Crowding Out the Park

The crowds in Rocky Mountain Park this summer have been at record highs. On a hike this summer in Glacier Gorge, I found the main parking lots already full at 7:45 in the morning, and the bus I took from the Park ‘n’ Ride was standing room only. At the main Bear Lake parking lot the lines to the bathrooms were five people deep.

On days that all the parking lots are full in the popular Bear Lake area, cars are stopped far below at Moraine Park and not allowed any farther. If you can manage to get near a trailhead, the closest place to park might be several “blocks” away down the road. On popular trails (like the one to Alberta Falls, above, or on top of Trail Ridge Road, below) the experience is less like hiking than joining up with a parade.

The town of Estes Park is 10 times worse, as everyone congregates there after their visit to the park for pizza, souvenirs and salt-water taffy. Bumper to bumper traffic and long lines are an every day occurrence.

And yet, my cabin is about 10 miles from the front door of the park, so it’s hard to resist the lure of this place: 415 square miles of undeveloped land, much of it wilderness. It’s a place where elk and deer herds move freely, where bear are not hunted, where you can see moose along the river bottoms, and where rivers run undammed and unchecked. From different spots in Rocky Mountain National Park, you can view distant and uninhabited mountain ranges in every direction.

I’ve been told that park visitorship has increased by 40 percent in the past few years. More people want to visit national parks, maybe because gas is cheap, or because our population has increased, or are more people drawn to nature, as our society becomes more urbanized?

I don’t know how to solve the problem of too many people, except to set aside more lands for preservation and beauty. But, even with the crowds, I want to believe that most park visitors come away with some new appreciation of nature.  

I think of the people on the trail in the Grand Valley (on the western side of the park) in June who stopped to eagerly tell us to watch for the moose and calf ahead in the willows. I think of how excited people, especially children, get when they see a chipmunk or marmot (below). Or the visitors on top of Trail Ridge Road  throwing snowballs at each other. Or the children discovering how much fun it is to climb rocks. Or visitors at Lily Lake excitedly watching the muskrats swim along the shore. Or the tourists on top of Trail Ridge lined up to watch storm clouds move up the valley.

Last month a bus driver told me that a SUV driver had told an elderly volunteer to “fuck off” after the volunteer told him couldn’t double park while waiting for a parking spot. I like to think that this man, who apparently arrived with his urban aggression, will leave as a slightly changed human being. Maybe after a week of being in a totally different environment, laughing at the antics of a ground squirrel, hiking to a clear alpine lake, viewing the world from 10,000 feet, listening to the sound of the creek, inhaling the sweet smell of pine or watching storms form over the mountains, he’ll leave with an expanded view of the world. My hope is that he’ll be infused just for a while with the beauty and peace of this still rugged and wild place.

Even with all the crowds, there’s still something real here, some elemental and wild part of life that recharges our souls. Maybe that’s the main value of our national parks: that we experience a different world than our urbanized, technological one.

Comments

[shoney]

Yes, yes, yes! Let's put our energy into saving these true, beautiful, timeless national monuments that everyone can enjoy!

[Brent]

I once changed my hiking plans for Bear Lake, because I had to take a bus to the trail head. I ended up someplace else that day for my hike. Hopefully somewhere a little less crowded.

[Furry Gnome]

Crowds seem to be an issue now everywhere, even in small local parks. I hope it's a good sign that more people are trying to get out into nature!

[Sally]

They say the economy is good and so people are traveling? Crowds don't appeal to me but some places are only accessible in the summer. .??? What's a solitary nature lover supposed to do???