Are you missing out on the best over-crowded, grid-locked, outdoor vacation of your life?
Loving our public lands to death
One of the widespread changes that has stuck since Covid is the surge of interest in outdoor recreation, especially visits to U.S. national parks and public lands.
Whether it’s the adoption of a new vacation experience or fear of losing the chance to see iconic landscapes because of wildfires, flooding and climate change, people are hitting the parks in record numbers – 300 million visits in 2022.
Long lines and grid-locked roads don’t make for a fun outdoor experience
Some parks are scrambling to revamp old management systems to honor their mandates, protect wildlife and fragile lands and protect visitors – despite years of chronic under-funding by Congress and under-staffing.
All of which raises some interesting questions:
What does the increasing popularity of national parks really mean? Unplugging and a deeper appreciation of Nature? Or more Instagram selfies and TikTok moments?
Do these “outdoor” vacationers continue their new connection with the outdoors when they return home? Or only come back with a new T-shirt or baseball hat?
Do they notice the aged facilities and under-staffed parks? Or do they complain about the long lines and dirty restrooms?
What are the most popular national parks?
My Western U.S. readers will argue, but two of the most visited parks of all types are within an hour of me in North Carolina and Virginia: The Blue Ridge Parkway (#1) and Great Smoky Mountains National Park (#3). The Golden Gate National Recreation Area is #2 with 15.6 million visits.
The Smokies routinely sits at the No. 1 spot of most-visited national parks – 12.9 million visits in 2022. The Blue Ridge is a parkway, 469 miles long and about a mile wide across North Carolina and Virginia, with 15.7 million visits. Both are in the more densely populated Eastern United States.
I fell in love with the Blue Ridge Mountains on my first visit to the Parkway. Being next to a national park or forest was my top criterion for relocating: I’m surrounded by Nantahala National Forest, Pisgah National Forest, Gorges State Park, Dupont Recreational State Forest and more — all within this county.
If you weren’t aware, public lands include: parks and preserves, wildlife refuges, conservation areas, monuments, wilderness areas, historic sites, memorials, battlefields, recreation areas, wild and scenic rivers, seashores and lakeshores and trails.
Expand your park-loving horizons to avoid loving them to death
Avid outdoor lovers were already avoiding national parks during peak seasons and visiting other public lands. That trend intensified during Covid.
I confess to letting the crowds keep me away from the Smokies, which I’ve lived near for 13 years. Because for as much as I’ve heard about the beauty of Cades Cove, the stories always include gridlock and fearless bears on the road in broad daylight.
A fellow outdoor painter who was quietly painting next to the back of her van on the road there had a bear walk within mere inches of her arm, and then try to climb into the open passenger window as she scrambled into the driver’s seat.
And I’ve seen first-hand the garbage dumped by hikers and backpackers in trailhead restrooms off the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Get outdoors and unplug, definitely. Leave only footprints.
And if you want wild places to endure, consider joining advocacy groups working on these issues. You’ll find several in the Resources below.
So don’t wait to go wander outside!
3 Resources for You
Three of my favorites:
National Parks Conservation Association
To save wildlife and wild places, the traction has to come not from the regurgitation of bad-news data but from the poets, prophets, preachers, professors, and presidents who have always dared to inspire. J. Drew Lanham
