| Page 27 | National Parks Traveler

When my sons were little... They are now in their 30s... We did a lot of road trips and loved exploring national parks. I started doing this for my sons and they both have a walking stick with many beautiful medallions on it. We also included some state parks that were of significance And places that have special meaning to them. I love looking at the walking sticks...

Steps Being Taken At Great Smoky Mountains National Park To Halt Illegal Parking

Dec 15th - 12:35pm | Jenny

The Smokies needs to have a shuttle system to reduce the reliance on single car travel. There could be shuttles from the Visitor Center inside the park to high traffic areas. There should also be shuttles originating from Gatlinburg either to the Visitor Center or direct to popular trailheads, similar to the buses that run from Estes Park into Rocky Mountain National Park.

RVing In The Parks | Winter Can Be A Great Season To Explore The Parks

Dec 14th - 16:08pm | A. Johnson

Lots of camping around Moab and Green River and Price, especially before those places got popular.winter

Dec 13th - 21:26pm | Lost in Utah

I've spent much of my life camping (I'm 71). As a kid growing up in NW Colorado, camping was the only thing we could afford to do for vacations or on weekends. I went full-time on the road about 15 years ago in a little 13-foot fiberglass trailer (a Burro) with a 4x4 Toyota FJ and have had several different rigs since then, including a cargo trailer that wasn't tricked out.

Dec 13th - 21:19pm | Lost in Utah

Chris, I agree to an extent, but I also know many Boomers who are minmalists. I myself am one. Even the rigs I've had that had all the amenities weren't expensive and I also seldom used those amenities, using them as more like a hard-sided tent. But ironically, the #VanDweller crowd seem to me the ones who need the lavish rigs - tell me a $100k+ Mercedes van is necessary for camping.

Dec 13th - 10:49am | chris...

In future generations American will marvel at how the boomers afforded and justified such gargantuan camping rigs for the sole purpose of taking the kitchen sink, heaters, toilet, shower etc with them will enjoying "wilderness" camping. As a mere milleniall..just saying

Dec 12th - 16:37pm | A. Johnson

No problem. Would you mind providing more details about where you've winter camped before? I recall one spring break trip to Canyonlands, camping just outside the park (up Indian Creek on BLM land?) when 5-6" of sloshy snow arrived ovenight. Just magical. I had a 4WD so I didn't mind much.

Dec 12th - 14:18pm | Lost in Utah

CO is right. CO2 is carbon dioxide and not a problem in this context. Thanks for the correction.

Dec 12th - 11:51am | A. Johnson

The author made one BIG mistake by not mentioning having CO2 and propane monitors. CO2 is fine. CO, not so much.

Dec 12th - 10:00am | Lost in Utah

In many places, you'd be totally delusional to think you can have a tank of water and your sewer system working when winter camping - it will freeze solid, even with heat tape, and how are you going to run heat tape if no electricity? You won't want your solar going for that, as if it's a gray day you may not even have enough solar for the basics.

Dec 11th - 15:27pm | A. Johnson

Do most RVs have a water tank heater? How does one ensure that the water tank itself does not freeze?

National Park Service Proposing To More Than Double Visitation To Cumberland Island

Dec 14th - 14:38pm | Barbara Cullman

The number allowed visiting the island should remain 300!!!! Thank you for your serious consideration

Should Horses And Cattle Be Removed From Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Dec 14th - 12:50pm | Jenny

Bison are a native species unlike horses or cattle. Feral horses compete with native species for forage and water. And 200 is not a small number.

Dec 14th - 11:50am | Anonymous

What about the Buffalo?

Dec 14th - 11:34am | fiercegreenfire

We camped in the park for three days this fall. We very much enjoyed seeing the horses. Let them stay! Are they causing problems? If policy becomes removing all non-native species, the question I ask is "non-native to what time period?" In our National Parks in general, that would be a lot of species to get rid of! Nine cattle? They could go.

Dec 13th - 12:07pm | Jenny

Remove the cattle entirely. As for horses, with that small number, either remove or end their breeding. I think it would be kinder to remove them to a free ranging sanctuary on private land so they would be among a larger herd. Horses would not thrive if down to 1 to 3.

Debate Waged Over Whether To Rename Delaware Water Gap

Dec 14th - 08:22am | ecbuck

Bob- Everyone has their own reasons and the right to have their own reason no matter what you think their reason should be. When I hiked the AT, a lot of people complained about the way others approached the hike - too much gear, skipping sections, resting too often ..... We had a saying for them "Hike your own hike".

Dec 13th - 23:51pm | Rob Richmond

The name attracts the visitors! This illustrates the fact that people visit the parks for the wrong reasons. People don't seem to think much about the real reasons to visit. National Park status = more visitors = more money = destruction of visitor experience.

Dec 8th - 13:06pm | Bob Muska

Those opposed to the redesignation of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area to a national park and preserve often quote the Delaware Riverkeepers Network. The Delaware River National Park and Lenape Preserve Alliance, which is advocating for the proposal, strongly disagrees with the opinion of the RiverKeepers.

Dec 7th - 08:16am | Chris White

It used to be that the title "National Park" Was reserved for the Crown Jewels in the National Park system. Using economic reason to rename lesser park area seem disingenuou.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Headquarters Scheduled To Be Updated

Dec 13th - 18:28pm | SmokiesBackpacker

In a publicly traded organization, the optics of this would be obvious. But in the NPS, this arrogance prevails weekly.

Dec 13th - 18:23pm | SmokiesBackpacker

Well, well, well. I see that the "maintenance backlog" money is first going to feather the office of Superintendent Ca$$iu$ Ca$h. At least he has abandoned the pretense of caring about the public here. Let them eat cake while we charge to drive through "our park".

National Park Crowds: What The Readers Think

Dec 13th - 17:47pm | chris...

Greg.. The reality of running a major national park is often at odds with the laws they are supposed to follow. In Yosemite for instance the rules regarding the wilderess act are MOSTLY adhered too. Mostly. But when reality gets in the way power tools like chainsaws are used to clear the trails and keep the public acccessable.

Dec 13th - 16:51pm | ecbuck

Greg - I don't think anyone is saying the NPS doesn't have the power to regulate the Parks. Heck of all the powers the government excercises, it is one of the few actually granted by the Constitution. The issue here is the very statement you quoted which has multiple purposes that in many cases are in conflict.

Dec 13th - 16:08pm | Teresa

My husband and I are avid hikers and have hiked almost all of the National Parks. One thing we have noted is that the crowds are at overlooks and other scenic areas within sight of the parking lots. We get to the trailhead at 7 AM to empty parking lots and then find very few people on the backcountry trails. If you want to avoid crowds in the parks, try the backcountry.

Dec 13th - 13:09pm | Greg Anderson

The National Park Service established by the Act "shall promote and regulate the use of the Federal areas known as national parks, monuments, and reservations hereinafter specified by such means and measures as conform to the fundamental purpose of the said parks, monuments, and reservations, which purpose is to conserve the scenery and the nat

Dec 9th - 13:33pm | chris...

While working in the parks I would often hear the comment of "its so crowded!"... While all I could think to myself was- but are YOU considering yourself part of the crowding issue?

Abraham Lincoln's Overcoat Returns to Public Display at Ford's Theatre

Dec 13th - 03:11am | Barbara Kelton

Is there any way to find out the shoulder width of Lincoln's overcoat?

The Challenges Of Recreation.gov

Dec 12th - 13:27pm | David Goodwyn

What did you find out when you called?

House Committee Hears Differing Opinions On How To Solve Park Crowding

Dec 12th - 11:56am | A. Johnson

When asked why Zion doesn't yet have a visitor use management plan despite launching the effort in 2016, Bradybaugh said engaging all the stakeholders and understanding visitor behavior takes time. Give me a break. 6 YEARS is 5 too many. These people are incompetent.

Dec 11th - 18:30pm | Anonymous

Thanks for the comment giving more perspective Ed. I was a five year seasonal for the NPS and a year for the BLM. Mostly trail work.

Dec 11th - 15:28pm | Ed_1

This is a little off-topic for this thread, but in response to Chris's comment...in my 2 decades working for NPS there was a half-hearted attempt to specialize staffing at parks especially in the sciences and interpretation.

Dec 8th - 20:44pm | chris...

An NPS "Ranger" really does not exist anymore.. There is LEO (law enforcement) who acts as the police in the parks. There are "interprative" rangers who give education speeches, "wilderness" rangers who moniter permits and such, and other "rangers" along with a lot of others without the "ranger' title who are doing the work a "ranger" 40 years ago would have.

Dec 7th - 17:58pm | Anonymously

No question leadership is a problem, but funding is the biggest one.

Dec 7th - 16:44pm | Loui

So crowding in the national parks can be solved by more funding Superintendent Bradybaugh said. Of course he did. No proposed solutions, just give me more money.

Dec 6th - 19:18pm | chris...

the superintendant of Zion appered on a Zoom call. Chuck Sams could have as well. He choose to ignore the committee

Dec 6th - 18:11pm | chris...

I said we COULD implement a litmust test.. I did not say we should. The price we pay for freedom is the fact that we let anyone and everyone into our parks no questions asked. As such- they are crowded.

Yosemite National Park Setting Out To Develop Visitor Use Management Plan

Dec 11th - 12:48pm | chris...

Exactly what cultural resources were damaged by the visitation? All this is left are few artifacts long buried and the grinding stones. None of which would be impacted by visitation. In years of digging in Yosemite I found one arrowhead. One

Dec 11th - 07:27am | Chris...

Recreation gov has been in the works since 2001. The lie that COVID caused the use of it is why so many are skeptical of the so called pandemic

Staffing Woes Limit Winter Access At Mount Rainier National Park

Dec 11th - 04:52am | tahoma

'Nice little park you got there, be a shame if you couldn't access it'. Please sign this petition if you are concerned about this bureaucratic extortion:https://www.change.org/p/restore-mount-rainier-weekday-winter-access/

Hurricane Ridge Day Lodge To Undergo Major Rehabilitation With GAOA Funding

Dec 9th - 07:23am | tahoma

Whoa, Tonto! Only 300,000 visits to Hurricane Ridge per year when Olympic National Park claims over 3 million annually?https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2020/03/musings-parks-about-those-...

Cuyahoga Valley National Park To Lease Land For Farming

Dec 7th - 21:39pm | Jim Fry

Question. Are there any farms available in the park, for lease? Is there land or a building within the park for the establishment for a Native American center? If so for either, where and how many acres? Jim Fry. Stone Garden Farm & Village. Richfield, Ohio. [email protected]

Journey To The Badlands Of Grasslands National Park

Dec 7th - 19:37pm | Jason

Yeah those homesteaders and ranchers didn't come to take care of the land, they came to exploit it. They're called colonizers, and they stole the land from indigenous tribes. It's good to acknowledge our history and the issues with it.

Congaree National Park Boosting Camping Fees To Cover Reservation Costs

Dec 7th - 16:23pm | T Burt

Couldn't say it better myself.

Input Sought For Solutions To Crowding At Laurel Falls In Great Smoky Mountains

Dec 7th - 16:21pm | T Burt

Amen brother!!

Musings About The Parks: Are Crowds Damaging The Park Brand?

Dec 6th - 19:51pm | Steve M

My apologies Chris. I got distracted by your silly North Korea comment.

Dec 6th - 19:16pm | ecbuck

Steve, I think you misinterpreted his comment. He doesn't want a litmus test. He wants open parks.

Dec 6th - 18:06pm | chris...

Steve M.. I never said that.... Read my comment more carefully

Dec 6th - 16:49pm | Steve M

I just have to ask - what kind of "litmus test" do you think the NPS should institute to limit entry, Chris? Since you mention this alongside banning foreigners completely I take it that the "litmus test" you have in mind is something completely different . Based on your other "solutions" I have no doubt this will be a good one.

Support Journalism about National Parks!

National Parks Traveler is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

Donate Now!

The Essential RVing Guide

The National Parks RVing Guide, aka the Essential RVing Guide To The National Parks, is the definitive guide for RVers seeking information on campgrounds in the National Park System where they can park their rigs. It's available for free for both iPhones and Android models.

This app is packed with RVing specific details on more than 250 campgrounds in more than 70 parks.

You'll also find stories about RVing in the parks, some tips if you've just recently turned into an RVer, and some planning suggestions. A bonus that wasn't in the previous eBook or PDF versions of this guide are feeds of Traveler content: you'll find our latest stories as well as our most recent podcasts just a click away.

So whether you have an iPhone or an Android, download this app and start exploring the campgrounds in the National Park System where you can park your rig.

National Parks Traveler

Search