Arches Controversy

[nonot]

Anyone who has been to Arches will understand:
-they don't have the ability to handle many people showing up at once
-there is limited parking throughout the park

So it probably isn't a surprise that this happened. Hope no HAZers were caught up in the mess:

http://www.ksl.com/?si...

[RedRoxx44]

Might go the way of Zion, where you board their buses and get off at certain stops, then ride another back. Ed Abbey isn't rolling in his grave, he's probably laughing.

[azbackpackr]

Buses have helped at Grand Canyon. Many say the new visitor center and its huge parking lot and all the buses have "changed the feeling of the Park." But those who say that are the people who never see any more than a tiny percentage of the Park. And the Park has had to change to accommodate all those people who will never see any more than a tiny percentage of the Park.

[outdoor_lover]

Hope no HAZers were caught up in the mess:

Probably a good thing we talked Mack out of trying to find Camping there that Weekend....
viewtopic.php?f=41&t=8815&p=109067&hili ... ab#p109056

[Jim]

My first experience with Arches was in August of 2003. I had come from Colorado, New Mexico, extreme eastern Arizona, Texas, and who cares? Anyway, I had chanced to see an arch in New Mexico, and a pretty big one. I got to Arches from Grand Junction in the late morning to lots of minivans, RVs, and tourists. It took me less than 15 minutes to turn around and leave. I continued south and had a great drive. Good scenery out there, especially for a first timer.

Most people who go there, go to see a few scattered features, and ignore most of the rest of the terrain. I was back in 2011 with family, and we spend about 6 hours visiting most of them that are car accessible. It might not be as good for a bus the way Zion is with it's canyon that corals visitors into a linear feature, or the Grand Canyon with it's designated road along the popular rim vistas, but Zion probably should have a bus system for peak season. A faction will complain, but so what? I don't know, but my guess is parking could be built above the visitor center.

[neilends]

I worked in Denali National Park for a summer in college. Denali's ecosystem is so fragile that they've been aggressive about crowd control for many years now, and use a bus system. It works pretty well, because the crowds go out to the Wonder Lake stop, stare at Mt McKinley for about an hour, get chewed up by the Alaskan Air Force-Mosquito Division, and then go back to the resorts right outside the park.

Real backpackers and hikers, meanwhile, take the buses to the less popular stops, and have free reign to just walk as long as they can.

Two very different situations though, I realize, because Alaska's isolation means that demand to see Denali is still not going to be as insane as what's discussed in this article.

[Jim]

Real backpackers and hikers, meanwhile, take the buses to the less popular stops, and have free reign to just walk as long as they can.

Which must not be very long judging by what you wrote about the insects.

[neilends]

Real backpackers and hikers, meanwhile, take the buses to the less popular stops, and have free reign to just walk as long as they can.

Which must not be very long judging by what you wrote about the insects.

Touche!

The mosquitoes are a terror at the most popular destination because it's a lake, to be serious (Wonder Lake, at the end of the line). Prior to that, Denali is fairly sparse country for hiking and backpacking, and I don't remember them being too bad. Closer to the park facilities, the forest is lush. Once you get out into the middle rest stops between HQ and Wonder Lake, it's higher elevation and you'll see more caribou and grizzlies than mosquitoes.

While walking along an isolated riverbed once, I all but collided with a pack of gazing caribou. For 2 hours they let me walk alongside them, and we just wandered together. It was the experience of a lifetime. The memory almost seems like it was too breath-taking to be real and was actually a dream or a movie.