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Backpacker's Chocolate: A Trailside Luxury

Sep 9th - 10:01am | parkaholic

I love goodies on the trail. I normally limit my backcountry trips to three days so I can take what I like including and 8 cup percolater (strapped to the back of my pack for all the world to see)Many laugh as they pass me on the trail but they sing a different song at sunrise when the aroma of freshly perked coffee awakens them.

Sep 8th - 11:19am | jersu

Kurt, Between the chocolate and the coffee in your pack, I'd say you know how to hike in style! What other goodies to you bring?

Your Feedback

Sep 9th - 09:54am | parkaholic

James is thinking in the right direction. Where is all the money going? The Park Service has a very large contract to deal with it's reservation system and the Parks pay a fee for each reservation and roll it into the price. The entry fees are no more for a family of four than for a single and camping fees are for a site not individually.

Sep 8th - 14:58pm | James

My post was evidently a few hours late to be included in your survey, but I definitely think that the total cost is getting a bit high in some cases. Particularly the more out-of-the-way parks with primitive facilities. Remember that my basis is for a visit by one or two people (an individual or a couple), not a family of four or more.

Sep 8th - 09:33am | Kath

Okay, I'll start with a little off the cuff punditry. Some hypostheses on why park visitation is relatively flat: 1. First of all, I don't think you can lump all parks together. There are undoubtedly different factors at work in parks in which the main activity is hiking versus historic sites like historic homes, battlefields, etc.

Are Entrance Fees Behind Visitation Slump?

Sep 7th - 16:46pm | James

I think that the combination of fees is getting out of hand. I recently went on an excursion to Joshua Tree NP and was a bit shocked at all the fees. My previous visit to the park was back when it was a NM, yet I did not see much evidence of massive improvements or new features to warrant the kind of fees required for a visit.

Sep 6th - 16:26pm | Sabattis

I think there is a huge difference between day-use Parks that attract local residents on many repeat visits throughout the year and destination Parks that are the centerpiece of travel plans. Given all the other expenses for a family making a trip out to a Park like Yellowstone or Grand Canyon, the paltry Park fee is a rounding error in the budget for the trip to that Park.

Sep 3rd - 10:39am | parkaholic

I think the issue is not wether the visitor is willing to pay fees, the Park Service has surveyed and public scoped that issue and would not charge fees if the public were not tolerant. The real issue is what happens to the fees that are collected? The current fee use laws mandate that most of these fees go back into the park where generated to improve visitor services.

Sep 2nd - 12:10pm | Jon Anglin

If fees are the issue, how do you explain decreased visitation at areas that charge no fees?

Sep 2nd - 08:29am | Marty

Compared with prices for movies, theme parks, etc., park entrance fees are more than reasonable. And if the Whiny Family -- Mom, Dad and all the little Whinys -- opts to spend that money playing video games or whatever, then great, a little more open space for the rest of us.

Sep 1st - 19:17pm | James McWard

Compared with other things on a family vacation, the $20 or so that's charged per vehicle for 7 days in a National Park is a great deal. Often, it's the stuff that we do in addition to the park that drains my wallet. Taking a 3-hour whale-watching cruise in Bar Harbor with a family of four, for example, would take care of an entire month's worth of fees in Acadia.

Sep 1st - 17:20pm | Alan Gregory

I have no overriding problem with fees. I happily fork over $15 a year to buy a federal Duck Stamp, which we use as our entrance ticket to some national wildlife refuges. The revenue from the sale of Duck Stamps goes into a fund from which money is drawn periodically to buy land for refuges, specifically wetlands. It's a great way to contribute directly toward conservation.

Sep 1st - 08:22am | Kath

It's not the fees. $20 or $25 for a car full of people is nothing compared to fees for theme parks. I'm about to head to Yosemite and the $20 never factored into the decision; I usually don't even think about it until I'm near the entrance station.

Sep 1st - 07:07am | Jeff M

As a tourist visisting parks as my vacation, fees do not have any influence on me visiting them. I just went through Custer State Park and Needles Highway in SD and didn't think twice about paying the fee, I don't even know how much I paid.

Aug 31st - 13:34pm | Jeff

Increased enterance fees don't have much effect on my choosing whether to go to a national park or not. I'm fairly close to some really great national parks, but I don't get to them nearly as much as I would like, that has more to do with school, work and somewhat distance.

Yellowstone Room Glut

Sep 7th - 04:20am | Sabattis

I was recently in Yellowstone, and the various rangers and staff members I talked to said that they felt visitation had remained strong this year - if anything, they felt that it was up from last year.

Sep 6th - 23:43pm | PJ

I don't know what you are talking about. Every lodge I looked at online is booked solid through september. Perhaps a lot happens in a week.

ARC: NPS Not Meeting Americans' Spiritual, Mental and Physical Needs

Sep 6th - 17:31pm | Sabattis

I should also add that it is inaccurate to suggest that practically all US Forest Service and BLM lands are open to motorized recreation. The USFS and BLM manage around 42 million acres of designated wilderness areas, all of which is closed to almost all forms of motorized recreation. The 35 million acres of USFS wilderness account for 18% of total USFS land.

Sep 6th - 16:35pm | Sabattis

According to the National Park Service data in the link you provided, there were 63.54 million recreation visits in 2005 to the "National Park" units of the National Park System. This closely matches the number cited by the ARC.

Sep 6th - 10:45am | Kath

I did some comparison between the statistics on National Park visits in 1999 and 2004. (I didn't look at every park and I didn't check every year in between looking for a trend, so this is rough, but) These national parks had more visits in 2004 than 1999: Sequoia, Zion, Glacier and Mt. Rushmore.

Sep 5th - 22:41pm | Kath

I don't know why visitation to the National Parks is down. I have some guesses: an aging population and a populaton becoming too obese to be able to hike much less backpack. I've read that skiing is down for the same reasons.

Sep 5th - 20:39pm | Concerned park...

Don't forget that several units managed by the NPS, National Recreation Areas specifically, allow all sorts of motor vehicle access. I wonder if visitation has increased at these spots?

Sep 5th - 18:03pm | Alan Gregory

In other words, since Disney or Six Flags or some other "theme park" operator isn't overseeing the national parks, each and every one is decrepit and in danger of going under, financially and otherwise. Only privatization and the ARC can hope to rescue the parks from oblivion and librul Democrats and other wilderness "elitists." What would Teddy say?

Woman Dies in Fall From Angel's Landing

Sep 4th - 11:21am | Ranger X

I was an interpretive ranger at Zion in 2000 and climbed Angels Landing only once. I had to do it in uniform so that I wouldn't chicken out and head back down (I could imagine children mocking me: "Mommy, mommy, look at the scared park ranger!"). So the entire time, I clug to the chains. There is risk involved, and I'll never do the climb again.

Sep 3rd - 19:24pm | Andrea

On August 22nd, 2006, we were at the north rim of the Grand Canyon. We were stopped at the lookout point before Angel's Window. A young women had fallen about 1000 to her death and they had closed the road leading up to Angel's Window. From where we were we could look up and see the overhang of Angel's Window.

Sep 3rd - 10:55am | parkaholic

I doubt "Mooks" intent was to offend. His point is valid though. And to further his point natural areas are inherantly dangerous places. The Park Service does not have the responsability to identify, warn and protect all persons from all dangers. Would you want to visit Grand Canyon if they had handrails and signs warning of falls every six feet?

Sep 2nd - 19:56pm | candy

Hey "Mooks" or whatever your name is, have some respect for the deceased and her family. I don't believe you would have posted such a heartless comment if it was your cousin that fell to her death.

Aug 31st - 14:01pm | Mooks

Yes, someone died, so, shut the trail down. Save the people from themselves. Maybe we should be strapped into our easy chairs and have the pictures of Angel's Landing piped into our TV sets. That way, we'll only die of heart attacks.

Aug 30th - 23:37pm | Danny

The last person to fall off angels landing was my cousin. She was young and had a great life, she had a great voice and was very much loved my everyone who knew her. It is terrible that she is gone, she was an avid hiker and she still fell and lost her life? And I really do think it should be shut down?

Aug 24th - 08:18am | pc

When I was 8 years old in 1962 we went up Angel's Landing on Christmas Day. There was snow and ice at the top. When we went up the last bit my father slipped on the ice and the chain and pipe came out of the rock, leaving him dangling for a few seconds until my mother grabbed him. It left a lasting impression.

Aug 23rd - 07:32am | tom

This is too creepy: yesterday I was looking at all these Angel's Landing pix because we're going to be near Zion in mid-September. My wife says "You're NOT going up there" after seeing some video some people took. Suddenly the Narrows Trail looks much more attractive.

Vanity Fair's View of the Dysfunctional NPS

Aug 30th - 09:22am | Michael DiGregorio

JT is a very image weary political guy. What he projects to the public and what he actually knows about the "resource" as the NPS goons call it are two different things. His entire Death Valley career was a punishment for his egotistical mismanagement in Grand Canyon National Park. He got into a lot of hot water with his supervisory lack of skills...

Happy Birthday NPS?

Aug 29th - 12:01pm | Parkaholic

You gotta love the whole maintenance backlog issue. If your kids came up to you and said "I need a hundred bucks" you would want some justification. Good point that Yellowstone has the appearance of not needing those funds as they look to be in good condition. I wonder how much of that backlog is theirs. Should we just give them what they want?

Aug 27th - 10:34am | Sabattis

Of course, being in Yellowstone, Secretary Kempthorne and Director Mainella probably aren't seeing exactly how much work needs to be done in the Parks.

Aug 26th - 19:00pm | Alan Gregory

Solid editorial at NY Times.com at this hour (the 27 Aug. on-line edition) on this very topic. In any case, the current administration in Washington seems, no make that "is," hellbent on cutting back everything that's not nailed down. And the National Park System is among the targets, tragically so.

Of Committees and Campaigns

Aug 28th - 06:57am | Sabattis

I think that the outside campaign is necessary because it is clear that the status quo is *not* generating the urgency needed to motivate the Congress to increase the Parks' funding. Given the nature of the republic, I think that *only* outside pressure from the public can make a difference with the Congress.

Top Trails: Yellowstone & Grand Teton

Aug 26th - 23:45pm | Andrew Dean Nystrom

Dear Kurt, Thanks very much and congrats on taking your time to review my book.

Aug 18th - 17:53pm | Alan Gregory

I've not yet seen this book. But it's a got to be a great guide if it's anything like the state fly-fishing guides this publisher has produced.

Developers Bulldoze Portion of Harpers Ferry Historical Park

Aug 25th - 08:21am | J Tyler

Most developers have adopted a "Better to ask forgiveness than permission." attitude in almost all areas.

Aug 24th - 19:58pm | Bruce Burbank

Those who run/operate/work in park simply stood by and let it happen? No attempt to stop these "bums" was made?

Human-Powered Recreation Has Economic Clout

Aug 24th - 18:33pm | Sabattis

According to this study, non-motorized outdoor recreation accounted for 6% of GDP in an economy of $11.75 trillion. It sounds high, but may be somewhat believeable, I guess. On the other hand: -Total 2002 revenues for all mining companies in the US was only $183 billion -Total 2002 revenues for all US firms in the motion picture and sound recording industries was only $78 billion.

Aug 14th - 19:45pm | Bruce Burbank

Sure wish this info would be passed on to the USFS! I was told by the USFS 20 years ago that hikers, campers and the like were "a thorn in their side, and they wished they'd all go away!" Their attitude has only got worse, the USFS has done a "good job" of "making them all go away!"!!

Aug 13th - 19:33pm | Parkaholic

Some impressive numbers indeed but as with all statistical data I wonder how the quesstions were asked? Are the dollar figures utilizing a multiple such as each dollar spent rolls over seven times to compute economic impact? I know I kicked in more than my fair share this year. Nevertheless it does show that a large number of Americans are connected to outdoor activities.

What Do Park Concessionaires Want?

Aug 24th - 18:15pm | Sabattis

In fairness to the Park concessionaires, even this blog has noted previously that Park visitation seems to be down from what it used to be, despite this nation's ever-growing population. I don't know that anyone has a perfect explanation for this decline, but the concessionaires surely have an interest in boosting Park visitation.

Mr. Pearce's Blinders

Aug 22nd - 09:28am | Ranger Bob

This is a disturbing trend. Our elected ones seem not to want our parks conserved and those who we, the public, let do business in our national parks are of the same mind set, we are seeing the beginning of yet another assault on the sanctity of the National Park Service.

Should Kalaloch Lodge at Olympic Be Moved?

Aug 21st - 09:57am | Laurise Creed

no the lodge should not be moved. this is a historical site. the clay banks of the coast and river there should be worked on to prevent further erotion and to protect the lodge,cabins and campground.

Java Juice Delivers Fresh Brew in the Backcountry

Aug 19th - 17:58pm | a. Karno

Ok, you really GET it! We loved your review sir. I have one XL Java Juice T shirt left from the OR show- I would love to send it to you as a thanks- 100% organic cotton "squeeze the bean" slogan and new logo. If you like, the media kit on our home page has newer logo which you may want to use on your review. Also remind your peeps - save energy Don't Over Brew it-

Who'll Succeed Fran?

Aug 18th - 17:16pm | fran

comenta la no meu vibe kiss

Aug 12th - 17:37pm | Alan Gregory

Positions such as this one ought to be filled by candidates selected on a merit basis, not for they voted for last time at the polls or which candidate they last gave money to. I can't help but feel that's how Fran entered the picture in the first place.

How Much Cell Phone Coverage Does Yellowstone Need?

Aug 12th - 10:34am | parkaholic

I sit and wonder if there was such public outrage when radio communications were first introduced into the park system. Certainly there was a percieved need for safety and security. Is the general public aware that the Parks have recently spent millions of dollars to upgrade radio communications with narrow band digital systems resulting in reduced coverage?

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