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Video You Must See: People in Yosemite
Travel Blog • Eva Holland • 01.04.10 | 3:47 PM ET
(Via The Daily Dish)
Tags:
National Parks,
Video You Must See, North America, United States, California, Shrinking Planet
Eva Holland is co-editor of World Hum. She is a former associate editor at Up Here and Up Here Business magazines, and a contributor to Vela. She's based in Canada's Yukon territory.
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Megan Hill 01.04.10 | 5:39 PM ET
This video is superb. And frustrating. Maybe I’m a hypocrite for saying this (I love traveling to the national parks and have been to many) but I really think we should cap the number of visitors we allow each year. This’ll make visits more enjoyable and make maintenance less expensive. Plus it’ll cut down on the environmental impact of all those people tromping around these beautiful places. Yosemite isn’t Disney World.
Mike Barish 01.04.10 | 5:51 PM ET
I understand where the previous commenter is coming from, but the flip side of the coin is the pride i feel that so many people value our national parks and want to visit them. Now, that’s assuming that they’re picking up after themselves and respecting the land. All that said, I still prefer to enjoy a sunset in private and without the chimes of thousands of digital cameras all around me.
Megan Hill 01.04.10 | 6:08 PM ET
I feel that, Mike. Our national parks are a proud part of our American heritage and should be available to everyone. I’d probably be mad if someone told me I couldn’t go whenever I wanted. But even if everyone respected the land, humans still have a huge impact on wild places. Hikers compact soil and damage tree roots, cars spew out carbon and guzzle gas, and we have to transport provisions and souvenirs to these places. There’s got to be a balance between both allowing visitors and allowing nature. A lottery system of some sort could solve that, I think.
Craig Guillot 01.05.10 | 2:40 PM ET
Nice video. It’s kind of sad that some national parks are so overwhelmed with visitors but then again, wasn’t that what they were created for? Personally, my favorite park in the lower 48 is Big Bend in West Texas. It’s one of the only parks where during certain times of the year, you can drive half the roads and barely see another person.
Grizzly Bear Mom 01.05.10 | 4:56 PM ET
We can limit access to the parks by making it cost prohibitive to visit, but we would have to increase prices for the fewer visitors to cover the cost of maintaining them. But people are healthier when in contact with nature. Their blood pressure and stress levels go down. They also need to see the beauty of it. I guess some tree roots and soil gets compacted, but not as much as by the hardscapes of the cities. Acutally we don’t have to transport provisions and sourvenirs to these places, we choose to do so, probably to cover the costs of the parks.
Megan Hill 01.05.10 | 5:32 PM ET
All true things! Except that fewer visitors means less wear and tear, meaning less maintenance. So if we cap visitors, we’ll lower the maintenance costs. And I’m not advocating we close the parks to people altogether, just that we find a better balance between visiting and preserving. The parks should inspire reflection and rejuvenation, not traffic and headaches.
Wendy 01.22.10 | 5:29 AM ET
Charming!Yosemite isn’t Disney World.But it has its own style.I have to adore the desgner and the writer.Their blood pressure and stress levels go down.