don’t even realize they have the human equivalent of a billion dollars in their bank accounts. All while knowing due to their genetic/financial advantage, they have practically unlimited access to what we’ll never be granted a single lick of in our lifetime. I don’t know exactly how harmful that is to our mental health but I do know it’s far beyond what a nice hike in the great outdoors is capable of healing.
My wife and have learned to visit the parks before the kids get out of school in June and after they go back in September. June, July, and August is spent tending our garden.
Same thing happens in cities too, Amsterdam residents feel like the benefits of tourists outweigh the cost of dealing with them and their influence on the 'normal' resident's lives. In general tourism is becoming more focused on the 'good' spots that were created over many years, often because of their uniqueness or isolation.
Klopt helemaal! Additionally, I dont feel 'Dutch' anymore in Amsterdam. That is why I avoid it at all costs because it's just not fun anymore. Due to the fact that tourists are everywhere, bars, shops and others hire English-only speaking employees etc which makes the 'Dutch identity' go away.
Good comment. In general, overtourism is a huge issue, especially as flying or travelling in general is becoming more and more affordable each year. For example, just look at the cruising industry: Ships are only getting bigger and bigger each year, and the number of both cruise passengers and ships is steadily rising. In the past, most places opening up for tourists simply could not imagine the huge numbers of tourists that have access to travelling now or in the future.
@@pixoontube2912 Exactly! I remember two years ago when I was in the Côte d'azur at a small village, there was some sort of WW2 history where many US ships had been stationed there. This caused a massive tourist attraction for Americans who were coming from airplanes first as almost all Europeans did not have money for that yet. Then in the future, cruising companies created trips that would go along those routes (including that small town) which would increase the number of tourists even more. Now, they only have about 10.000 people living there but I believe close to 50.000 Americans alone coming from cruise ships. It gave them a lot of profit, but the negative effects (such as overcrowding and infrastructure not up to date) outweighed the positive ones. They also have to deal with French and European tourists which is even more than that 50k.
Performative social media clout has put a big dent in most hobbies.. I feel a bit sad when i see people going to a place, just snapping "the pic" and then going back home without even looking like they enjoyed the experience :(
When I was in Bali years ago, I saw ads for this travel agency that did what they called the "Ego Trip." Basically they would bus you around to all the instagram spots and would even have someone take a professional picture and send it to you if you wanted. I didn't do it because I generally don't want people to know where I am or what I'm doing, but I appreciated how self-aware it was.
You're not kidding. I remember when social media was starting out and how people could find tons of different hobbies and find people passionate about them and it was awesome. Over time it feels like hobbies have just become the next thing to hustle or be competitive at for clout or skill or whatnot. Heck, I even remember when hobbies were considering things that had a natural cost to them but now people are trying to constantly advertise how to monetize your hobby or else it's considered a "waste of time"
Become a landscape photographer. You'll look for vistas without five people in your shot one way or another. Astrophotography is much more accessible now and crowds at 2AM are not really a thing
Oh so instead they were supposed to "look like they enjoyed the experience" to.. you? That's kinda odd isn't it? Like Idk man, I barely use my phones camera at all, but I don't believe in yucking someone else's yum even if I don't care for it, and I'm not the judge of whether someone is "genuinely" enjoying themselves.
I visited Moab for the first time in March. It was incredibly beautiful. We were there just ahead of the peak rush and once I learned what that meant, I was so grateful! I also recall several of our bike guides talking about the housing crisis and how hard it is for seasonal workers to even get there because of it. The town survives on tourism, yet tourism is destroying the town? Clearly it’s tough to balance.
It is such a beautiful place - but it's getting harder and harder to enjoy. You get these massive bus tours coming in with international visitors, many of whom just absolutely reveal themselves to have little idea how to respect the nature around them.
I live near Disneyland…and the amount of infrastructure and systems in place to manage all the visitors is astronomical. I think Moab only sees about 1/5th of the amount of visitors…but still, you have a have a pretty massive system in place in order to accommodate all the tourists, as well as provide services for them all. The more Moab grows…the more it has to become like Disneyland. 🤮 Look at Horseshoe Bend, in Arizona. It was once a quiet little nothing, where you had to find an unmarked dirt trail in order to make it. Then Microsoft used it as a screensaver. Now over two million people per year go…and there’s a huge parking lot and bathrooms and handrails everywhere. Populations require elimination of nature. It’s just math, unfortunately.
It looks like Moab’s real estate could undergo some development in the upward direction, which would make more room for visitors and the businesses that serve them. Many people could stay in hotels in the town and take buses or vans out into nature in the daytime.
The other problem is the remoteness of Moab. It's not sustainable to expand the infrastructure too much. The water use alone becomes problematic (and indeed, water use in that region of the country is badly straining the local environment).
Man, this is such a thing! We have already stopped visiting major outdoor areas on holiday weekends, and I am anticipating it to be like that more and more. These parks weren't built for the attendance numbers, so parking and staying near these parks has gotten really difficult. Even just visiting the river locally is over-impacted to the point that you think twice about going. Just gotta keep finding those hidden gems...
I think one of the biggest takeaways from this video, is that people are unimaginative. Lack of better terms, they follow the crowd quite literally. I live about an hour from the south end of Great Smoky Mountain National Park. The reality is if you're going to Gatlinburg, it will be absolutely overcrowded does not feel like a wilderness and is generally not an escape. However, if you simply go to some of the lesser known trailheads, which I'm not going to name here, then you can truly experience the smokies as they were intended despite the record number visitors. I did a 17 mile trail run last year on labor day weekend and saw 8 other people that day. It's not just that they're congregating to five or six parks, it's at their congregating all to the same spot. Furthermore, as pointed out, there's often alternatives nearby. For example, near the Smokies is the Joyce Kilmer and Citico Creek wilderness areas, those mountains are just as spectacular as the Smokies, maybe even more so because they aren't visited nearly as much and the wilderness is truly more preserved. And again I can run or hike there at certain trailheads and only see a handful of people, but again I'm not going to name those places because I'd rather them not be ruined by tourism.
For me, the only reason I visited the Smokes (or, at least the mountain range) is because I wanted to go to Cherokee, North Carolina. It was first and foremost a cultural trip to see the last remaining (actual) dominant Cherokee inhabeted region east of the mississipi. It was breathtaking there, with the roads fun to drive and the small trailheads, random natural roadside attractions, and honestly for the summer, not that busy area that made me fall in love with the region, along with the cool Cherokee history, art, and the experience. (Also my campsite was further away from the core of the "reservation" (its more of a trust land), and was on an ice cold river that was fun to tube without crowds of strangers outside of the few campers swimming in it.
I have also noticed this and to me it is a good thing. The box ticking bucket list sheep crowd into a handful of areas which leaves other places free and uncrowded for the more adventurous and those willing to do a bit of research.
I went to the Smokies a few months ago. Something we quickly learned is that if you go just 15 minutes down the trail, 90% of the hikers will drop off.
Some National Parks are practically ghost towns. Perhaps a solution is figuring out ways to get users to try the less popular spaces to get experience before heading out to the more challenging ones. Could even make it a program so you need the stamp from one of these before you can get admitted to one of the more challenging places. Recently, a very successful UA-cam hiker had to get rescued in the Grand Canyon. He is a very experienced hiker and had all the right gear and was with an even more experienced hiker who has worked as a guide. At the same time, you see people on trails late in the afternoon heading up to peaks that take hours round trip and they are wearing cotton clothes, casual shoes, and maybe have a bottle of water for safety. Yeesh.
In my opinion, people putting themselves at such absurd risk are on their own. People climbing or hiking in dangerous areas not only risk their own skin, but the skins of those that might be forced to come rescue them from their own stupidity.
@@timcooper62 I understand where you are coming from, but that’s really pretty extreme, Tim. If we are going to start deleting government services, I can think of some much juicier targets.
“try the less popular spaces” I think all places of interest in national parks are crowded, places that are specifically marked in the park’s visitor guides and maps. I don’t think park rangers would even allow people to go off trail, they would confine them to the marked areas of the park.
I visited Baxter a couple years ago and it was so beautiful and peaceful due to those limits. We saw essentially no other people when we went on the trails. The cabins there (if you can get reservations) are picturesque.
Hey, that's Don from Sierra Rescue International at 24:07 - he was my instructor for swiftwater rescue technician years ago! Seeing him reminds me of one of the most educational experiences I've had in the outdoors: Early in the training, Don put us in a calm, gently flowing, section of the river, and had two trainees stand in the water about waist- to chest-deep, holding a sturdy ~2-meter plastic pipe between them right at the water level. (picture a setup like a limbo bar) A third trainee then had to float on their back into the bar so that their lower body was under it, and from this position - try to climb over the bar. Our unit was pretty fit and it seemed simple enough, so we shrugged and each gave it a try. No one on the team could get over the bar. I tried to get one leg over it to give me leverage and that just flipped me upside down. After everyone had tried, Don then explained how even though the river was flowing relatively gently, if you get pinned against the current, the force acting on you is tremendous. I've never looked at a flowing river the same way again. The great outdoors can be dangerous - even more so because almost all of us are just not that familiar with the dangers.
The nice thing about loving the outdoors is that if you hike for 3 days, the odds of seeing other people get increasing lower. The first mountain outside Anchorage has lots of trail runners, dog walkers, etc. The next one has only a few, and 2 days in, you see nobody all day. If it is not famous and it is strenuous, I find that no matter where you are in the world, you will find a few days hike worth of solitude and natural beauty if you really want it.
Even on the small scale, living in Eastern, PA. There are the nature hikes that are absolutely crowded every day, but 10x as nany ones with the exact same beauty but practically no visitors. Don't Google best hikes in America, or PA or whatever, and then spend hours travelling to it only to find it busy. Explore your local hikes.
no matter where you are? try this in sunny suburban sprawly new jersey, the most isolated place in most of america is a suburb or still significantly developed with interstates and large power pylons, i wish everyone else in general was gone from everywhere, i can live in my own personal empty earth with infrastructure that runs itself and you all can stay here
I'm a native Utahn, and from a family that has always done lots of hiking and camping. We've watched slowly across the years as things have gotten worse and worse. The line of cars to get in and out of arches is terrible. The number of super inexperienced hikers climbing on the dangerous section of angel's landing in Zion is distressing to say the least. It's sadly led my family to seeking out more out of the way parks - we're going to Great Basin this summer for example. It is very hard not to feel somewhat frustrated. I'm happy to see people out here in the natural world, but there's just... so many of them. I guess I should at least be glad that they aren't coming up to much of northern Utah where most of us actually live.
I wonder if some of the limits placed on visitors should include “locals only days.” You have to show a license from that state to get in. It would give the nature itself some rest from onslaught of tourists, and the managers could breathe a little too, as locals are going to be more concerned with the long-term good of the land and more skilled in navigating local terrain.
We are low income and live relatively near Lake Tahoe. We used to go to the lake all the time….but for the past 5 years we only go in the fall and spring time. It is impossibly crowded and expensive during summer/winter….over 65% of the homes around Tahoe are time shares and vacation rentals
I was incredibly fortunate to visit Utah's "big 5" multiple times each while growing up in the late 2000s/early 2010s, when they really still felt like wild, off the beaten path places. I have been back in my adult life during shoulder seasons and still nearly missed out on entering Arches on a weekday at 9:00am... wild stuff. I highly recommend that anyone who found this video particularly interesting read Desert Solitaire, by Edward Abbey. though a bit negative at times it is a wonderful account of when these parks were truly wilderness, and provides great insight into many conservation issues of the region.
I grew up 45 minutes outside of Yosemite valley and remember visiting with my family every weekend. I recently took my wife there remembering it as my old stomping ground, and it was unrecognizable. The traffic, good god the traffic... and it was a weekday. Sure when I was a kid there were lots of people, but it wasn't the social media theme park that it is today. To recapture that magic, the only time to go to these awesome parks is winter.
I went to Yosemite to revisit one of the backpacking trails I did half a lifetime ago. It was so incredibly full of people. Just about campsite I walked past was full, compared to 20 years ago when we seemingly were one of the only backpackers out there. It’s not even a super popular or well-known trail. I won’t say it ruined it for me, but it really dampened the feeling of isolation that I was searching for out there.
Omg I felt this. In Vancouver, BC I can only get camping spots after first week of September, and they close by October and don't open back up until April😭
This is the American way. People go where the crowds go, so they can earn a living. I see nothing wrong in that. People have to be able to live. Again, you are putting nature about people. That is NOT how it works!
Living in Utah, I’ve become a winter camper and I actually love it. No bugs, barely see anyone, and quiet. Going this weekend though and dreading it. I encourage everyone to gatekeep your spots!
I went to Utah this February and loved it, though sadly it didn't make my trip immune from crowds. Zion had to close the gates two of the days I was there because there were too many people in the park. (And yes, that's why they have the shuttle system for most of the year.) Still, I'd encourage anyone to go in winter. It was beautiful.
I've considered winter camping here and I'm just not sure I could do it. My family at least has found a pretty good handful of hikes in northern Utah that aren't too busy. I'm glad that most people only go to the ski towns here, because I'd hate to deal with people flooding the Wasatch front the way they are Moab.
I've been subscribed to you since the illegal number video and I think this is one of the most important pieces of content you've produced so far. When you said that parks which completely exclude everybody are unnatural, I was reminded of what a friend told me about how indigenous people don't actually want to leave a forest untouched because pre-agricultural humans were basically all park rangers/conservationists for thousands of years; they maintained healthy animal populations, and spaced out activities like wood gathering to reduce canopy crowding. We as a species need to be more conscientious and respectful about maintaining and interacting with the areas we spent 90% of our history within.
I have friends who are old-school 20th century outdoors people. They recently tried to do a road trip to all of their favorite parks out west and had to turn back midway through because of the cost. When Sam talked about the effects on Moab, I immediately thought about them. You think the kind of traffic they're seeing is pushing up local inflation in the gateway communities for food and fuel, above the national trend?
Yes. The inflation rate in gateway communities, especially for housing, is many many many times the national rates. The small 2 bedroom apartment in the gateway community I lived in was $700/month in the early 2010s. Expensive, but affordable for a worker in the tourism industry. My old unit now rents for $250 PER NIGHT on AirBNB, not including fees. The staff who now do the same work I did live 70 miles away and have to carpool 90 minutes each way to get to work.
As a NPS employee in southeastern Utah, this video hits close to home. Moab residents are beyond frustrated with the encroachment and impact the outdoor industry (specifically ATVs and off roading) has caused to their town. It's not uncommon to see signs on front lawns voicing residents disdain for the ATV noise.
Why are they not voting in the right leaders in the local govt to develop remedies? Last time I checked, tourists can’t vote. Everybody that lives in a over-touristed area complains about tourism (imagine Venice or Barcelona for instance), and the solution is always the same. Using your local government to develop the correct policies.
@@bojackkatarn Elected Republicans don't want to do anything that could hinder a local revenue stream / businesses. Democrats are terrified of doing anything that could be perceived as "gatekeeping nature", and are more focused on getting even more people outside. There is no Ed Abbey party.
@@bojackkatarn limiting tourists means limiting the local economy, even if that’s what most people would prefer, you’d be hard pressed to find an American politician who won’t put the economy over all else
@XAngelxofMercyX Question for you. I live in California, right next to the Sierra's and the Mojave desert. I love exploring the mountains and desert trails, in my truck. I have found that on BLM and Forrest Service land that allow ATV's, SXS and all the other off road vehicles, it is trashed in most places. Then when I cross into an area that only allows street legal vehicles, there is a dramatic difference in the amount of trash, dust and noise. Have you noticed the same thing in Utah?
@@takenpictures i notice it in the woods of nova scotia. ATV trails connect to fire roads all over. Where the municipal cleaning ends the litter starts. Its old enough that i can tell people been this way at least two generations.
This is part of the reason why I’ve only visited overlooked parks & locals. For example, I haven’t been to Yosemite Valley in over a decade, despite visiting the surrounding region of the Sierras multiple times annually. I assure you, there are really cool things and experiences that just hit different than just walking in a line of people to the most photographed and publicized views. And those trips are the ones you remember. Because they’re engaging, and it’s always memorable as it’s unique and more authentic of an appreciation of the natural beauty around us.
I don't visit parks much, but if I were to intentionally go and visit one, I'd basically do the same. I don't like how we've been turning the most famous national and state parks into an environmental Disneyland.
It's like going to Everest now, you have to wait in a line at the summit. Nothing can be enjoyed when there's loads of people around unless you're taking MDMA or drunk.
With the advent of timed entry tickets for nearly every state and NPS land that exists right in my own county, it’s very difficult as a local to access those lands. It nearly eliminates last minute decisions to go to your local public state or NPS land. Even some National Forest lands have restrictions like these. I don’t know of a better alternative for land managers but it’s certainly catering to tourists who plan their visits months or a year in advance. Because of this, I hardly visit the state and national parks that I’ve loved and helped care. I honestly think that these places should provide added benefits to full time locals. I would have no problem if full time locals in Moab didn’t need timed entry permits to the parks or other benefits . They are the community and it’s not fair to them that these rules are unfair to them.
No mention of the never ending loud-ass helicopter rides. Really adds to the 'wilderness' experience for man and beast alike. Next step: vending machines along the trails and under the arch. Or better yet - a chopper ride to a scenic wonder, time to take a few selfies, than back to the lodge...
I think a big part of this is that people want the photo op for their instagram and they want the "feeling of being out in nature", but they don't actually know much of anything about camping. So instead they stick to the main trails that are heavily trafficked and easily accessed that aren't truly very far removed from any amenities.
ya.... thing is man they have money to spend and you and i are just spending effort. Our society wants their money more than our hobbies. We will build amenities in nature before we ask people to plan ahead because it makes us money.
I was on Cadillac Mountain in Arcadia this summer knowing it was going to be busy dispite having reservations. As i walked the short paved trail with my eight year old, we passed serval signs that clearly state this area is delicate warning you to stay on the trail or walk only on the rocks. We passed multiple people stomping through the vegitation to get away from the crowds. I only did this mountain because i was with family, normally i seek out perserves or parks in Maine where you will not see a single person likely for days because it is not on an instogram feed. It is always amazing to me how nice the the other stuff is that no one goes to.
The number of times he has to bring up cars, roads, and parking shows another big issue with the national parks. They were designed for people not for cars. Very few parks have transit options inside to get around them, and even fewer have transit to the park requiring you to have to drive to even get there.
@@TheCornucopiaProject-bd5jk It is not a good thing. Zion National Park has such bad traffic issues due to how confined it is in the canyon; they have to run public transit within the park to prevent gridlock. Cars take up too much space and the infrastructure needed for them destroys the nature you are supposed to be experiencing. And I can imagine taking a train to a National Park, it's called the Grand Canyon Railway. The amount of space it needs to move the people is does is miniscule compared to the swath of asphalt that surrounds it. It is also much more accessible due to the ability to easily transfer from the Amtrak Southwest Chief in Williams. I wish more National Parks had the options.
I recently went to the Great Smokey Mountains and dear god the situation was terrible. We left one of the hiking spots near the highest point in the park around 12:00 and drove past a literal mile long line of cars entering a full parking lot. You cannot find a parking space after 10:00 in the morning in the park.
Honestly it's not even worth going to the Smokies now not when Tennessee and North Carolina have so many state parks that offer exactly what the Smoky Mountains offer with way less people. IMO Cades Cove has to be the most overrated place in the entire National Park system, I don't understand why everyone is so impressed with it, I actually live near another cove that's BIGGER than Cades Cove and it has no people who visit it!
Did you do this in summer? A weekend? A holiday perhaps? I'm just curious. I've been there once in my life, in April, mid-week. It was somewhat busy, but not terrible at all. I think that it rained off and on the 3 days I was in the area kept a lot of people hiding in motorhomes. This was also a couple years before Covid, and my guess is the park is noticeably busier now.
My parents still live in Colorado and hate how accessing Rocky Mountain NP is basically impossible without weeks in advance of planning, rather than just being able to go on a whim. Takes away a lot of the charm of living in CO.
I haven't been in years. The weather here can change really fast and weekends are pretty much impossible to book. It's a great pity, but understandable given the crowds and lack of parking to accommodate them. Shuttles are not practical everywhere - when one of the best routes takes you through the park, spits you out at the other side of the continental divide.
This is why I don’t tell people what parks are dead lol. I keep those to myself and enjoy. Moab and Zion have been a nightmare for a long, long time and the side by side crowd is often disrespectful and loud af - No wonder some trails have closed recently!
Recently my home town was rated the best town in Australia. There are mountains behind, beautiful beaches, rivers, hiking and walking tracks. It was already a very popular daytrip town, but its so much worse now. 20% of the is now airbnb, my parents house's *unimproved land value alone* has doubled to $2.8m. There's no local services only cafes and restaurants whereas 40 years ago there was a hospital, social security office, farm stores, electrical retailers, hardware stores, gas depot, timber yard, clothing factories. Its crazy!! Tourism is good but you can't have it dominate the economy.
I’m a Utah native, and I can say that just about everyone goes to at least one national park a year. I always thought that this would just help our economy and help boost our tourism economy. But watching this is making me worry for my local economy and environment. I love the outdoors and I have spent thousands of hours outside camping, hiking, etc. It hurts me to see that my comfort zone, my favorite place is getting over run and destroyed by all of us. I hope that we can all still enjoy this, but something needs to happen to keep this environment safe. I understand how awesome these national parks are, I’ve been to many in the western us and I love it there like millions of others. But seeing that if nothing happens to control how people use these areas, that they WILL disappear and die. I hope that something will happen, and that starts with us doing something, I don’t know what, will help fix it, but we must find what will help.
For real. Especially here in the cottonwood canyons. They may not be national parks but I’ve seen Snowbird visitation numbers double in my lifetime and the canyon is struggling to keep pace. Wish Utah was still as unknown as it was a decade ago :(
I agree. I try to be accommodating to the crowds of new people I see, for example, hiking the Narrows. But it's hard when they're playing music, dragging coolers, or otherwise doing things that diminish the wilderness experience more than just their presence would. I don't know what to do about it. I certainly don't post my favorite (still) undiscovered spot on social media.
This video is great. I grew up with the outdoors. Camping, hiking, fishing, becoming an Eagle Scout. As an adult I’ve lived exclusively in urban environments. But I became a touring musician able to go all over the US constantly. The Instagram nature pic culture seems completely counter to what my experience of natural beauty has been. I’m all for inviting more people in.. but not in this superficial “get experience clout” way. Because there’s often no actual experience behind it. It’s sad, there’s life changing experiences to be had in the great outdoors but they are all predicated on respect. Nature is beautiful and nature is deadly. This respect is the core experience of nature: the delicate give and take balance of life we very much find ourselves in and too often forget.
Stop it with the instagram culture excuse. Going to Yellowstone or Grand Canyon is no different then it was 60yrs ago. You go to see it for yourself (bucketlist), to take pictures and to be able to tell people (bumper stickers) you went. Parents have been dragging kids across the country to "see nature" for a few mins/hrs for a long time. But decades of people droning on how great it is to be in the great outdoors has finally caught up.
@@vlada it may just be car centric culture, we are encouraged to be outside in a car more than not. funny how obesity started rising as strip malls and big box stores flooded every city everywhere. peoples idea of the outside quickly went to become just a place from a to b
This has kept me away from popular spots in the past few years. I would backpack and ski through in the past but now it is just insane out there. I have a few places I still go that are not impacted but I try and not tell anyone about them because it just keep getting more and more crowded with people who don't respect it. I took the time to train myself to survive and support people in the backcountry. Training and volunteering with backcountry ski patrol, lifeguard certification, and swift water rescue tech, plus multiple other rescue and survival training classes more people should take the time to learn how to survive in the wilderness.
I've lived in Colorado, Utah, and Washington and visited tons of National Parks. It is amazing how the parks purposely funnel everyone into the same areas, rather than making it just a little easier to explore some of the lesser traveled spots. Even though visitor numbers (and simply the number of people in general) increases, the area that is accessible has not kept pace. Not saying they need to blast highways and parking lots through every park, but you also can't just expect people not to come. There just need to be more of the middle areas, not just the flip flop sites and the uber wilderness.
I honestly really appreciate this, since it usually means all the casual (noisy, slow, with kids and elders) day hikers stay on their trail, while I get to go off on my own with and see equally spectacular sights.
Having experienced the absolute shit show that is our national parks and having done a trip to Baxter, I don't see how anyone could not be team Baxter. I love what they are doing and they are fulfilling their mission of conservation first which is what makes it such an incredible experience. We do need something like the nps to introduce people to nature but we need more Baxters to really educate and teach appreciation. Perfect video!
For folks who have invested probably years into a through hike, to have the last few miles denied you because of some foolishness could feel incredibly unfair. It's also the uncertainty of the downside. You might get through, or you might not. It may not be your determination, you're planning, not even your physical fitness, but rather your place in line that determines whether you get to fulfill a long, held cherished dream. I get Baxter, their point of view. But no through hiker is going to under estimate kataden if they've made it through the White mountains and the 100 mile wilderness. I get those through hikers too
@@victorquesada7530if they have invested so many hours and energy into the hike, why can't they get acquainted with the conservation rules of the territory they are crossing?
People will not appreciate that which they are not permitted to experience. People will eventually question why their tax dollars are going to preserve Baxter, something they can't get into. And then people will be elected that are in favor of shrinking the size of the park.
"Today, an increasing nuber of people are going outside not to get lost or to explore - but to be seen" I think this perfectly describes how culture has developed recently and why tourism in so many cases has horrible local impacts.
@@gladitsnotme have you been to any park recently? I can confirm that most people are ill-prepared and take more break for selfies and pictures than water. Nothing wrong with documenting the moment but obsessing over it with the intent to post it online is a different thing.
@@gladitsnotme The "source" is literally spread over all kinds of social media. But in case you're actually interested: This is usually done via spatial analysis based on geo-tagged social media content spanning over extensive temporal scales. The data is then matched to certain points of interests (i.e., ideally the tourist attractions). The preliminary results then show the frequency of social media posts across time. By the way, this can even be added with sentiment analysis (i.e., how tourists percieve their surroundings based on their tags and uploads). The social media post frequencies can then be normalized by actual social media usage or number of image uploads to avoid biases (since a minority of people post a majority of the content and social media usage has increased in general over time). This eventually shows exactly what was highlighted in the video and by my comment. I hope that helped ;) Kind regards - a geographer who literally does such kinds of analyses on a regular basis
@@gladitsnotme It could just be a correlation between increasing travel to parks (which was shown) and increasing use of TikTok and Instagram. Instagram revenue started to peak in 2021, TikTok is still growing, both platforms have a "look where I am/what I'm doing" core concept. So you can't prove it's causation and not correlation, but it's not wild to make the connection. Also, COVID.
Humans always spoil everything good, and that applies to a lot more than just nature. Of course the worst of all imo are the extremely sexy, tight yoga pants wearing instagram th0ts. It’s beyond infuriating and soul crushing knowing you’ll always be invisible to such creatures; and if you do somehow manage to work up the nerve to present yourself in a way to pursue them romantically, at best you’ll be politely rejected. At worst, you’ll be any one of the following: beat up by chad white knights, plastered all over social media as a creep, arrested for harassment, pepper sprayed or kicked in the most painful spot. Then these same women will cry about them being the oppressed ones. What a wonderful world! 🤡🤡🤡 So imagine imagine how it is for people like us. Not only do we have to put up with garbage, fake ass people ruining our safe havens, but among those people we see multitudes of guys just casually walking around with the most high quality breed stock on the market as though they don’t even realize they have the human equivalent of a billion dollars in their bank accounts. All while knowing due to their genetic/financial advantage, they have practically unlimited access to what we’ll never be granted a single lick of in our lifetime. I don’t know exactly how harmful that is to our mental health but I do know it’s far beyond what a nice hike in the great outdoors is capable of healing.
This is like a modern youtube version of Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey. I read that in HS and he was complaining about how easy it was to get into Arches back when there basically weren't any roads, saying that it was too easy to get there and too many people were visiting, in 1956 and 1957. Imagine how he'd feel knowing millions of visitors go there now every year! I tried to go there one time in HS too, and there were too many people, which was back in the 90s. Anyway, Read Desert Solitaire, it was great!
I can see the exact same stuff happening in Canada too... My mother works at the Mauricie National Park at canoe and kayak rentals and I help her sometimes. There's so many people even in the low season.... She's always happy to be helped. The other day, we had to count the double kayaks that were left because over 20 had left just in the first half of the day. It's a gratifying work, to meet people from all over the world, but it's also a lot of work. At least, they have a very great system and the addition of Starlink in the entire park has made things much simpler
I remember when I was about 14, my Boy Scout troop went to Moab to see the arches. We were dang near the only people there. We saw one other family. It’s crazy that now there’s so much traffic that they have to shut down.
You can see the impact heavily on Colorado. Every where you go, the parking lots are at capacity. A lot of places are unavailable due to overcrowding. Many great attractions are now by reservation only, which is very difficult to reserve due to high demand.
The problem is only certain state and National parks are promoted, many have virtually no attendance but have equally interesting features
It's always the hype. Whatever the mass currently likes is in short supply - you live a lot easier not following the trends. (Although it should be said that there is an increasing monetization of the intentional opposition of the trend - aka "Hipster" - as well, so this has supply issues as well.)
Can you give some examples
Shhhh!
@@asdabir you can just look up all the national parks in the US And look at lowest attended ones
Which national park?
At 19:52, the sign that should've appeared on the screen might say this:
You are entering Maine's largest wilderness
- Your safety is your responsibility
- Set a turn around time and stick to it
- Your destination is your safe return to the trailhead
- Rescuers can be many hours in arriving
Bless you. I backed up twice to make sure I wasn’t missing something
Thanks! I was about to Google it, but came here to check first.
"take only photos"
The sign should also state a minimum prize for a rescue call. If you can't afford that, don't try the trail.
I was about to comment about that lmao
I work at a state park. The amount of people coming and destroying the beautiful landscape really took all of my faith in humanity as being good natured and shoved it down the drain. Shit on rocks. Crazy amounts of trash in camp sites. KAYAKERS ATTACKING LOONS. One time I was going to clean up a campsite before campers arrived, and the previous campers were packing up. They had just had a water balloon fight. A little kid in the family asked his mom "Mommy, why don't we clean up the balloons?" His mom shushed him and quietly told him not to say that in front of me. People screamed at me and other staff for telling them that dogs were not allowed in the park. Fights. Drugs. Used needles.
When pigs walk free, they make the world their pig pen.
The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race...
I'm so sad when I read your comment. In Germany it doesn't seem that bad yet, but the Alps around Munich are also flooded by unprepared folks. We have the additional problem that naive hikers start dangerous or difficult trails (even via ferratas) with no equipment. But then they get stuck and can call a helicopter "for free" if they have a membership card of the Alpenverein. This was meant for emergencies, but has now become the easy way out if one gets tired, twists an anckle or simply started too late and got into a storm or darkness. At least I hope they learn from their failures. But the cases that you describe are just beyond... So sad...
But please keep on for the few good folks and hopefully they will limit access to some sites or people have to register with their credit card and only get the deposit back once the ranger checked the site....
"Water Balloon Fight"
that's one I also have picked up after. also birthday parties at campsites.
the burst balloons create tiny shreds of rubber & plastic that wash into the lakes, rivers, seas ..
everyday when we camp & explore .. we take garbage bags & gloves w/us ..
WHY go into woods & nature TO POLUTE ??
People litter and don't care how their actions impact other people and society as a whole. That kind of attitude permiates all aspects of American culture.
I’m sorry but pigs are better than humans. They are smart, sassy and clean. And they would never destroy nature like humans would. Not sure why ppl always use pigs so negatively.
I live in Moab. I grew up here for the last 30 years. I now manage my family's hotel. I am impressed with how well you tackled all of the problems there are of being a local here, with the ever-growing number of tourists. They have become the necessary evil of anyone trying to live here. I get asked all the time "where do the locals go to eat, hike, hangout in town". The answer is locals do not have any places of their own. Everything has been discovered and shared with tourists, restaurants only cater to them and charge ridiculously high prices. Even our local grocery stores are so overcrowded that we have to push our ways to get our marked-up items and a trip to the grocery store takes 2 infuriating hours. Millcreek that you showed on a map used to be a watering hole that only the locals knew about. It was only within the last 10 years that we saw tourists going there as well. Now there is a line a mile long to share the trail and get to the water. It is true that without tourism there would be no Moab but Moab is now unlivable for most people that have been here for a long time or are just trying to move here and work.
I grew up in Utah so I can sympathize.
I live in California now and one thing that comes to mind is that some major tourist destinations and area amenities around them charge less if you're a California resident. I don't know these days how many business owners exist in Moab, but it might be worth trying to bring up the idea of a cooperation that people who live in Moab get a discount at the local restaurants and grocers? Something like you can voluntarily show your ID at checkout and get a discount so that you aren't playing tourist rates for basic goods in your own town.
It won't fix the other problems, of course, but maybe it can ease the price pains for the locals. Probably won't hurt that much either if most your sales are going to tourists.
Idk man there’s that bowling alley. I wandered in there one time I was in Moab and I loved it. Reminds me of my small bar in my town.
@@BandRundown I love The Alley. It might be the only true local and cheap joint... for now.
A hotel manager complaining of too many tourists?? 😄
That's a really good point about the catch of telling tourists where the locals eat. It's something that lots of famous foodies and TV personality travelers promote. It is well-meaning, but now that you bring that up, that sounds like a nightmare!
Leave No Trace (LNT) ethic should be mandatory curriculum in elementary/high schools. The 7 principles fit on an index card. Going through an online primer could be integrated into camping reservation or backcountry permit systems and it costs nothing. You can't hope to completely perfectly manage every visitor but you can make sure they've all been given the same guiding information.
It starts at home. Trying to convince people not to be cunts when they're raised as cunts is hard.
But I like your idea
In Boy Scouts, we learned it as, "Take only pictures, leave only footprints."
In Norway, the "mountain safety rules" are printed on every chocolate bar of the most popular brand.
(Then it's even more annoying to find those very packages lying around on hiking trails... fortunately that happens rarely, Norwegians generally are good at Leave No Trace.)
plenty of people live in urban areas and don't go to parks. this is a job for parents, not schools. they've got enough to do teaching math, history, science and all the rest.
I'm from Manitoba, Canada, and every summer, me and my buddies canoe out to one of our thousands of backcountry lakes that are not road assessable. The experience of being completely in the wilderness is so incredibly surreal, and I consider myself very fortunate to have that opportunity.
im in Nova Scotia. There are hundreds of beaches but a handful with easy access and good photo opportunities are destroying neighbourhoods.
I hike into the woods often. Im terrified that recreational hunting and fishing is going to manicure the nature i enjoy.... well that or it burns down.
Canada is amazing in terms of wilderness and really isn't experiencing near the same issues that the states are in terms of overcrowding. Definitely helps that the entire country is near the size of Russia with only the population of California. As an American who loves the outdoors, I'm jealous of the vast tracks of hundred of thousands of kilometers of wide open wilderness that Canada has. Nowhere I've ever been compares besides Alaska and I've thoroughly enjoyed the time I've spent in the Canadian wilderness.
You are fortunate indeed. Keep your pics and videos of your gatherings off ALL social media.
Backpacking is the only way to get away from crowds.
This channel is propaganda
This is purely an observation I've made after exploring some parks this year, a lot of people visiting right now are by no means outdoorsy people, or not at all versed in moderate to advanced level hiking, sure some of the picturesque locales I've seen have been crowded, but as soon as you delve into an actually challenging section few will participate and sweet solitude can be found
@@geography_nerd1 I don't think that will actually play out like you envision it.
Yeah you’re right. So many obese people go to the spots that are short walks from parking lots. Us fit people can hike far in and avoid the crowds.
This has been my observation as well. We just got back with my wife from trips to Grand Teton and Yellowstone and both places were really crowded in the immediate areas of the scenic overlooks by the roads/parking lots, but as soon as you start hiking and you’re more than 5 min walk from the parking lot area or the road there were barely any people.
You're apart of the problem
@@micahwilliams1826Yeah, no shit, I'm not so entirely devoid of self awareness to disregard this, nor am I audacious enough to claim to have a solution; this is simply an observation I've made. Also... * a part, not apart
It destroyed the place where I grew up and lived. The price on our family home increased so much that my elderly parents thought they were doing a great thing by selling it for $850,000.00. They did not discuss this with me or my sister. They got screwed and it is so depressing. The house is now an Airbnb that I cannot comfortably afford to stay in with my children. It is heartbreaking and the island that holds my best memories is now a disgusting tourist trap.
Oh no.... did they get below market rate? Did they get an offer from someone directly? I am so sorry. That is horrible
That's what they get for being greedy
@higherlifts420 🦗 🦗 🦗
Normal boomer practice of making sure their children will be worse off than they were.
@@kombuchas4684 they were renting the house through a vacation rental company on Tybee. The manager/owner introduced them to a “sweet couple” that were planning on making it their family home. Neither my sister nor myself were in a position to live there permanently due to work, school, etc. I mean, once my graduated I was hoping to live there but..I digress. The couple were actually people that renovate houses and then rent them as Airbnbs. So they were fed a crock of shit and yes, they could have received 1.5 million on the lot alone. They accepted way below what they should’ve and they didn’t consider what it would do when it was time to file their income taxes. It has been a total shit show.
This is happening in Canada too. My favourite way to explore is getting lost and finding new spots that are a bit more remote , but people are so disrespectful. The rule is always pack out what you pack in, people !!
There is a lot of good wilderness in Canada, so there should always be places that can be found with less people around. More unique places like Banff or Lake Louise are probably gonna be victims of overcrowding, but if you're a fan of paddling, the amount of great canoeing lakes with campgrounds should be pretty immune to overcrowding all of them.
@@reaganharder1480 I agree ! There is lots of great places to explore , and PLENTY of “crown” or “public” land. As long as it’s not a national park or private property, you can camp for 14 days on it
Southern Ontario problems lol every conservation area within 2 hours from Toronto just gets flooded with visitors
@@reaganharder1480I work the oilfield just east of the parks and a lot of the roads are going be closed. The amount of access to the crown land via logging and oilfield roads is going to decrease to the general public. I notice new gates almost daily. Not only that but the general public really messed the back roads up during the wild fires. 99% of them were traveling on a radio controlled road with a radio which is stupidly dangerous. The unscheduled traffic also increased the rate in which the road degrades.
Littering in a national park should be at least week in jail and a life time ban from all parks, fines aren’t doing the job
I lived and worked in Yellowstone National Park doing wildlife research for a summer in 2016. This is 100% accurate. You get all the drawbacks of living in a remote area with lots of big city problems like traffic, noise, disease, etc. It's still true though that as soon as you get on any non-major trail, these problems usually go away. However, when the major solar eclipse occurred it was like a nearly literal apocalypse where you couldn't go anywhere for the 3 days around it due to traffic.
There's very little these parks can do to accommodate this increasing tide of people. I don't see any solution other than limiting access to tourists.
Those disgusting urbanite bug people need to get back in their pods. They don't deserve nature. Only those of us who live there deserve it. And no, building a summer-home-mcmansion is NOT living there. Stay in your hive cities. You deserve them.
We stayed at Jackson for the eclipse and yes it reminded me of being back in nj waiting in traffic on rt3😂
I’ve been there three times and every second of looking at a traffic jam kills everything. People are extremely disrespectful to this amazing unique place, because it’s become a ho hum regular place to Americans, where they don’t even need to camp. People getting smashed, littering, stupid kids throwing things into geysers, it’s absolutely crushing.
Yeah because forest service rangers and workers at these parks are lazy and corrupt. Forest service gets tons of Money but they can't even maintain trails and roads.
The only way to mange this is by pushing a new place constantly, like having a new in thing to go visit.
My girlfriend and I went on one of our earliest dates to Acadia... in March. There was nobody there, clear roads, empty rocky beaches, and that made it 100% better than visiting in the summer. We watched the sunset from the top of desert mountain literally alone.
If the parks encouraged people to visit more in the off-season, and promote the benefits of the park year round they would even out their visitation. All these parks have something to offer year round but visitation is concentrated on 4-5 summer months.
That's what confuses me. With more remote work, we should see MORE visitation in off seasons, it seems the opposite is happening instead. If you can work remotely, that means you can go cool places in April or November and be completely alone. Why wouldn't you want to do that?
I would just like to point out that families with school-age children are forced to only take trips during official school breaks. Attendance policies have now gotten so strict that you can be expelled for missing only 14 days of class in a school year.
@@yolandacheng2839 this is a good point!
NPCs
As someone who lives in Utah, participated in the scouting program when young, and still loves cycling, it's because the dangers of the outdoors are limited in those few months compared to the rest. one of the problems they are trying to deal with is a lack of resources, now imagine have more people going during the times they would have to spend more resources getting to people needing to be rescued. And as the narrator pointed out, they already have a tough time preparing people for the safer times, they would have to spend even more preparing people for the off season.
One solution I can see is for more people to learn more, prepare more, and not treat nature unseriously, but telling a sixteen yr old that has never worked.
It's why I'm thankful for my time in the scouts, as it exposed me to all the things I needed to know, but didn't have the life experience to understand.
This all reminds me of the poppy feild incident in California. Groups of people addicted to social media kept stomping and crushing flowers just for pictures to their Instagram or something.
The flowers started dying out because of it. So the local authorities had to step in and ban people.
We really can't have nice things out here.
Social media causes a hivemind
I live north of NYC. All the city folk come up to the mountains and ruin everything. It's horrible. We definitely need a cap on how many out-of-town people can be up here.
Same with tulip fields here in Netherlands. They walk all over the flowers, but at least they look good on TikTok.
@@0783155I have tulip fields where I live, but they usually have paths through them in rows? Or do people just step off the paths anyways???
Or are they like private farms not to be stepped in at all?
this story doesn't make sense because it is already illegal to destroy California Poppies because its the State Flower. I learned that in the 90s
One factor is when everybody is working 40+ hours a week, they don't have time to research and explore. So they have to go with options that are widely recommended for outdoor locations to not waste the time they don't have available.
oh jfc working full time is not an excuse for not doing any research yall anti work types need to calm down.
Full time work takes up about 9-12 hours of any person’s day. The rest of the day is spent either doing housework or doing one thing outside. There’s too little time in the day
Add to that the absurd fact that completely undeveloped land can still be considered "private property". The very idea that someone could go "hey, you can't go into this forest because I have a piece of paper saying I own it" is laughable to me living in a right-to-roam country, but it's sadly the reality in most of the world.
Living in Lake Tahoe for the past 18 years, I’ve seen a clear distinction between pre and post Instagram Tahoe. There used to be certain beaches and trails that only locals and the most adventurous visitors would ever see, but ever since social media began blowing up every hidden gem there have been more people in more places. In some aspects it’s nice that more people are gaining an appreciation for the natural environment, yet there are so many disrespectful people who are now coming up just to boost their social media profiles that negatively impact our community and environment here. It’s important that we consider the changing uses and impacts on our natural resources so that we are able to adequately manage and preserve our natural resource assets for future generations to experience.
When someone comes to "boost their social media profile", how could that possibly "hurt the community"? Please explain that. Otherwise, like many others on here whining, you are just mad that someone else had the audacity to enjoy something that you also enjoy. Worse yet, they _dare_ try to enjoy a spot that is less crowded!?!?
It's amazing how many comments there are like this on this video, and literally none of you see the glaring irony and downright hypocrisy.
@@Well_Earned_Siesta Horrible traffic, skyrocketing rent for locals due to long term rentals being turned into airbnbs, more noise and trash due to inconsiderate off roaders and tourists. Tourists have been filmed damaging rock formations that are thousands of years old. Yeah you're definitely one of THOSE people. Only focused on yourself and getting your IG pic and the locals that actually live there be damned. 🙄🤡 The video itself clearly refuted your sad argument.
@@Well_Earned_Siesta the classic me me me attitude everybody comes to expect from tourists who must consume and devour everything they come into contact with. There is a serious problem in Tahoe of overdevelopment, pollution of the lakes and watersheds, and destruction of forest land, wilderness and fragile ecosystems.
For example, Squaw keeps pushing to build water parks, beaches get trashed with everybody's plastic and trash, snoparks and winter recreation areas are littered with broken plastic sleds and pollutants from cars are going into the lake.
Overtourism and overloving places is a serious issue and deciding who gets to visit said places is a complicated issue but it is an issue nonetheless. Don't just hand wave legitimate issues just because you don't like to hear that you're destroying these places.
In my opinion, there needs to be a serious push for people to be recreating more locally and traveling to recreate much much less.
@@thegrizzly52 your "me me me" attitude made you commit to living there so you can consume the beauty for yourself, without limit. You are literally part of the "too many people" problem that you are complaining about, and you refuse to see it
So you are mad that people are coming to see the sites that locals have been showing off and boasting about for decades?
This reminds me of a video I saw recently about how the location of the largest redwoods needed to be hidden because of all the plastic litter that was accumulating around them.
Unfortunately the locations were discovered, disseminated online, and the degradation of the oldest redwoods now continues by individuals who should know better.
The world is polluted with PEOPLE!
Clearly, the solution is decoy redwoods. Disseminate information that there's a huge redwood at some location, but when they get there, all they find is a cardboard cutout of a redwood. It's a flawless plan and I will not be accepting feedback.
Ha! I remember going on the Monterey "scenic seaside" road... got more of a glimpse of multimillion dollar mansions, even saw some in construction, backhoes tearing up the vegetation to make way for someones gigantic vaction home they visit once a year. Humans are doomed to destroy this place... the only thing you can do to save it is to not create more humans
I got sick in late 2019, and was bed ridden through late 2021. Basically, I missed out on what Covid did to our culture. After recovering, I set out across the U.S to experience the things I thought I never would. I didn’t go see the outdoors because I was bored, looking for something to do. I went outdoors because I once thought I never could again. I saw the national parks because just months prior, it was a pipe dream.
The amount of tourists that had never walked half a mile before was baffling. The trash disheartening. The disrespect, to the land, appalling. I hate that these places are starting to limit admission, but I understand why. I do admittedly feel slighted. I came the outdoors to celebrate my return to life. I came to the outdoors to see things that my health had once prevented. I came to do things and conquer more that few have in spite of my condition. Yet here I am at a trailhead with Karen and her cheeseburger complaining and lecturing kids playing on the rocks that they’ll get hurt. It’s disheartening.
So it’s wrong to go outside if you’re bored? Only certain people should have the chance to enjoy things? I’m guessing you prefer fat people stick to the food court and out of your eyeline. God forbid they should try to exercise and improve their health too 🙄
At 19:55, I think this is the sign he’s talking about.
YOU ARE ENTERING MAINE’S LARGEST WILDERNESS
- your safety is your responsibility
- set a turn around time and stick to it
- your destination is your safe return to the trailhead
- rescue can be many hours in arriving
I’m currently reading Edward Abbey’s “Dersert Solitaire” and his chapter *Industrial Tourism* made me want to become an activist. One of his solutions to overcrowding national parks is to stop paving roads all the way up to the sights of interest. Make people hike, bike, or horseback.
Same! Read it two years ago during a long stint in the desert southwest. It's amazing how spot on insightful he was. Just incredible. I was so inspired by that book I now have a small framed print on my wall I made of Abbey with a quote of his on it.
the roads are definitely the problem here! and that book should be required reading in jr high at least
YES
People keep paving closer and closer to sites of interest.
Yup, I admire the gates of the arctic for that. Alot of these complaints are annoying for that reason. "OH there's too many people hiking half dome and we have to permit it for their safety" kinda also sounds like "we put chains here so more people can do it and we can make more money"
Definitely agree. The reason nahanni is so barren of human activity is because of its remoteness. Same with isle royale.
I've lived in a van for 8 years and the pandemic seemed to be a tipping point for outdoor overcrowding. Places where I used to camp for weeks without seeing another human are now crowded. I know I can't be mad; I'm out there too. But when people poop on the surface and leave their TP strewn around, or just garbage, or don't practice fire safety... White. Hot. Rage. 🤬
Don't even get me started on people leaving their shit around. I'm talking literal shit.
That is gross.
I feel you! In southern Germany the situation is very similar. Nature is being degraded to an adult playground and part of the obscene consumerism. Mountain trips feel sometimes worse than a walk through your neighborhood, as you have to greet any random passerby with "Servus", when you just wanted an amazing view, fresh air and some sense of grounding in the great outdoors 🥳
I know a know a man in Eastern New Mexico and he tells me when he heads off to the mountains he has to deal with the same problems you guys have to deal with. He said it's better to camp in the winter when nobody is around.
put that rage to use and go off on these scumbags!!
My grandparents owned a Mercantile in Hurricane, Utah, “ gateway to Zion”. Us grandkids spent many summers in red rock country. My Dad would drive us up to the tunnel in Zion, let us kids out at one end, drive to the other end to read the paper and wait. We would run like maniacs the length of the tunnel, sit in the windows, play adventure games with each other , never saw a single car, person, tourist over those two three hours. This was in the 60s. Now, as a grown adult I don’t go back to my childhood/adolescent haunts. It grieves me so to see Southern Utah destroyed by too much of too much.
Yep, the Utah Republicans did a wonderful job destroying our state!
I have so many thoughts about this. A lot of them come back to just making things nicer closer to home. More small local parks, trails and campgrounds. More greenspace and plants in cities. More spaces where people can hang out for free.
I don't want limiting access to be the go to way of protecting an environment. I think we should just make those places feel less appealing by making the places we already are more appealing. Then folk that just want a taste have more options and people that want a fuller experience don't have increased barriers to deal with.
There should be more ways to dealing with feelings of isolation and disconnectedness than overwhelming a handful of large parks.
A big problem is that access to nature is already so limited in most places, forcing people to drive for hours to these sanctioned nature parks. The idea that someone can just own forest and prevent people from going there is ridiculous to those of us from right-to-roam countries, but it's a reality in places like the US. In my country, the law is basically that if you're not walking on tarmac, concrete or on a lawn, it's pretty much guaranteed that you're allowed to be where you are regardless of who the land owner is. I think that should be the rule everywhere.
Agreed but the parks near me have been taking over by latino people blasting music in Spanish over the last decade, sometimes with multiple boom boxes blasting over eachother.. No one enforces any noise rules because "racist." Ironically nothing will drive xenophobia more than giving them a legitimate reason to not like people (in this case, noise pollution that is supposedly OK if some people do it. I 100% know this is why white people go outside the city or even suburbs for recreation, but they're afraid to say it. Put another way, we need to make shit nice and be honest about what makes it not nice at times
@@cupriferouscatalyst3708Where exactly do you think this is the case in the US? Yes, there is lots of private property and no right to roam. There are also plenty of decent county parks in almost every county I’ve ever visited. (I say “almost” because I didn’t look for parks when I was younger.) Where can one live that’s not within reach of a park in under an hour’s drive?
Je suis d’accord avec vous; si on offrait la beauté et la serenité autour de nos habitations on n’aurait pas l’idée ni l’envie de s’en éloigner😊 . Peut être la raréfaction des carburants réglera ce problème et la civilisation des loisirs ne pourra plus gangréner la nature . Sans compter l’énorme énergie dilapidée par les Data des selfies et des réseaux sociaux augmentant l’effet de serre😢
We have that kind of music blasting at our lake now in MT and it hurt my ears so much that I wrote to the county sheriff later but never heard back. @@istvanpraha
As a Utah native I feel I can comment on this. There are thousands of trails and camping spots that receive no attention. Its definitely a problem of the 20% most accessible places receive 80% of the attention since they're so easy to reach. Even in Zion NP if you hike a bit further past Angels Landing into the wilderness there's an immediate drop in the number of hikers but the scenery is just as spectacular. Only difference is the trail isn't paved anymore, and it take more effort to reach. So if you want to avoid the crowds now it just takes a higher level of planning and physical fitness but it can be done, even in the most popular national parks.
Zion definitely has a lot of people, but almost entirely in the main canyon. I've found it to be true as well, although I wouldn't say I'm a Utah native. I've only been living here a year.
Agreed, but that's just inside parks. The main issue for locals is the over crowding on the highways, small towns, the trampling of fragile desert soils when van campers think they need a virgin spot, the thousands of firepits on blm, etc, etc.
These parks are getting loved to death. 40 years ago the entrance around Denali National Park was undeveloped and now in the summer it is a small town with multiple large lodging facilities and all the tourist shops and restaurants. The same even holds true for even going off road to rivers and lakes. Camping spots are getting harder to find and someone always leaves their trash in the fire pit. This summer over 1 million tourists are expected in Alaska which makes it hard for locals to even find campsites on weekends.
This is a prime example of why bringing 1 million illegals into our country every single year is crippling our system. You can see how a simple national park is getting destroyed, now look at that at a national scale and that's what taxpayers, farmers, and infrastructure jobs are having to face.
I spent the first 40 years of my life in Alaska. It’s insane how much it’s blown up in the summer. The drive down south to the kenai during fishing season is constant bumper to bumper with stoppages from constant road construction. Seward with the cruise ships. Denali National park is a literal town now. I’ve watched it change so much.
Living in a rural area that butts up next to national forest, life has become a lot less pleasant. Starting in 2020 I noticed a lot of our local swimming holes were appearing on lists of places you could escape the city to. I tried going out to them and they had no parking and far more people than I have ever seen by a large margin. Trash has been an issue, and picking up litter from out of town food joints is a guarantee on the weekends. The increase in traffic unfamiliar with our roads (built along old Indian walking trails so very very curvy) means we end up with convoys fifteen vehicles deep or more running ten below the speed limit for miles. It's getting harder and harder to be an understanding and respectful person when I see the nonchalant and disrespectful attitude people have for my home.
Sharing your favorite spots on social media is retarded I only share mine with like minded people
😅😅
It feels like so many people are engaging in tourism in a such shallow way lately - and not just national parks. It’s to take an obnoxious amount of pictures, check a box, gamify the experience, or tell a story later, without actually appreciating the surroundings or having respect for them in the moment.
Omg DONT LIVE IN FLORIDA yoo yall.. Ahh yep
Turisum is ahhh
Uh that's pretty much the definition of a tourist, which is why tourists are hated by the residents of popular outdoor destinations and historical cities alike. The locals love the money but despise the shallow people.
This is a weird thing to complain about. While i hate waiting 2hrs to go mountain biking in my own city due to long lines. I've also taken vacations overseas, taken a few pictures and went home. Idk what to tell ya, its tourism and its not going to change.
Ya know how on dating apps everyone "loves" traveling. But I think people just like to show off where they have been as a status thing. When is the last time you really just went to a place to "be" there? Whelp, you can't, because EVERYTHING is commodified these days. It fucking sucks.
This reason is why I prefer more mundane but calm locations and vistas, you won’t see hordes of people flocking to the salton sea (anymore at least)
I'd go there for the volcanoes/mud volcanoes and that's it
I visit the Salton Sea and Niland every time I go to Southern California. Almost no one goes there and it’s relaxing and enjoyable.
"Too many entitled, poorly behaved people are going outside"
YES!! I have no issue with people going on hikes, but when they feed the animals and litter...that's when I get mad!
This seems to have got a lot worse in the UK since the pandemic - after the restrictions were lifted, loads of nature spots (and even just general towns / cities) seemed to be swamped with bad behaviour and loads more people than pre-pandemic. Really weird.
@@PASH3227
You haven't seen the image of a dad leading his kids to sneak up on bison with young.
That's because the people who truly loved nature were already outside. There has been a new massive influx of people outdoors, and way too many of them are entitled and poorly behaved.
@@GrayDogNowIDKWhen my family went to Yellowstone some years ago, a kid just casually left the boardwalk, walked up behind a Bison, and took a picture of its behind with his 3DS.
The lack of basic common sense, self preservation, and respect for nature among many of these visitors is appalling.
I had a work assignment in Moab a week ago and I was shocked. Shocked. The last time I was in Moab was roughly 25 years ago. I expected the town to be bigger, but it’s ridiculous.
I was blown away by all the “beautiful people” behaving poorly.
The downtown area was as congested as downtown Las Vegas
Yes very true! Was also in Moab a few times in the mid-nineties. I was also there in 2020 right as Covid hit and again last month. It is a totally different place. I call it the Disney Land for outdoorsy people, I met people from all over the country. A couple of decades ago you could roll into town, sleep anywhere for free, hardly see anyone on trails, get free water, borrow tools, shower in rolling shower units(or the bike shop). It was a chore to find a decent place to eat out. Not anymore, but…I don’t see it as a bad thing. It’s a town that knows it’s purpose and is thriving because of it. It is a well taken care of area and just as fun if not more fun then 25 years ago. With the exception of Arches I can still be on trails that are not overcrowded, disperse camp with no one around and do what I want without fees and permits. Not to forget the fact that Moab does have slow seasons and Arches was crowded when I went there two decades ago.
Wow. I went there mid 90s too. It was wild to be so isolated and how small the dusty town was. Probably have the same feelings as you though if I went back with my family.
I have been backpacking since I was a little kid. I was 4 or 5 my first trip in Montana. Through the years, I've noticed so many changes as everyone and their dogs and moms hit the trails. It's great to see people outdoors enjoying nature, but so many people now have so little respect for it, are woefully unequipped, and have no inkling of trail etiquette. I just took my daughter on her first backpacking trip, a short one since she's only 6. Shorter hikes mean easier access, so it's quite popular. Someone literally shit in our campsite and left their toilet paper and shit unburied just a few feet away from our tents. People were drinking heavily and had fireworks popping off until late into the night. For the most part, it was still great, but with some very disrespectful elements. Why go into nature and blow up fireworks? What's the point?
I've also seen people just casually strolling up hikes with 4000 foot elevation gain, with like a Starbucks coffee and nothing else-- no water, no emergency provisions, no understanding of what 4000 feet gain in 5 miles really means... I've given countless people sunsceen or bug spray (or both) when I've seen them sitting miserable on the side of the trail in yoga pants the bugs bite right through. It's not a fashion show, y'all; it's bloody nature, and it'll bite back.
I love this.. even though it's negligent on their behalf... I live in Montana and have raised my 5 kids in the woods and trails. The mountains teach you about life and sometimes those lessons are rough 😂
Yea. As a montana resident it has changed alot. I have yo find areas far from anywhere to get a camp ground without a beer bottle. And 4000 in 5 sucks. And when i see someone go up a trail with a 2000ft gain in half a mile i just know they will look at it and turn back. And hooefully not try
Yeah I saw some people on my last visit to Shenandoah strolling up to a hike with no water or anything and I always carry emergency gear. It was a difficult hike, too. I’m not sure they would have made it back without any gear to be honest.
@@SavannahBurrisdid they make it back.? lol
Ahahaha you give them supplies. That’s crazy. I backpack all over Colorado and constantly see unprepared people. I would never dream of helping them out. If you don’t prepare and plan for the outdoors you don’t need to be out there. If you die from dehydration cause you didn’t bring water that’s natural selection… who the hell goes on a strenuous activity and doesn’t bring water….. also, I had to learn how to move and be out in wilderness by trial and error. No one helped me I slowly learned hard lessons and how to prepare better.
Social media is probably responsible for much of this. If people couldn't post the selfie of themselves at these places on Instagram or Facebook, then these parks would have far fewer visitors.
Last year we did the Devil's Bridge Hike in Sedona, AZ, and I don't think I've ever seen so much dangerous trail behavior before. People were filming themselves running across it as fast as possible, performing precarious yoga poses right on the edge while shouting instructions to friends tasked with taking photos -- it was nuts. There were even arguments breaking out because people were demanding that others get out of their shots even though there wasn't enough space to stand anywhere else. Living in Maine, we at least have a lot of opportunities to experience solitude, but it's definitely busier here that it was when we first moved 10 years ago.
Hearing these stories makes me miss the days of 35mm film where each shot cost money, and you didn't know if it was good until after it got developed.
Help a young lady that was hiking in. She was about to pass out. Didn't bring any water. In May. At noon time.
I saw a woman take her pants and underwear down and moon the camera for a picture in front of dozens of people including children.
@@robertd6387when a damsel is in distress it usually is her fault.
Ha I live 30 minutes from Devil’s Bridge and have been there as many times as you, because like you observed it’s a perfect Chad funnel 😂
The whole issue is that honor and discipline are not important to people anymore. America is becoming a free for all country in all the worst ways. Also, the fact that the outdoors is now considered a finite resource blows my mind. Our species has spent its existence trying to escape the wilderness only to now crave it and covet it in modern times. Kinda nuts to think about.
We are turning our wilderness into home, when we should be making our home a little more wild. A philosophical statement in part, but in practice this means making sure densely populated areas, which serve as economic hot spots, are livable - we need to be more creative than the endless strip malls which define Los Angeles.
Limit visit numbers, make parking far from the actual nature trails, ticket people for littering etc.
Perhaps people wouldn’t be nearly so desperate for a taste of “the great outdoors” if they didn’t spend their lives in hideous wastelands like suburbia.
A big reason for the massive increase in people during the summer months besides the weather is our public schools breaks/vacations.
Families can’t take a week or two at any time other than summer.
Also there are many parks that don’t get any attention at all. Just the super fantastic ones like Yellowstone and Yosemite.
Also, the number of foreign tourists has increased dramatically over the years.
Very true, it is always best to avoid peak seasons. Also, let's not forget Pos-pandemic Revenge travelers. Tourist destinations have been crowded year round ever since.
Benefit of homeschooling/unschooling: the ability to visit the most popular parks in the shoulder season when it's actually enjoyable AND make it part of the lesson plan.
Those aren't tourists, they're your new neighbors...
It’s because of social media. 25 years ago my wife’s aunt and uncle only heard about Angels Landing from another hiker that told them about it. Now people can see all sorts of awesome pictures and videos online and decide they want to go see it too
Social Media ruined National Parks
The overcrowding problem has hit on the local level. In my small NH town and in those surrounding, we have scenic spots along brooks, waterfalls and ponds. We have mountaintops with spectacular views. We have groves of old-growth trees and a variety of native flora. And we have wildlife! In recent years, parking to access these places has blocked our narrow roads. Trash litters the trails and graffiti adorns treetrunks. Some publicly-owned areas have had to be closed for months at a time, and the owners of private property have had to put up "no trespassing" signs. The places that I used to explore freely as a kid are becoming restricted because too many people, and especially too many thoughtless slobs, are overwhelming them.
I’m from NH! My small mountain town that my family has lived in for three generations is ruined- alllllll due to over tourism. Some of my favorite hidden gems have leaked online and now it’s too crowded. I miss when I was a kid and hiking was an escape. Now it’s just a tourist trap.
@@Favorites939 Another problem can be overdevelopment. Some of our scenic rural places - or access thereto - are now in somebody's back yard. That's why my 50 acres along a beautiful brook are under easement. After I'm gone it will remain as it is for the foreseeable future.
Man I'd gatekeep your area dont need more people
@@Bobrogers99 suburban sprawl is insane, lately those ugly factories/warehouses/datacenter are growing up and appearing everywhere
Ugh agree! I'm the only person I see walking around picking up litter. Even our north woods are busy now due to the solar eclipse bringing tourists north. It's hard to find solitude even in Umbagog this year. All the state parks were booked all July. We're too tiny for 1.4 million residents then adding all the tourists.
Edit - even Pittsburg was bumping all summer. The only solitude I found was off the back roads on East Inlet. My point is I've never had to travel so far down the back roads just to find peace and solitude.
An amazing video, as a Chilean, I empathize with the subject as a lot of our national parks are starting to suffer from littering and overcrowding is now common in torres del Paine. It's nice that a lot of people get to know the beauty of this country, but it needs to be in a controlled way, nature needs a lot of space to function properly.
In Australia, we closed the climb on top of Uluru, not just because of cultural sensitivity, but also because a lot of people were pooping on top of the rock because it's such a long trek.
I never understood and probably will never understand why people go out to beautiful places and then litter there
TdeP is amazing. One good thing about it being so popular though is that it acts as a honey pot that attracts all the people so meaning less people at other places. I did the Dientes circuit on Isla Navarino a few years ago and rest assured that most definitely is NOT crowded as it is difficult to get to and not on the tourist circuit (yet).
From somebody who spent the first 9 years of my life in Maine and then the next 10 years living 10 minutes outside of Joshua tree National park in southern ca, this hits home. Along with this is small towns being built up overnight and pricing out the locals. I saw on airbnb the other day a house in Joshua tree that was renting for $6500 a night, nice house but nothing magical. I remember my mom renting a 3 bedroom duplex 15 minutes away from that house just 8 years ago for $600 a month. People are overcrowding precious areas for sure. That’s why I’m planning on buy land way way up in Maine where it’s super rural.
This is even a problem at smaller forests/parks. I used to live right next to a state forest that is part of the Appalachian trail and over the years it got so busy, trails got dirty, locals got priced out of houses and could no longer shop at businesses that were now catering to, and towns really don't have the infrastructure to handle so many tourists at once. I don't want to gate keep nature because no one should, but so many people come up and have no idea how to treat the land. This video does a really good job explaining some of the issues people living in these areas face.
As a Moab local, this video is both accurate and terrifying. Terrifyingly accurate. The tourists have gotten so out of hand. During the increasingly longer tourist season, I have to plan my routes so i don't have to make a left-hand turn onto Main street. :'(
Couldn’t agree more. I’ve spent my entire life here in St. George and thought I would be here the rest of my life. I’m currently going through the process of selling and leaving my hometown because it’s been absolutely ruined by massive tourism influx. It’s completed priced out the locals like me and is a shell of its former self.
Avoiding tourists is a thing I guess. I also change my way to avoid Times Square in NYC 😂
Prime time to develop public transport infrastructure then
My family visited you guys. Drove for three days just to get turned around at the gate. I'm still bummed about it. I feel bad for you guys though. We don't have to worry about tourism where I live, lol.
@@carlosandleon it doesn't work well in places like Southern Utah, unfortunately.
As a Utah resident and lover of getting out and away, it frustrates me how busy key areas have gotten with "click and go" crowds who only want proof they were there. However, it has pushed me to find new lesser-known areas. Some of which require me to increase both my physical and survival skills. I truly treasure finding and taking the paths less known. All of that doesn't mean that don't wish I could visit the big 5 whenever I wanted, it means that I only go during the dead of winter when the single digit temps greatly reduces the number of tourists. I don't know what the right answer is, I just know how I deal with the problem.
Dude, the problem is us Utahns. Literally everyone takes weekends to go from Salt Lake to Zions park and Moab. We grew in population as a state like 1 million people in 10 years, a ton of them just from births.
Hi gatekeeper. You're mad that others are enjoying what you enjoy on a regular basis by living in relatively close proximity.
@@SpaseGoast I live in a tourist town myself and though 99% of the year it's fine, the time when the major festival of my town rolls around is the time when California plates start parking in our driveway. That's pretty frustrating. Also, people just going to get a click and blocking traffic is pretty annoying when you are just trying to go about your day but I also understand that this fella is complaining about doing pretty much the same thing he does. But at least he has decided to adventure a bit and try to find other places
first world problems
Yeah, my family are native Utahns and have watched the same rapid rise in attendance. It's telling how as soon as you go on a hike that's not crazy advertised, or one that's long, the number of people thin out significantly.
Happy to see this talked about! I'm an avid backpacker who went to Yosemite for the first time a few years ago. I was *disgusted* by the overcrowded campgrounds, buses, packed parking, trash, etc. I felt like I was at "6-flags over California"...not at a national park wilderness. The scenery was beautiful - But the number of people taking selfies on the trail totally ruined the experience.
As a native Californian who spends a lot of time outside all over the state I have come up with the opinion that there is no secluded wilderness left in the state(far north as an exception). The Coast, NP and State Park system, even the deserts and forget the Tahoe area….all full of people.
@@jeffreyriedenauer9052I actually adjusted that trip - and instead of spending the entirety at Yosemite I only spend a few days there to hit the highlights, then I spent the remaining 1.5 weeks exploring the Ansel Adams Wilderness next door. It was only about a 1-hour drive from Yosemite to the trailhead, was *just* as beautiful (if not more), and I didn't see another person the entire time I was out there!! Since then I've highly encouraged everyone to look for nearby Wilderness areas when looking for seclusion...you might want to check that one out as well!
This can apply to pretty much all things hyped on social media. For example, little known hole-in-the-wall restaurants or stores.
It’s not just social media.
Horseshoe Bend in Arizona used to get 4,000 visitors per year.
Then Microsoft put it as their screensaver.
Now they get over 2 million visitors per year.
Same story for “the wave” in Kanab, Utah.
Both because of screensavers.
Visiting from Europe, all of these parks are amazing.
We visited Yosemite last year but were not aware of the visitor limited that was implemented there. That forced us to visit at 5.30 AM. In fact, in hindsight, that was such a blessing. When hiking the Upper Yosemite Trail, we encoutered about two people and one black bear :)
When hiking down however, we encountered hundreds of people walking upwards in a line. I simply couldn't believe how many people were hiking this trail in one direction.
It must have been such a mid experience for these people.
I underline your statement that many people visiting, not only the same park but also the same highlights, is not right for the park. It does not only endanger the conservation of precious nature, it also decreases the overall experience for everyone involved (visitors, employees and nearby residents).
I hope the USA can find a solution/opportunity for visitor spread!
Also sounds like there aren't enough trails in US parks. You could probably spread the people around, though that'd require even more resources to maintain... I guess it should just be acknowledged by the government and funding raised drastically for the park service?
Honestly, its sad that people will travel all the way to a National Park and plan to spend THE DAY. Acadia gets crazy overcrowded. But if you go at sunrise or later in the evening (not at places like Cadillac Mountain) you'll get to move freely and see some incredible beauty during golden hour...
Which month did you visit Yosemite?
@amunak_ I don't think it's a problem of bad infrastructure. The problem is all the people want to be in the same finite/small area at the exact same time. The only government funding I can think off, is spending on promotional campaigns for lesser known parks/forests to create more spread.
@@BnORailFan It was june 2nd last year (regular thursday)
It’s not just social media.
Horseshoe Bend in Arizona used to get 4,000 visitors per year.
Then Microsoft put it as their screensaver.
Now they get over 2 million visitors per year.
Same story for “the wave” in Kanab, Utah.
Both because of screensavers.
and Antelope canyon :(
@@primarytrainer1 For me this is dissapointing. I discovered Antelope canyon not because of social media or the like, but because I was researching the Navajo and wanted to see places to visit once I could rent a car. Fast foward 8 years later, and im now able to (affordably) rent a car, but since then Ive found out that Antelope is now a place with a mob of tourists.
Only to get there, confirm that it looks the same, and then take a photo that is uglier than their screensaver
@@thehistorynerd8537 oh wow you have more of right to be somewhere because you learned of it in a different way. Wow so kool
Once again proving that social media is the worst thing to have ever been invented
That's really the simmer point for all of this, isn't it? People so focused on going viral, doing anything they can to get the photo they want. I grew up on family land that butts up against a state park/protected wilderness area, and I could tell off rip who was there for nature and who was there for instagram. No respect for nature's power, most of them end up getting hurt somehow or getting lost. They ALWAYS left trash behind, sometimes enough to look like someone dumped household trash. So many of them would end up somewhere on our land after getting lost on the trails and then would have the audacity to get mad at us for telling them they were on private property and were on the wrong trail.
I can't help but feel a truly huge amount of disgust for anyone that shares delicate natural sites online, because it always ends up destroyed in some way by the influx of people looking to get a little piece of the clout pie. I think the people who feel the need to share their hiking accomplishments online, especially those who live as 'trail influencers', are incredibly stupid and shortsighted, and I do not believe they love the outdoors the way they say they do. It's all about the attention and the money.
It's the great filter that will cause the next mass extinction event
It obviously causes a lot of problems, but I wouldn’t say it’s all negative. It’s also helped connect a lot of people, especially those with disabilities who can’t get out as much or who belong to marginalized groups. And it’s help bring attention, and possibly solutions, to many issues that have normally gone under the radar.
Tv advertisements including
Should be banned
My family has been climbing mt. Katahdin for 4+ generations, and my parents and grand parents comment each time that it's much more difficult now logistically than it was in the past. The only reason we can still make it is by reserving months in advance, and having a car with a state of Maine license plate. With that said, those rules do work. Every time we go the park is clean, and not over crowded.
Baxter does an amazing job putting conservation first. Other should take note. Even as a Massachusetts resident I don’t mind not being able to reserve a spot earlier since I know how important it is. Instead I go to some amazing places in western mass or New Hampshire
Yeah, I compare pictures of Mount Katahdin to those of Everest's trails of trash... Humans suck.
@@paulfinneran4244 What are some of your favorite spots in western mass? I recently moved just west of Worcester and I'm looking to get out for some weekend hiking.
This, Katahdin is the standard all other parks should strive for if they care one whit about long-term sustainability of the park.
The strict rules and regulations cull a lot of people who just want to summit for social media content. I’d say enact the same rules for every mountain with a summit above the treeline. Post a minimum gear list and turn away anyone who doesn’t have it. If that had been the case in Franconia Notch then Emily Sotelo would still be alive.
The vapid vanity of social media influence is a disease. I am from southern Utah and grew up a frequent visitor of public land, nowadays it’s so infested with campers, off roaders and people shooting guns that it has lost the solace it had just 5 or 6 years ago. Places I used to go to be alone are now infested with crowds and it’s nullifying everything I used to love about my home.
So true!
Same here in Maine! I can’t enjoy Acadia National Park in the summer or fall anymore since it’s swamped with tourists even in more remote parts of Mount Desert Island.
@@maggiebethturcotte4796 I always imagined Maine as being quiet and rural! I’m glad that people are getting out in nature, but to me fighting crowds for local tourist attractions decimates our ability to enjoy the nature alone. I don’t like that there is industry built around the hype of isolated spots. Definitely understand your grievance, I hope things improve!
@@bradenmitchell976give the parks huge donations so they don't have to advertise to bring in money.
@@Sam-xr8ne National and state parks are non profit public entities mostly paid for by tax dollars, same goes for state and federal protected land. Your comment makes zero sense.
Glad you mentioned the impact the increased volume in the parks has had on the search and rescue services. The problem with SAR services is especially bad in places like White Mountains National Forest, where people routinely underestimate the mountains and get into trouble with the unpredictable weather. I am 100% in favor of the reservation system both to limit the impact of people on these conservation areas and to force people to spend a little more time researching the location and knowing how to prepare.
Agreed. I’m a whitewater kayaker and see people who have zero experience on whitewater trying to run class 3 or 4 rivers. Inadequate kayaks, no PFD and no idea how to paddle in fast current. The big problem there is other kayakers are the first responders. We’re having to put ourselves into b dangerous situations trying to rescue people who have no business on that type of water.
Yeah, underestimating stuff is something a lot of people often do.
For example, im my area (Southern Bavaria) we often have tourists from Northern Germany, especially from people near the sea.
Hiking guides always go the beginner paths first with them, even if they are marathon runners, even if they complain. And guess what, they always get out of breath. Why? Because being multiple hundred metres above sea level instead of effectively at sea level is something their body just straight up isn't used to.
As someone who grew up in a small mountain town, stuff like this is why I usually avoid state parks in general. It's just so much more fun to go out into national forest where there aren't any tourists. You don't get charged for camping, and it's rare to ever see anybody. And if you're careful and know the biology of the area you're in, you can just wander through the woods. I really miss just going out with my friends, finding a nice spot with a campfire, and having a night of relaxing around the fire and hiking through the forest the next day
You understand the dangers of wilderness. City folk are idiots for the most part. I pray every day they don't find out about my local areas off the beaten path. They'll destroy it forever if they ever do
A nearly identical situation is happening in Yosemite right now. There are just too many people here and they are destroying the natural resources we want so badly to protect. Someone parked in a protected meadow the other day not only harming the plants (there are signs you're not even supposed to walk in the meadow) but they also parked on the helicopter landing spot in that meadow! How dangerous! Now there are shunts in place periodically through the day at the El Capitan Crossing essentially blocking off the east side of Yosemite Valley. You could wait hours to get into the park and then be turned around as soon as you get into the valley. It's nuts here right now! Passing through the town of Mariposa on your way here you'll see multiple signs trying to put a cap on how many airbnbs there are in the town. Employees have to drive an hour into the park every morning (a lot of the closer housing itaken by vacation rentals) and now that people are catching on to arrive early, the employees are stuck in the line too.
😭
dude, covid? Do you remember it? people were locked down lol
I’m a photographer in California and I love taking camping trips to shoot landscape photos, and friends have always asked me why I haven’t been to Yosemite, and telling me I gotta go see it. I always said it’s because there’s too many people, but I’ve never seen it first hand. I just took a trip to the Eastern Sierras two weeks ago and decided to take a detour to Yosemite. It was amazing up near Tioga Pass and Tuolumne, and I even did a backcountry night at Sunrise lakes and only passed a few people on the trail, but the next day I drove over an hour into Yosemite Valley and immediately turned around and left, didn’t even get out of my car because of all the people and traffic. You couldn’t even pull over to take a photo. The most beautiful views in the world aren’t worth dealing with crowds of tourists.
I don't understand how you can't park somewhere but you can fly a goddamn heli through and land there. Other than that the people who go into parks and trash them are not good people for sure
Yosemite is one place I don't want to visit again. Looks beautiful in the picture, in reality full of tourists ruining photos.
I do feel like this is a phase that's been instigated by the lockdowns, and it may not calm down for a few years still. Once people get the sight seeing out of their system they may do other things and hopefully towns and parks can finally relax a little. Larger cities should really put more focus on making nature (even if artificially placed) available to people within the limits of the city too, it could help.
Definitely
Also because people have less money and it’s a cheap day out
Plenty of cities already do this. NYC has tons of parks, including ones that feel remote, just a bus or train ride away. Boston has the fens, SF has the Presidio, Seattle has Washington and Discovery parks, etc. The people who come out to nat'l parks to sight-see aren't city-dwellers, they're suburbanites who sprawled into precious agricultural and wild lands and now lack those kinds of natural wonders in their vicinity.
“Making” nature lol😂
@@Eclipse1369 Reading comprehension?
This kind of reminds me of what I've seen at Machu Picchu. Everything, from the train to Aguascalientes, to the bus up the mountain, to the site itself, needs an expensive booking, and bookings have to be made well in advance. And this is all necessary considering how crowded the site is.
ADIOS ADIOS ADIOS!! (said the little boy at every switchback on the way down).
...tips likely split with the driver.
that was my recollection of visiting there as well. those expensive amenities are a huge source of income for the region so I certainly support the cost
One way to help curb this problem is putting a cap on how many times or nights one person/household can reserve at a park. Another one is limiting space for non-local visitors and giving some priority to people who are local to the area. Right now in Vancouver, BC, it is impossible to reserve anything during the summer. Some boast "more than 40 nights in the outdoors over summer" while I can't even book one weekend. As a local who just wants to be in some nature and find some peace and quiet away from city life, this is very deflating. About poor etiquette, I was just talking with a friend about people pooping everywhere and not only not burying it, but also leaving "socks" behind because they apparently didn't have toilet paper.... We seriously need more robust fines as well as set up a good reporting system in order for all of us to keep each other accountable and conserve our parks. Absolutely despicable behavior. Also if you're an "influencer" that means that you taking up the space to "create content", is taking away from my opportunity to regulate my mental health. People only think for themselves and don't consider others at all.
I live in Hawaii for a long time.
I watched tourism decrease the quality of life.
Drive the cost of living to an unreasonable hight.
Forcing many residents to leave, including myself.
It is sad, but I am very grateful I was able to spend all those years living in old Hawaii before the insane growth.
Get over it. Those tourists are the only reason your economy exists.
the natives thought the same about people like you.
Toward the end you highlight the pros and cons of the gatekeeping that has long prevailed in the climbing community, I appreciate your non-biased views in these videos and how you truly showcase the conversation while adding supporting facts.
@sundog aurora A lot of climbing crags were initially kept from the "general" community. In a tale as old as time, they get open to the public, abused, then closed. Its a growing problem all around the world; Boulders and route access often depends on the blessing of private owners, so simply gatekeeping access is often the only way to keep a crag climbable long term, even if its for a sliver of the community. I am of the opinion that everyone should have access to these spaces and they should absolutely belong to the public, but it's unsustainable for some of these spaces.
Yes! this is something I really appreciated about the video
@@philipegoulet448And if someone legitimately loves doing outdoor activities, and puts in the effort to learn how to protect them, those doors will be opened.
I can't believe so many people are freaking out about the assertion that we should gatekeep people who are mistreating the land.
@@philipegoulet448
Ever hear of Louie Anderson?
(Gluey Louie?)
HE is the reason gatekeeping is important in climbing.
@@sendthis9480 Wait why?
I tried looking the guy up, no clue what he has to do with climbing tbh
Could you explain for a dumdum please
I went on a highly technical alpine hike with tons of scrables and very difficult terrain to find a bunch of people in their 40-60's in sun dresses and button downs doing the same hike. Insane to see. I'm sure they turned back once they realized just how hard it was. Communicating difficulty is highly problematic as well.
I live near Boulder, CO. In the winter there's a trail up the mountains that's really fun with ice spikes. I saw people sliding around in sneakers, inches from a deadly drop off with no water
You make a good point about difficulty. My gf anf I are fit and can manage any trail around BUT she hates heights so if it involves some kind of climb or bridge it instantly becomes extremely difficult. Fortunately she is a beast so the few times its popped up she was able to push through. But now anytime i describe a trail i really try to highlight the elevation, the technical aspects, and what the payoff is. A paragraph description will always be more useful than a one word difficulty scale
I did an easy-moderate hike that was abt 2hrs in to see a waterfall, then 2h back out. When we were most of the way out we passed a mom and her young child (6?), both wearing crocs, who asked us if they were almost there yet. Uhhh, no.
@@jakel2837 Then there are people who start a morning hike in indian peaks wilderness with normal shoes. Then it warms up, they're a few miles in, and they start postholing...
Im in Canada. Ive been doing various outdoors activities my entire life. The pandemic ruined all of them. Idiotic city people crowd the wilderness and disregard common sense, litter, and generally cause disarray. We went for a hike recently that used to maybe have a handful of people on it at the same time as us, and there were literally thousands of people. It was like being at some huge attraction somewhere. My one escape from the idiocy of city life is now somehow worse than just staying in the city.
I want to give thanks to the park rangers in educating and maintaining the national and state parks. Without there hard work, none of the park experience would be possible.
Exactly we owe them a lot, them as well as community run trail care groups who help maintain trails.
The individuals who worked for the CCC should get respect, too. At least in my opinion. I love the buildings so much. They are so beautiful. I hope hope the CCC gets revived.
*their
Never praise people in uniform they'll think they're special.
Which they got paid more but it is a really sought after career
I live and work at Grand Canyon national park. People get super defensive when this topic is brought up, saying we are “gate keeping nature”. It’s incredibly frustrating how shortsighted people can be
You are though, you are gatekeeping it for the wealthy and powerful. It’s definitely not equal access. Maybe you’re the short sighted one, not seeing that these are experiences most people want to have for obvious reasons. Do i think its actually about “cOnSeRvAtioN”?
🤣
No. No i do not think that is the actual case. Even if it was, conserving it for who exactly? For why exactly? Oh its so the elites dont have to bump elbows with we lowly peasants.
@@GangusBong1 because it’s not about people, it’s about protecting the natural resources and landscape. If my or your presence is going to have a negative impact on those things, we are not entitled to visit or use them. It’s really not that complicated.
@@themegjake4000 thats where you’re wrong bucko, society in general is about people. Plus like conserving some dusty old canyon for the sake of itself its silly, idealistic, bullcrap that wouldnt and shouldn’t get funding.
No. conservation is about posterity(preserving it for future generations of OTHER PEOPLE).
@@GangusBong1 you lost all credibility when you called a natural wonder of the world “some dusty old canyon”. It shows that you think of these places as somewhere for your entertainment and nothing else. Have a nice day 👍
It is gatekeeping. But the alternative is ruining it for everyone, forever. As long as that gatekeeping is as fair as possible that's really the best compromise we have so far.
It's such a bummer. I went on a road trip, where I did see arches, zion, and the grand canyon. Some of my favorite spots of nature were actually along the way. Trust me, it's worth trying to look for other, lesser known places, because the sense of discovery you get, and the stories you get to tell of places that people you know have likely never been. Photos of things that less people have seen. Also, these places are SO popular now that it feels like you're not even out in nature. I want to get away from people when I'm out in nature, not wait in lines. Haha
At least, I hope that the popularity of national parks really pushes people to fight to not only keep the ones we have, but open up more nature spots in their local areas too. One of my favorite hikes is just in my town, not too far from where I live. Companies are BEGGING the city to let them build homes over it. We need to keep our local outdoor areas too.
Exactly. One of my favorite places was one I found in a local county park. I glanced over the side of an overlook with a picnic table to see the barest traces of a trail, which wasn’t on the map. I followed the spur out a ways, knowing it was a dead end, and found a rocky outcrop above a 40-foot drop to a creek. I stayed there for a few hours, have gone back a bunch of times, and have only taken a few close friends to see it. Don’t blow up the spot.
There are literally hundreds of these kinds of places in just about every county.
I agree. Humans tend to spoil everything good and that applies to a lot more than just nature. Of course the worst of all imo are the extremely sexy, tight yoga pants wearing instagram th0ts. It’s beyond infuriating and soul crushing knowing you’ll always be invisible to such creatures; and if you do somehow manage to work up the nerve to present yourself in a way to pursue them romantically, at best you’ll be politely rejected. At worst, you’ll be any one of the following: beat up by chad white knights, plastered all over social media as a creep, arrested for harassment, pepper sprayed or kicked in the most painful spot. Then these same women will cry about them being the oppressed ones. What a wonderful world! 🤡🤡🤡
So imagine imagine how it is for people like us. Not only do we have to put up with garbage, fake ass people ruining our safe havens, but among those people we see multitudes of guys just casually walking around with the most high quality breed stock on the market as though they don’t even realize they have the human equivalent of a billion dollars in their bank accounts. All while knowing due to their genetic/financial advantage, they have practically unlimited access to what we’ll never be granted a single lick of in our lifetime. I don’t know exactly how harmful that is to our mental health but I do know it’s far beyond what a nice hike in the great outdoors is capable of healing.
My wife and have learned to visit the parks before the kids get out of school in June and after they go back in September. June, July, and August is spent tending our garden.
Same thing happens in cities too, Amsterdam residents feel like the benefits of tourists outweigh the cost of dealing with them and their influence on the 'normal' resident's lives.
In general tourism is becoming more focused on the 'good' spots that were created over many years, often because of their uniqueness or isolation.
Kraków and Zakopane in Poland too.
Klopt helemaal! Additionally, I dont feel 'Dutch' anymore in Amsterdam. That is why I avoid it at all costs because it's just not fun anymore. Due to the fact that tourists are everywhere, bars, shops and others hire English-only speaking employees etc which makes the 'Dutch identity' go away.
Good comment. In general, overtourism is a huge issue, especially as flying or travelling in general is becoming more and more affordable each year. For example, just look at the cruising industry: Ships are only getting bigger and bigger each year, and the number of both cruise passengers and ships is steadily rising.
In the past, most places opening up for tourists simply could not imagine the huge numbers of tourists that have access to travelling now or in the future.
@@pixoontube2912 Exactly! I remember two years ago when I was in the Côte d'azur at a small village, there was some sort of WW2 history where many US ships had been stationed there. This caused a massive tourist attraction for Americans who were coming from airplanes first as almost all Europeans did not have money for that yet. Then in the future, cruising companies created trips that would go along those routes (including that small town) which would increase the number of tourists even more. Now, they only have about 10.000 people living there but I believe close to 50.000 Americans alone coming from cruise ships. It gave them a lot of profit, but the negative effects (such as overcrowding and infrastructure not up to date) outweighed the positive ones. They also have to deal with French and European tourists which is even more than that 50k.
In DC people live in subrubs, and avoid the main city as much as possible
Performative social media clout has put a big dent in most hobbies..
I feel a bit sad when i see people going to a place, just snapping "the pic" and then going back home without even looking like they enjoyed the experience :(
When I was in Bali years ago, I saw ads for this travel agency that did what they called the "Ego Trip." Basically they would bus you around to all the instagram spots and would even have someone take a professional picture and send it to you if you wanted. I didn't do it because I generally don't want people to know where I am or what I'm doing, but I appreciated how self-aware it was.
You're not kidding. I remember when social media was starting out and how people could find tons of different hobbies and find people passionate about them and it was awesome. Over time it feels like hobbies have just become the next thing to hustle or be competitive at for clout or skill or whatnot. Heck, I even remember when hobbies were considering things that had a natural cost to them but now people are trying to constantly advertise how to monetize your hobby or else it's considered a "waste of time"
Become a landscape photographer. You'll look for vistas without five people in your shot one way or another. Astrophotography is much more accessible now and crowds at 2AM are not really a thing
Oh so instead they were supposed to "look like they enjoyed the experience" to.. you? That's kinda odd isn't it? Like Idk man, I barely use my phones camera at all, but I don't believe in yucking someone else's yum even if I don't care for it, and I'm not the judge of whether someone is "genuinely" enjoying themselves.
@@trombonegamer14 Actually,I do know people who do this,they exist
I visited Moab for the first time in March. It was incredibly beautiful. We were there just ahead of the peak rush and once I learned what that meant, I was so grateful! I also recall several of our bike guides talking about the housing crisis and how hard it is for seasonal workers to even get there because of it. The town survives on tourism, yet tourism is destroying the town? Clearly it’s tough to balance.
It is such a beautiful place - but it's getting harder and harder to enjoy. You get these massive bus tours coming in with international visitors, many of whom just absolutely reveal themselves to have little idea how to respect the nature around them.
@@WasatchWind Sounds a lot like here in DC when the tourists descend upon the Cherry Blossom Festival each spring! 😩
I live near Disneyland…and the amount of infrastructure and systems in place to manage all the visitors is astronomical.
I think Moab only sees about 1/5th of the amount of visitors…but still, you have a have a pretty massive system in place in order to accommodate all the tourists, as well as provide services for them all.
The more Moab grows…the more it has to become like Disneyland. 🤮
Look at Horseshoe Bend, in Arizona.
It was once a quiet little nothing, where you had to find an unmarked dirt trail in order to make it.
Then Microsoft used it as a screensaver.
Now over two million people per year go…and there’s a huge parking lot and bathrooms and handrails everywhere.
Populations require elimination of nature. It’s just math, unfortunately.
It looks like Moab’s real estate could undergo some development in the upward direction, which would make more room for visitors and the businesses that serve them. Many people could stay in hotels in the town and take buses or vans out into nature in the daytime.
The other problem is the remoteness of Moab. It's not sustainable to expand the infrastructure too much. The water use alone becomes problematic (and indeed, water use in that region of the country is badly straining the local environment).
You aren't stuck in traffic, you are the traffic.
Man, this is such a thing! We have already stopped visiting major outdoor areas on holiday weekends, and I am anticipating it to be like that more and more. These parks weren't built for the attendance numbers, so parking and staying near these parks has gotten really difficult. Even just visiting the river locally is over-impacted to the point that you think twice about going. Just gotta keep finding those hidden gems...
I think one of the biggest takeaways from this video, is that people are unimaginative. Lack of better terms, they follow the crowd quite literally. I live about an hour from the south end of Great Smoky Mountain National Park. The reality is if you're going to Gatlinburg, it will be absolutely overcrowded does not feel like a wilderness and is generally not an escape. However, if you simply go to some of the lesser known trailheads, which I'm not going to name here, then you can truly experience the smokies as they were intended despite the record number visitors. I did a 17 mile trail run last year on labor day weekend and saw 8 other people that day. It's not just that they're congregating to five or six parks, it's at their congregating all to the same spot.
Furthermore, as pointed out, there's often alternatives nearby. For example, near the Smokies is the Joyce Kilmer and Citico Creek wilderness areas, those mountains are just as spectacular as the Smokies, maybe even more so because they aren't visited nearly as much and the wilderness is truly more preserved. And again I can run or hike there at certain trailheads and only see a handful of people, but again I'm not going to name those places because I'd rather them not be ruined by tourism.
For me, the only reason I visited the Smokes (or, at least the mountain range) is because I wanted to go to Cherokee, North Carolina. It was first and foremost a cultural trip to see the last remaining (actual) dominant Cherokee inhabeted region east of the mississipi. It was breathtaking there, with the roads fun to drive and the small trailheads, random natural roadside attractions, and honestly for the summer, not that busy area that made me fall in love with the region, along with the cool Cherokee history, art, and the experience. (Also my campsite was further away from the core of the "reservation" (its more of a trust land), and was on an ice cold river that was fun to tube without crowds of strangers outside of the few campers swimming in it.
I have also noticed this and to me it is a good thing. The box ticking bucket list sheep crowd into a handful of areas which leaves other places free and uncrowded for the more adventurous and those willing to do a bit of research.
I went to the Smokies a few months ago. Something we quickly learned is that if you go just 15 minutes down the trail, 90% of the hikers will drop off.
Some National Parks are practically ghost towns. Perhaps a solution is figuring out ways to get users to try the less popular spaces to get experience before heading out to the more challenging ones. Could even make it a program so you need the stamp from one of these before you can get admitted to one of the more challenging places.
Recently, a very successful UA-cam hiker had to get rescued in the Grand Canyon. He is a very experienced hiker and had all the right gear and was with an even more experienced hiker who has worked as a guide. At the same time, you see people on trails late in the afternoon heading up to peaks that take hours round trip and they are wearing cotton clothes, casual shoes, and maybe have a bottle of water for safety. Yeesh.
Quit telling people that so I can keep enjoying not having anyone around.
In my opinion, people putting themselves at such absurd risk are on their own. People climbing or hiking in dangerous areas not only risk their own skin, but the skins of those that might be forced to come rescue them from their own stupidity.
@@timcooper62 I understand where you are coming from, but that’s really pretty extreme, Tim. If we are going to start deleting government services, I can think of some much juicier targets.
Just give it time people will adapt.
“try the less popular spaces”
I think all places of interest in national parks are crowded, places that are specifically marked in the park’s visitor guides and maps. I don’t think park rangers would even allow people to go off trail, they would confine them to the marked areas of the park.
I visited Baxter a couple years ago and it was so beautiful and peaceful due to those limits. We saw essentially no other people when we went on the trails. The cabins there (if you can get reservations) are picturesque.
Hey, that's Don from Sierra Rescue International at 24:07 - he was my instructor for swiftwater rescue technician years ago!
Seeing him reminds me of one of the most educational experiences I've had in the outdoors:
Early in the training, Don put us in a calm, gently flowing, section of the river, and had two trainees stand in the water about waist- to chest-deep, holding a sturdy ~2-meter plastic pipe between them right at the water level. (picture a setup like a limbo bar) A third trainee then had to float on their back into the bar so that their lower body was under it, and from this position - try to climb over the bar. Our unit was pretty fit and it seemed simple enough, so we shrugged and each gave it a try. No one on the team could get over the bar. I tried to get one leg over it to give me leverage and that just flipped me upside down. After everyone had tried, Don then explained how even though the river was flowing relatively gently, if you get pinned against the current, the force acting on you is tremendous. I've never looked at a flowing river the same way again.
The great outdoors can be dangerous - even more so because almost all of us are just not that familiar with the dangers.
The nice thing about loving the outdoors is that if you hike for 3 days, the odds of seeing other people get increasing lower. The first mountain outside Anchorage has lots of trail runners, dog walkers, etc. The next one has only a few, and 2 days in, you see nobody all day. If it is not famous and it is strenuous, I find that no matter where you are in the world, you will find a few days hike worth of solitude and natural beauty if you really want it.
Even on the small scale, living in Eastern, PA. There are the nature hikes that are absolutely crowded every day, but 10x as nany ones with the exact same beauty but practically no visitors. Don't Google best hikes in America, or PA or whatever, and then spend hours travelling to it only to find it busy. Explore your local hikes.
Yea us Alaskans are pretty lucky, if you go to flattop in winter nobody's there, and right past that is the heart of the chugach mountain range
I've been hiking and camping in our own province for decades and never go where there's tourists or people in general. It's a choice you make.
no matter where you are? try this in sunny suburban sprawly new jersey, the most isolated place in most of america is a suburb or still significantly developed with interstates and large power pylons, i wish everyone else in general was gone from everywhere, i can live in my own personal empty earth with infrastructure that runs itself and you all can stay here
I'm a native Utahn, and from a family that has always done lots of hiking and camping. We've watched slowly across the years as things have gotten worse and worse. The line of cars to get in and out of arches is terrible. The number of super inexperienced hikers climbing on the dangerous section of angel's landing in Zion is distressing to say the least.
It's sadly led my family to seeking out more out of the way parks - we're going to Great Basin this summer for example.
It is very hard not to feel somewhat frustrated. I'm happy to see people out here in the natural world, but there's just... so many of them.
I guess I should at least be glad that they aren't coming up to much of northern Utah where most of us actually live.
Visited Great Basin back in 2018 beautiful place.
I liked the word "Utahn"
I wonder if some of the limits placed on visitors should include “locals only days.” You have to show a license from that state to get in. It would give the nature itself some rest from onslaught of tourists, and the managers could breathe a little too, as locals are going to be more concerned with the long-term good of the land and more skilled in navigating local terrain.
We are low income and live relatively near Lake Tahoe. We used to go to the lake all the time….but for the past 5 years we only go in the fall and spring time. It is impossibly crowded and expensive during summer/winter….over 65% of the homes around Tahoe are time shares and vacation rentals
I was incredibly fortunate to visit Utah's "big 5" multiple times each while growing up in the late 2000s/early 2010s, when they really still felt like wild, off the beaten path places. I have been back in my adult life during shoulder seasons and still nearly missed out on entering Arches on a weekday at 9:00am... wild stuff. I highly recommend that anyone who found this video particularly interesting read Desert Solitaire, by Edward Abbey. though a bit negative at times it is a wonderful account of when these parks were truly wilderness, and provides great insight into many conservation issues of the region.
Great suggestion, that book changed my life
Yeah, excellent book
I grew up 45 minutes outside of Yosemite valley and remember visiting with my family every weekend. I recently took my wife there remembering it as my old stomping ground, and it was unrecognizable. The traffic, good god the traffic... and it was a weekday. Sure when I was a kid there were lots of people, but it wasn't the social media theme park that it is today.
To recapture that magic, the only time to go to these awesome parks is winter.
Shhhhhh keep that last part a secret
Social media theme park is the perfect way to describe it
I went to Yosemite to revisit one of the backpacking trails I did half a lifetime ago. It was so incredibly full of people. Just about campsite I walked past was full, compared to 20 years ago when we seemingly were one of the only backpackers out there. It’s not even a super popular or well-known trail. I won’t say it ruined it for me, but it really dampened the feeling of isolation that I was searching for out there.
Omg I felt this. In Vancouver, BC I can only get camping spots after first week of September, and they close by October and don't open back up until April😭
This is the American way. People go where the crowds go, so they can earn a living. I see nothing wrong in that. People have to be able to live. Again, you are putting nature about people. That is NOT how it works!
Living in Utah, I’ve become a winter camper and I actually love it. No bugs, barely see anyone, and quiet. Going this weekend though and dreading it. I encourage everyone to gatekeep your spots!
I went to Utah this February and loved it, though sadly it didn't make my trip immune from crowds. Zion had to close the gates two of the days I was there because there were too many people in the park. (And yes, that's why they have the shuttle system for most of the year.) Still, I'd encourage anyone to go in winter. It was beautiful.
I've considered winter camping here and I'm just not sure I could do it. My family at least has found a pretty good handful of hikes in northern Utah that aren't too busy.
I'm glad that most people only go to the ski towns here, because I'd hate to deal with people flooding the Wasatch front the way they are Moab.
Gatekeep is probably the wrong word here. Just don't talk about it and most certainly DO NOT POST IT ON THE INTERNET IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM.
@@upside93 yes ffs gatekeeping ppl from enjoying the outdoors is so dumb sounding 😂
I've been subscribed to you since the illegal number video and I think this is one of the most important pieces of content you've produced so far. When you said that parks which completely exclude everybody are unnatural, I was reminded of what a friend told me about how indigenous people don't actually want to leave a forest untouched because pre-agricultural humans were basically all park rangers/conservationists for thousands of years; they maintained healthy animal populations, and spaced out activities like wood gathering to reduce canopy crowding. We as a species need to be more conscientious and respectful about maintaining and interacting with the areas we spent 90% of our history within.
I have friends who are old-school 20th century outdoors people. They recently tried to do a road trip to all of their favorite parks out west and had to turn back midway through because of the cost. When Sam talked about the effects on Moab, I immediately thought about them. You think the kind of traffic they're seeing is pushing up local inflation in the gateway communities for food and fuel, above the national trend?
Yes. The inflation rate in gateway communities, especially for housing, is many many many times the national rates.
The small 2 bedroom apartment in the gateway community I lived in was $700/month in the early 2010s. Expensive, but affordable for a worker in the tourism industry. My old unit now rents for $250 PER NIGHT on AirBNB, not including fees.
The staff who now do the same work I did live 70 miles away and have to carpool 90 minutes each way to get to work.
As a NPS employee in southeastern Utah, this video hits close to home. Moab residents are beyond frustrated with the encroachment and impact the outdoor industry (specifically ATVs and off roading) has caused to their town. It's not uncommon to see signs on front lawns voicing residents disdain for the ATV noise.
Why are they not voting in the right leaders in the local govt to develop remedies? Last time I checked, tourists can’t vote. Everybody that lives in a over-touristed area complains about tourism (imagine Venice or Barcelona for instance), and the solution is always the same. Using your local government to develop the correct policies.
@@bojackkatarn Elected Republicans don't want to do anything that could hinder a local revenue stream / businesses. Democrats are terrified of doing anything that could be perceived as "gatekeeping nature", and are more focused on getting even more people outside.
There is no Ed Abbey party.
@@bojackkatarn limiting tourists means limiting the local economy, even if that’s what most people would prefer, you’d be hard pressed to find an American politician who won’t put the economy over all else
@XAngelxofMercyX Question for you. I live in California, right next to the Sierra's and the Mojave desert. I love exploring the mountains and desert trails, in my truck. I have found that on BLM and Forrest Service land that allow ATV's, SXS and all the other off road vehicles, it is trashed in most places. Then when I cross into an area that only allows street legal vehicles, there is a dramatic difference in the amount of trash, dust and noise. Have you noticed the same thing in Utah?
@@takenpictures i notice it in the woods of nova scotia. ATV trails connect to fire roads all over. Where the municipal cleaning ends the litter starts. Its old enough that i can tell people been this way at least two generations.
This is part of the reason why I’ve only visited overlooked parks & locals.
For example, I haven’t been to Yosemite Valley in over a decade, despite visiting the surrounding region of the Sierras multiple times annually.
I assure you, there are really cool things and experiences that just hit different than just walking in a line of people to the most photographed and publicized views.
And those trips are the ones you remember. Because they’re engaging, and it’s always memorable as it’s unique and more authentic of an appreciation of the natural beauty around us.
I don't visit parks much, but if I were to intentionally go and visit one, I'd basically do the same. I don't like how we've been turning the most famous national and state parks into an environmental Disneyland.
It's like going to Everest now, you have to wait in a line at the summit. Nothing can be enjoyed when there's loads of people around unless you're taking MDMA or drunk.
With the advent of timed entry tickets for nearly every state and NPS land that exists right in my own county, it’s very difficult as a local to access those lands. It nearly eliminates last minute decisions to go to your local public state or NPS land. Even some National Forest lands have restrictions like these. I don’t know of a better alternative for land managers but it’s certainly catering to tourists who plan their visits months or a year in advance. Because of this, I hardly visit the state and national parks that I’ve loved and helped care. I honestly think that these places should provide added benefits to full time locals. I would have no problem if full time locals in Moab didn’t need timed entry permits to the parks or other benefits . They are the community and it’s not fair to them that these rules are unfair to them.
No mention of the never ending loud-ass helicopter rides. Really adds to the 'wilderness' experience for man and beast alike. Next step: vending machines along the trails and under the arch. Or better yet - a chopper ride to a scenic wonder, time to take a few selfies, than back to the lodge...
As a Mountain biker, who fell in love with Moab,and constantly use Strava ,i just realized I'm a part of the problem
You're not inherently part of the problem though.
It just means you should try other spots.
I think a big part of this is that people want the photo op for their instagram and they want the "feeling of being out in nature", but they don't actually know much of anything about camping. So instead they stick to the main trails that are heavily trafficked and easily accessed that aren't truly very far removed from any amenities.
ya.... thing is man they have money to spend and you and i are just spending effort. Our society wants their money more than our hobbies. We will build amenities in nature before we ask people to plan ahead because it makes us money.
I was on Cadillac Mountain in Arcadia this summer knowing it was going to be busy dispite having reservations. As i walked the short paved trail with my eight year old, we passed serval signs that clearly state this area is delicate warning you to stay on the trail or walk only on the rocks. We passed multiple people stomping through the vegitation to get away from the crowds. I only did this mountain because i was with family, normally i seek out perserves or parks in Maine where you will not see a single person likely for days because it is not on an instogram feed. It is always amazing to me how nice the the other stuff is that no one goes to.
The number of times he has to bring up cars, roads, and parking shows another big issue with the national parks. They were designed for people not for cars. Very few parks have transit options inside to get around them, and even fewer have transit to the park requiring you to have to drive to even get there.
That’s a good thing. Imagine people showing up by train
@@TheCornucopiaProject-bd5jk
It is not a good thing. Zion National Park has such bad traffic issues due to how confined it is in the canyon; they have to run public transit within the park to prevent gridlock. Cars take up too much space and the infrastructure needed for them destroys the nature you are supposed to be experiencing.
And I can imagine taking a train to a National Park, it's called the Grand Canyon Railway. The amount of space it needs to move the people is does is miniscule compared to the swath of asphalt that surrounds it. It is also much more accessible due to the ability to easily transfer from the Amtrak Southwest Chief in Williams. I wish more National Parks had the options.
I recently went to the Great Smokey Mountains and dear god the situation was terrible. We left one of the hiking spots near the highest point in the park around 12:00 and drove past a literal mile long line of cars entering a full parking lot. You cannot find a parking space after 10:00 in the morning in the park.
Honestly it's not even worth going to the Smokies now not when Tennessee and North Carolina have so many state parks that offer exactly what the Smoky Mountains offer with way less people. IMO Cades Cove has to be the most overrated place in the entire National Park system, I don't understand why everyone is so impressed with it, I actually live near another cove that's BIGGER than Cades Cove and it has no people who visit it!
Was it Clingmans Dome? I made the mistake of going there Memorial Day 4 years ago it was insane. I'm not going to make that mistake again lol
Did you do this in summer? A weekend? A holiday perhaps? I'm just curious.
I've been there once in my life, in April, mid-week. It was somewhat busy, but not terrible at all. I think that it rained off and on the 3 days I was in the area kept a lot of people hiding in motorhomes. This was also a couple years before Covid, and my guess is the park is noticeably busier now.
@@AdamSmith-gs2dv Been there once, I do not intend on going back. It was kind of neat, but not what it was hyped to be. Fairly disappointed.
My parents still live in Colorado and hate how accessing Rocky Mountain NP is basically impossible without weeks in advance of planning, rather than just being able to go on a whim. Takes away a lot of the charm of living in CO.
I haven't been in years. The weather here can change really fast and weekends are pretty much impossible to book. It's a great pity, but understandable given the crowds and lack of parking to accommodate them. Shuttles are not practical everywhere - when one of the best routes takes you through the park, spits you out at the other side of the continental divide.
This is why I don’t tell people what parks are dead lol. I keep those to myself and enjoy.
Moab and Zion have been a nightmare for a long, long time and the side by side crowd is often disrespectful and loud af - No wonder some trails have closed recently!
Recently my home town was rated the best town in Australia. There are mountains behind, beautiful beaches, rivers, hiking and walking tracks. It was already a very popular daytrip town, but its so much worse now. 20% of the is now airbnb, my parents house's *unimproved land value alone* has doubled to $2.8m. There's no local services only cafes and restaurants whereas 40 years ago there was a hospital, social security office, farm stores, electrical retailers, hardware stores, gas depot, timber yard, clothing factories. Its crazy!! Tourism is good but you can't have it dominate the economy.
I’m a Utah native, and I can say that just about everyone goes to at least one national park a year. I always thought that this would just help our economy and help boost our tourism economy. But watching this is making me worry for my local economy and environment. I love the outdoors and I have spent thousands of hours outside camping, hiking, etc. It hurts me to see that my comfort zone, my favorite place is getting over run and destroyed by all of us. I hope that we can all still enjoy this, but something needs to happen to keep this environment safe. I understand how awesome these national parks are, I’ve been to many in the western us and I love it there like millions of others. But seeing that if nothing happens to control how people use these areas, that they WILL disappear and die. I hope that something will happen, and that starts with us doing something, I don’t know what, will help fix it, but we must find what will help.
Save the desert wasteland? You know for the bugs and scorpions....the stalwarts of human allies
For real. Especially here in the cottonwood canyons. They may not be national parks but I’ve seen Snowbird visitation numbers double in my lifetime and the canyon is struggling to keep pace. Wish Utah was still as unknown as it was a decade ago :(
I agree. I try to be accommodating to the crowds of new people I see, for example, hiking the Narrows. But it's hard when they're playing music, dragging coolers, or otherwise doing things that diminish the wilderness experience more than just their presence would. I don't know what to do about it. I certainly don't post my favorite (still) undiscovered spot on social media.
This video is great. I grew up with the outdoors. Camping, hiking, fishing, becoming an Eagle Scout. As an adult I’ve lived exclusively in urban environments. But I became a touring musician able to go all over the US constantly. The Instagram nature pic culture seems completely counter to what my experience of natural beauty has been. I’m all for inviting more people in.. but not in this superficial “get experience clout” way. Because there’s often no actual experience behind it. It’s sad, there’s life changing experiences to be had in the great outdoors but they are all predicated on respect. Nature is beautiful and nature is deadly. This respect is the core experience of nature: the delicate give and take balance of life we very much find ourselves in and too often forget.
well put!
Stop it with the instagram culture excuse. Going to Yellowstone or Grand Canyon is no different then it was 60yrs ago. You go to see it for yourself (bucketlist), to take pictures and to be able to tell people (bumper stickers) you went. Parents have been dragging kids across the country to "see nature" for a few mins/hrs for a long time. But decades of people droning on how great it is to be in the great outdoors has finally caught up.
@@vlada it may just be car centric culture, we are encouraged to be outside in a car more than not. funny how obesity started rising as strip malls and big box stores flooded every city everywhere. peoples idea of the outside quickly went to become just a place from a to b
This has kept me away from popular spots in the past few years. I would backpack and ski through in the past but now it is just insane out there. I have a few places I still go that are not impacted but I try and not tell anyone about them because it just keep getting more and more crowded with people who don't respect it. I took the time to train myself to survive and support people in the backcountry. Training and volunteering with backcountry ski patrol, lifeguard certification, and swift water rescue tech, plus multiple other rescue and survival training classes more people should take the time to learn how to survive in the wilderness.
I've lived in Colorado, Utah, and Washington and visited tons of National Parks. It is amazing how the parks purposely funnel everyone into the same areas, rather than making it just a little easier to explore some of the lesser traveled spots. Even though visitor numbers (and simply the number of people in general) increases, the area that is accessible has not kept pace. Not saying they need to blast highways and parking lots through every park, but you also can't just expect people not to come. There just need to be more of the middle areas, not just the flip flop sites and the uber wilderness.
That’s because every park has its highlights and people want to see the most impressive features, not the 10th most impressive.
I honestly really appreciate this, since it usually means all the casual (noisy, slow, with kids and elders) day hikers stay on their trail, while I get to go off on my own with and see equally spectacular sights.
The lesser traveled spots are where the social media people are more likely to run into trouble.
@@bojackkatarn I would argue that viewing the 10th most impressive feature alone is 10x the experience of viewing #1 with 900 others.
@@bojackkatarn you mean the easiest to access features that you can drive to 😂
Having experienced the absolute shit show that is our national parks and having done a trip to Baxter, I don't see how anyone could not be team Baxter. I love what they are doing and they are fulfilling their mission of conservation first which is what makes it such an incredible experience. We do need something like the nps to introduce people to nature but we need more Baxters to really educate and teach appreciation. Perfect video!
For folks who have invested probably years into a through hike, to have the last few miles denied you because of some foolishness could feel incredibly unfair. It's also the uncertainty of the downside. You might get through, or you might not. It may not be your determination, you're planning, not even your physical fitness, but rather your place in line that determines whether you get to fulfill a long, held cherished dream. I get Baxter, their point of view. But no through hiker is going to under estimate kataden if they've made it through the White mountains and the 100 mile wilderness. I get those through hikers too
@@victorquesada7530if they have invested so many hours and energy into the hike, why can't they get acquainted with the conservation rules of the territory they are crossing?
People will not appreciate that which they are not permitted to experience. People will eventually question why their tax dollars are going to preserve Baxter, something they can't get into. And then people will be elected that are in favor of shrinking the size of the park.
@@SpaseGoast it’s not owned by the state it’s in a trust they can’t sell off or give away any part of the land
our national parks are amazing stfu
"Today, an increasing nuber of people are going outside not to get lost or to explore - but to be seen"
I think this perfectly describes how culture has developed recently and why tourism in so many cases has horrible local impacts.
I want to see his source for that statement. It sounded like him complaining about kids being on his lawn.
@@gladitsnotme And you sound like a hurt kid who feels called out.
@@gladitsnotme have you been to any park recently? I can confirm that most people are ill-prepared and take more break for selfies and pictures than water. Nothing wrong with documenting the moment but obsessing over it with the intent to post it online is a different thing.
@@gladitsnotme The "source" is literally spread over all kinds of social media.
But in case you're actually interested:
This is usually done via spatial analysis based on geo-tagged social media content spanning over extensive temporal scales. The data is then matched to certain points of interests (i.e., ideally the tourist attractions). The preliminary results then show the frequency of social media posts across time. By the way, this can even be added with sentiment analysis (i.e., how tourists percieve their surroundings based on their tags and uploads). The social media post frequencies can then be normalized by actual social media usage or number of image uploads to avoid biases (since a minority of people post a majority of the content and social media usage has increased in general over time).
This eventually shows exactly what was highlighted in the video and by my comment.
I hope that helped ;)
Kind regards - a geographer who literally does such kinds of analyses on a regular basis
@@gladitsnotme It could just be a correlation between increasing travel to parks (which was shown) and increasing use of TikTok and Instagram. Instagram revenue started to peak in 2021, TikTok is still growing, both platforms have a "look where I am/what I'm doing" core concept. So you can't prove it's causation and not correlation, but it's not wild to make the connection. Also, COVID.
Thanks for making this. I miss when hiking wasn't a "cool" activity
Humans always spoil everything good, and that applies to a lot more than just nature. Of course the worst of all imo are the extremely sexy, tight yoga pants wearing instagram th0ts. It’s beyond infuriating and soul crushing knowing you’ll always be invisible to such creatures; and if you do somehow manage to work up the nerve to present yourself in a way to pursue them romantically, at best you’ll be politely rejected. At worst, you’ll be any one of the following: beat up by chad white knights, plastered all over social media as a creep, arrested for harassment, pepper sprayed or kicked in the most painful spot. Then these same women will cry about them being the oppressed ones. What a wonderful world! 🤡🤡🤡
So imagine imagine how it is for people like us. Not only do we have to put up with garbage, fake ass people ruining our safe havens, but among those people we see multitudes of guys just casually walking around with the most high quality breed stock on the market as though they don’t even realize they have the human equivalent of a billion dollars in their bank accounts. All while knowing due to their genetic/financial advantage, they have practically unlimited access to what we’ll never be granted a single lick of in our lifetime. I don’t know exactly how harmful that is to our mental health but I do know it’s far beyond what a nice hike in the great outdoors is capable of healing.
hiking is always cool, its ingrained into our DNA
@@circleinforthecube5170 can you see my comment just below the one @UnitTrace left?
This is like a modern youtube version of Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey. I read that in HS and he was complaining about how easy it was to get into Arches back when there basically weren't any roads, saying that it was too easy to get there and too many people were visiting, in 1956 and 1957. Imagine how he'd feel knowing millions of visitors go there now every year! I tried to go there one time in HS too, and there were too many people, which was back in the 90s. Anyway, Read Desert Solitaire, it was great!
I can see the exact same stuff happening in Canada too... My mother works at the Mauricie National Park at canoe and kayak rentals and I help her sometimes. There's so many people even in the low season.... She's always happy to be helped. The other day, we had to count the double kayaks that were left because over 20 had left just in the first half of the day.
It's a gratifying work, to meet people from all over the world, but it's also a lot of work. At least, they have a very great system and the addition of Starlink in the entire park has made things much simpler
I remember when I was about 14, my Boy Scout troop went to Moab to see the arches. We were dang near the only people there. We saw one other family. It’s crazy that now there’s so much traffic that they have to shut down.
This was about 8 years ago.
You can see the impact heavily on Colorado. Every where you go, the parking lots are at capacity. A lot of places are unavailable due to overcrowding. Many great attractions are now by reservation only, which is very difficult to reserve due to high demand.