You had me until there.
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An excellent DunningāKruger example.
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āProblemsā at Yellowstone - that would be stupid tourists! What to do about them?
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Many, many years ago while backpacking in a National Forest in Wyoming, I counted 15+ violations of the posted rules banning fires and camping too close to water. We stopped at the ranger station at the end of our trip and talked to the rangers about that. They knew about it, but said they didnāt have the money to hire more rangers (this was in the early 80s), and the really surprising thingāthe majority of people they cite for violations lived in Wyoming. The pair of rangers said that they rarely have problems with people who live out-of-state because the out of state visitors tend to have more respect for the land while the those that lived in Wyoming tend to believe that the land is ātheirsā to do with what they want.
With the hordes of people that visit our national parks, this may not be so evident, but itās certainly not limited to urban and suburban dwellers that do monumentally stupid and careless things in our wilderness areas.
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Spent part of our honeymoon at the Grand Canyon some 25 years ago. Fabulous, of course, and I was particularly impressed with how pleasant, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable the rangers were. We were there in the off-season (first week of November), which probably helped. One of the rangers told us that we were there at the perfect time. He said that the last two weeks of October and the first two weeks of November are best because itās not real hot during the day and the nights are cool but not really cold. Also, you donāt get the temperature inversions that can cause the canyon to cloud up.
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The human herd is thinned a bit here and there when people fail to recognize they are gambling with death.
At Yosemite in the last few years a number of young people climbed over fences to see the falls. And they were swept away. Where were the adults? Why donāt people take signs seriously? A sense of entitlement? It is mind boggling. I saw people at Yellowstone posing beside elks for photos. The elk butted the man in th head.
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More commonly known as the Bundy Effectā¦ All federal land belongs to me not those dang Feds ( i.e. the Peopleā¦) so I can do what I want.
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I admit to breaking the rules at Grand Canyon 45 years ago. It was the week after Christmas and we were on our honeymoon. In our youth and vigor we badly miscalculated how long it would take us to walk down to the river and back - itās not that far in miles. So there we were at the campground near the bottom and it was getting dark. Despite the signs that clearly say, āDo not sleep in restrooms,ā that is what we did. Itās really cold at night the week after Christmas. Some nice people lent us 1 sleeping bag (squishy even for honeymooners) and several groups (who didnāt want to pack out extra food the next day) fed us. A group of Boy Scouts did a lot of giggling to find us sleeping (sort of, try 1 sleeping bag!) in the bathroom. I think itās the only time in all these years weāve been park scofflaws.
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Like I said, city people stupid is more likely to get city people killed or an animal killed by park rangers. Rural people stupid is more likely to end in damage to the park, itās flora, fauna and scenery by the idiot him/herself and less likely to kill the idiot. But while the damage is different, the common denominator is always Dunning-Kruger Syndrome.
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the American tourist.
One of the years we were there it was a Frenchman who wanted his buddy to take a photo of him astride a bull buffalo. It did not have a happy ending.
About the worst thing I ever did was vomit profusely near the entrance to the high altitude visitors center in RMNP. Altitude sickness is not fun. It was worse than any hangover Iāve ever had. From experience after that, I let myself become acclimated to higher altitude and drank lots and lots of water. The thin dry air dries you out on a heartbeat. Thatās always mitigated it for me, though > 13,000 feet always gave me a killer headache. Iām in awe of the people that can tolerate altitudes of greater than 15,000 feet and suffer no effects at all.
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That why they have the Darwin Awards.
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Thereās only so many signs you can put up. The ones that are there canāt possibly be missed en masse. Maybe they could put up some of those roadside crosses to make the point.
My thoughts exactly! The problem is not with Yellowstone, the problem is with the species. Natural selection doing itās job
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one of my many rotating email sigs comes from a trail sign at sequoia national park:
āthe mountains are indifferent to your survival.ā
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Way back, like '72 or so we camped for two weeks and we saw bears rip through campgrounds, get into peopleās tents and ice chests etc.
One man wanted to get a close up of the bear in a tent and just then the bear came barging out and the man took off running which caused my mom to turn to run and she promptly smacked into a tree and passed out. The bear ran right by her and we just let it.
We also saw a man put his small daughter on a bearās back that was being fed, against the rules, along the side of the road to get a picture. A park ranger slowly walked past and grabbed the kid then scolded the man pretty harshly right in front of everyone.
Some bikers that were just bedroll camping had made bacon for dinner and wiped the drippings on their pants before going to sleep. In the middle of the night you could hear them screaming as bears were pulling them out of their sleeping bags.
I guess we were on the bear side of the park and not the bison side. I donāt remember any bison.
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FREEDUMB!!!
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If you live near the shore, hereās the maritime equivalent:
My wife and I were lucky enough to go to Yellowstone for the first time last year. I canāt imagine someone looking at those thermals and thinking āI think I can give this a shot.ā
We walked a little into a meadow at dusk to see some bison grazing on the far side of the river. On our way back to the car we realized two bison were between us and the car. We followed instructions, didnāt drawn any undue attention. They snorted a couple of times and stamped. Iāve never been that scared in a long, long time. Turned out they were snorting and stamping at each other and finally turned and walked off. But lesson already learned was driven home: keep your wits about you because this place is the real deal.
We heard a ranger talk while we there about the microbes that give so many things their color at the park. Part of it was about tourists who had ācarvedā their names or initials in the microbe layer on a feature. Such petty stupidity that unfortunately canāt get them killed. I donāt wish bad things on this guy, but he basically loaded a gun with a bullet and then kept pulling the trigger on it. Iām not going to waste time regretting the outcome.
But, yes: The problem isnāt the park. The park is one of the dwindling number of things that we can be proud of as a country. (Not just the natural beauty, but the foresight to protect it.)
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