anybody visit National Parks?

MSCH

MSCH

Well-known member
Reuters is reporting budget cuts have affected staffing at the NPS.
I know they instituted a reservation system during Covid to reduce overcrowding in the frequently visited parks
but it remains to be seen what affects the current attempt at money saving has on the NPS system.

since we are on our way in a couple days, the only NPS I had planned to run thru was probably TRNP in ND... which isn't a very busy place like Yellowstone or Yosemite, so will find out..

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/f...r?cvid=b9fd6a020aac4677e191392f90fc0894&ei=34
 
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We did TRNP in 2023 and loved it. Go to the North and South areas but I'd skip the West one were TR's ranch was. Nothing there but a meadow and brush. Medora is a beautiful little town. I did the bull riding museum and it was very cool and worthwhile. Enjoy
 
I think we are up to about 30 national parks, but have a lot to go before we get to every one. We have met a couple and a single man at different parks that each had one national park to go to have been at every one. The sad part of the story is the single man had lost his wife just before they would have seen every park. He was still going to see the last one, but you could tell it was bittersweet.
 
Wayne said:
I think we are up to about 30 national parks, but have a lot to go before we get to every one. We have met a couple and a single man at different parks that each had one national park to go to have been at every one. The sad part of the story is the single man had lost his wife just before they would have seen every park. He was still going to see the last one, but you could tell it was bittersweet.
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FWIW some of them are borderline unreachable... not by normal means of travel of RVers..
for instance Isle Royale ,Cumberland Island and Dry Tortugus etc... by boat or by air only.. or if you can swim like Diana Nyad... not that anyone can swim very far in Lake Superior before they freeze to death.. :)

shame of it for us is we have been to some that we remember but couldn't get the souvenirs .My OL collects stuff from every National Park.. we were in Gates of the Arctic NP when in Alaska, but visitor center was closed.. never thought about it until we were gone that we should have collected one memento. Probably not a very large chance I will ever get there again..

I've gotten to the point in my travels I prefer the obscure parks, simply because they don't have the amount of visitors the popular parks do..

for instance we went to North Rim GC, Zion, Bryce etc last time around and they were all so crowded it sucked..
have to wait hours to ride a tour bus.. hard to find a parking spot at visitor center..

repeat after me,,, are we having fun yet.
 
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You have to go to the popular parks early. We were to the South Rim GC last fall and this April. Got to the entrance before 9.30 both times, last fall was 40 minutes in line they had 2 lines open, in April 20 minutes they had 4 or 5 lines open. It was already crowded at the popular spots but we have a little known vista you have to walk a mile to that’s always good.

We were at 3 National Monuments last month and they felt a bit under staffed.
 
Azjeff said:
You have to go to the popular parks early. We were to the South Rim GC last fall and this April. Got to the entrance before 9.30 both times, last fall was 40 minutes in line they had 2 lines open, in April 20 minutes they had 4 or 5 lines open. It was already crowded at the popular spots but we have a little known vista you have to walk a mile to that’s always good.

We were at 3 National Monuments last month and they felt a bit under staffed.
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yeah, it helps to go off season too.. like when school are back in session or it is snowing. :)
that keeps out the fair weather crowd.
I've been to the GC a few times, so South Rim I expected it to be a clusterfutz just because it always was before

north rim I figured would be like it was the first time I was there,,, pretty much unoccupied.
my bad.

then again Arizona's population has probably tripled in the 30 year period between my visits to north rim.

I'll probably never go back to Yellowstone, Glacier,Grand Tetons, Grand Canyon just because of the crowding.
I was in Jackson Wy 40 years ago and it was a sleepy little western town.
and the last time I was there it was like Downtown Disney,Cape Cod or any other tourist mecca you can think of.

probably explains my new affair with way the hell up north Canada.
 
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Azjeff said:
Shhh don't tell anyone about the North Rim. And it ain't Az residents clogging the place up.
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the first time I went there I thought nobody knew about it.. had it almost to myself.

the second time was one of those WTF moments.. it was as crowded as the south rim..
 
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