Technological transformation is having unexpected consequences on the landscapes that surround US national parks, too.
In Utah, visitors are arriving in remarkable numbers to admire its photogenic landscapes — turning Zion, Bryce Canyon and Arches into some of the busiest in the country.
However, the increasing squeeze has pushed many to seek thrills elsewhere.
Take Kanarraville Falls, just an hour outside southern Zion.
Visitors traverse a narrow, twisting canyon carved through pink-purple sandstone along a series of makeshift ladders, finally arriving at a beautiful waterfall: a taste of Zion’s magical slot canyons, but without the crowds. Or at least it used to be.
Social media has been blamed for ruining Kanarraville Falls, once a hidden gem, but now featured in countless Instagram posts.
Bottlenecks can back up for an hour or more at the ladders, rescue teams are dispatched regularly to retrieve injured hikers, and stream banks are eroding and littered with trash.
For the nearby town of Kanarraville (population 378), the situation has become untenable. Visitors, who routinely double the town’s population, are tramping through a watershed the town taps for drinking water.
“The environment can’t handle that many people walking in and out of there,” said Tyler Allred, a town council member. “It needs a chance to recover.”
Kanarraville leaders are doing what they can: The town now charges a US$9-per-head fee for hikers, thanks to an arrangement with the state and federal officials.
It is an experiment that could be replicated elsewhere.
However, so far the fee has not done much to slow daily traffic, according to Allred.
Annual visitation last year was estimated at between 40,000 and 60,000. The next step may be to impose a daily limit on visitors.
TROUBLE FOR TOWNS
Kanarraville not the only town where tourism is taking a toll. Moab, outside Arches, has become a byword for congestion.
In California, locals bemoan the Airbnb-ification of Joshua Tree — an artsy, isolated desert community now overrun by out-of-towners fond of drones and late-night parties.
In Estes Park, just outside the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park, the problems have become especially acute. It is only 90 minutes from the fast-growing city of Denver, and urbanites flock here in droves for the alpine tundra and soaring, snow-capped mountains.
In the summer months, Estes balloons from its winter population of about 7,000 to a barely contained mass of as many as 3 million people who stream through downtown in search of themed T-shirts, Native American trinkets and a brew pub libation.
For 82-year-old Paula Steige, the crush is almost unbearable. Traffic makes getting around downtown a logistical ordeal and solutions offered by the town — including free shuttle buses — offer only minor relief.
“Oftentimes it seems we are in crisis mode, just trying to figure out how to get around. It’s especially bad for people trying to get to and from the park,” Steige said. “And there just doesn’t seem to be a solution to all the overcrowding.”
Steige cannot join those longtime residents who escape to other locales during the summer because she owns and operates the Macdonald Book Shop, started by her grandparents in 1908.
She also knows that, like other shop owners, she owes her livelihood to the nearby national park.
“The park is, of course, the reason the whole town thrives,” she said. “The park is the reason the town does well or it goes badly.”
Estes Park, too, has a famous link to The Shining: It is home to the Stanley Hotel, the remote establishment that inspired the horror classic. Stephen King spent a night here in 1974.
The Stanley now pulls in nearly 400,000 annual visitors, from ghost hunters attending tours and seances to horror fans hoping to stay in King’s room. The overcrowding galled one recent Stanley visitor.
“We went for a seance, but so many tourists were crowding around, we couldn’t hear anything,” said the man, who was visiting from Minnesota.
Police activity in Estes Park is ticking up, too. Police say calls earlier this year jumped nearly 23 percent over the same period last year.
The park has also seen a dramatic rise in drug citations and arrests, fueled mostly by a misunderstanding of Colorado’s drug laws, park rangers said.
Pot is legal in Colorado and therefore the town of Estes Park, but not at the national park itself, which is on federal property and where the state’s pot laws do not apply.
“We see a lot more flagrant violations of pot use as well as driving under the influence by people who don’t know or don’t care about the law,” park spokesman Kyle Patterson said. “I think all of that comes from the fact we are rapidly transforming into an urban park.”
CAN ANYTHING BE DONE?
While Wallace Stegner’s notion that parks are “America’s best idea” has become synonymous with the nation’s love for them, there is a little more to his famous 1983 line.
The Pulitzer prize winner went on to describe the parks as a mirror for the US’ national character: “They reflect us at our best rather than our worst.”
Considering the problems besetting them, his sentiment now seems open to question.
Back in Yellowstone, resource experts say the park is now racing headlong toward a reality some might considered sacrilege: limits on people.
One top park service official, who did not want to be identified, said daily limits on traffic entering Yellowstone, which could be achieved through a reservation system, was long overdue.
On the foggy coast of northern California, one spot has already taken the plunge. Muir Woods — named for John Muir, a renowned conservationist and one of the earliest advocates for national parks — is home to ancient groves of towering redwoods.
The forest is tiny by park standards — just 227 hectares — yet more than a million come each year to experience its majestic calm.
Hundreds of parked cars once choked the narrow road leading toward the entrance, threatening the local watershed and wildlife, causing headaches for nearby residents, and creating dangerous situations for drivers and pedestrians walking on the roadside.
That is why, at the beginning of this year, it became the first to introduce a new parking reservation system that requires all visitors to purchase their spots before arriving.
Street parking has been banned — and the number of parking spots has been reduced by roughly 70 percent.
While officials say it is too early to tell, estimates show that the reservation system will reduce annual numbers by about 200,000.
Park representatives said they hope it will curb crowding by helping people plan their trips for less busy time slots. So far, it seems to be working.
On a drizzling midweek afternoon, nearing the end of summer, both Muir Woods parking lots were full.
Near the entrance, the giggle and chatter of excited children mingled with the sounds of waterfalls and bird calls. Stroller wheels thudded rhythmically along the planked wooden boardwalk, echoing through the grove.
However, a few paces deeper the throngs thinned, and visitors could find a semblance of solitude among the ancient trees.
“Even with a lot of people here there are little pockets of silence you can find,” said Meghan Grady, who lives in nearby San Francisco. “We sat and shut our eyes for a little bit just to listen.”
It is experiences like these that park officials hope to protect. If they are successful, others might follow suit. Parks including Zion, Arches and Acadiaare all urgently considering reservation-only systems.
However, as officials weigh up large-scale changes, which can take years to research and implement, others point to behavior changes that can be made right now.
For instance, a growing cohort of photographers, social media influencers and conservationists is pushing back on geotagging — using GPS to share the precise location in which a photograph was taken.
Leave No Trace, a nationwide organization promoting outdoor ethics, is helping to spearhead the movement. In June, it released new guidance on using social media responsibly in nature.
Dana Watts, the executive director, said the move was the result of feedback from land management agencies, the park service, the US Bureau of Land management and the public.
Avoid geo-tagging specific locations and think carefully before posting a selfie with wildlife, she said.
“Everyone wants to capture that picture, but people tend to get way too close,” she said. “If you are posting that, you are encouraging others to do the same.”
“The biggest thing we are asking people to do is stop and think,” she added.
GOING TO KEEP GROWING
At Horseshoe Bend, the Instagram crowds are not going anywhere soon. Beginning in April, the city of Page will start charging a US$10-per-car entrance fee that will go directly to pay for management of the area.
However, Maschelle Zia, who manages Horseshoe Bend for the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, expects demand to steadily increase anyway.
“Between 2015 and 2017, visitation doubled,” she said. “I think it is just going to keep growing.”
In the meantime, managers are doing what they can to improve safety and protect the landscape. A metal railing now cuts across the cliff’s edge to prevent people from tumbling off. Vault toilets were added two years ago. What was once a 9.29m2 dirt parking lot has been expanded this year to hold up to 300 cars.
On a November evening, people lined up to watch the sky turn from orange to hot pink as the sun descended.
Jenny Caiazzo, 24, was visiting from Denver, touring southwest national parks with her friend.
“Now that I’m here, I see it’s even more beautiful than the pictures,” she said.
Visitors admired the view from the rim.
“It’s breathtaking,” said Brett Rycen, a visitor from Australia on a coast-to-coast tour with his wife and daughter. “We’ve been Snapchatting a lot. We want our friends to know what we are experiencing.”
Nearby, Tristan Fabic and Cecille Lim from Los Angeles had just gotten engaged.
“This is the place where I wanted to propose,” Fabic said. “I saw it on Instagram and thought it would be really cool.”
By Charlotte Simmonds, Annette McGivney, Patrick Reilly, Brian Maffly, Todd Wilkinson, Gabrielle Canon and Monte Whaley. This is part II of a two-part story. Part I was published in yesterday’s edition. This story was reported and published in collaboration with the Denver Post, the Missoulian, the Salt Lake Tribune and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.
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