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I was born just 6 years before Edward Abbey died. He wrote about this problem long before I was even born. This problem is not new, and some of its causes have

I was born just 6 years before Edward Abbey died. He wrote about this problem long before I was even born. This problem is not new, and some of its causes have been well known for a long time. He argues that the major problem is that the parks are too easy to visit. If you make people get out of their cars and walk a bit, you might stand to preserve some kind of semi-natural experience. If you pave a road to the rim of the Grand Canyon, it shouldn't come as a surprise that people are going to drive right up to it, get out, take a picture, and drive on to the next overlook. As I'm not going to do his words or argument justice, I'd encourage anybody interested in this to pick up a copy of Desert Solitaire. If you do, and you find his argument convincing, your next task is to figure out how to sustain the communities that have come to depend on tourist revenue. I'm not talking about the seasonal folks that work for the NPS or a concessionaire, I mean the people who actually live in these places year-round. You should know that Abbey is not writing from a disinterested viewpoint. He wrote The Monkey Wrench Gang, after all. Still, I find his words both lucid and prescient.

leoc 6y ago
IIRC Franz Kafka joked about Americans rolling through national parks in their automobiles in Amerika https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amerika_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amerika_(novel), which he wrote in the 1910s.
alistairSH 6y ago
He argues that the major problem is that the parks are too easy to visit. This is absolutely true. And not uniquely American. Iceland has the same problem - many of the major sites are right off one of the various major roads (Golden Circle and Route 1/Ring Road). I visited in January and naively thought it would be quiet. Ha! I was so wrong. Reykjavik, Golden Circle, and the southern Ring Road area (out to Vik) were teeming with busloads of tourists. Trash, trampled muddy paths, and idiot tourists ignoring safety signs. We found it best to leave the house well before sunrise to beat the busses to wherever we were going that day.
- jfengel 6y ago
  That's interesting. I visited Iceland in early September and the Golden Circle tour bus was only about half full. I certainly didn't have the place to myself, but it was quiet enough. At that time of year it was definitely chilly but not awful. This was 2013. I wonder if a few years made a difference.
  - lostandbored 6y ago
    Definitely. Since 2013, Iceland has been advertised more as a tourist destination leading to more tourists.
    - jfengel 6y ago
      Interesting. I had wanted to go for years, because Icelandair had been promoting "Fly to Europe, lay over in Iceland for a few days" rather than Iceland as a destination unto itself. Sounds like I nabbed it just in time. I only had time for the touristy stuff in the immediate vicinity of Reykjavik. I would like to go back and see it more intimately.
      - lostandbored 6y ago
        Some reason HN didn't notify me you replied. Weird. Anyways, I hypothesize that some TV shows from taking place in Iceland brought a lot of attention to the landscape which was capitalized on by the Tourism departement.
  - alistairSH 6y ago
    I'd guess so. We went 4? years ago, in late January. Every site off the southern side of the ring road had 4-5 tour buses full of tourists, plus assorted individual cars. It wasn't crowded to the point of annoyance, but it was close. What was annoying was poor behavior by many tourists - stepping inside the chains and touching water at Geysir, going into the "caldera" of Kerid Crater, and going near the water at Reynisfjara Beach. All despite many signs in many languages. And poor tour guides chasing the idiots back to safety. I'd guess if we went north, it would have been relatively quiet, but we only had 4 days, so based out of a flat in Reykjavik.
retzkek 6y ago
Abbey (and climate change) has had a profound effect on my view of traveling. I once had a bucket list to visit every national park (and every continent, and every wonder, etc), but after reading Desert Solitaire I've tried to better appreciate and pursue a deeper relationship with what's around me (even in somewhere as "dull" and flat as the Midwest), rather than dreaming about and planning shallow, wasteful trips to other places. One quote in particular has really stuck with me: "A man on foot, on horseback or on a bicycle will see more, feel more, enjoy more in one mile than the motorized tourists can in a hundred miles." Looking over the tens of thousands of miles I've traveled, it's always the hiking/walking that's the most memorable, despite being the tiniest proportion, in distance, time, and cost. Whether hiking to Half Dome or walking around my local park, forest preserve, or neighborhood, there's so much more to experience. Most tourists today are just checking off items on their list and taking a selfie for Instagram, then moving on to the next item, without ever really experiencing anything.

leoc 6y ago

IIRC Franz Kafka joked about Americans rolling through national parks in their automobiles in Amerika https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amerika_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amerika_(novel), which he wrote in the 1910s.

alistairSH 6y ago

He argues that the major problem is that the parks are too easy to visit. This is absolutely true. And not uniquely American. Iceland has the same problem - many of the major sites are right off one of the various major roads (Golden Circle and Route 1/Ring Road). I visited in January and naively thought it would be quiet. Ha! I was so wrong. Reykjavik, Golden Circle, and the southern Ring Road area (out to Vik) were teeming with busloads of tourists. Trash, trampled muddy paths, and idiot tourists ignoring safety signs. We found it best to leave the house well before sunrise to beat the busses to wherever we were going that day.

jfengel 6y ago
That's interesting. I visited Iceland in early September and the Golden Circle tour bus was only about half full. I certainly didn't have the place to myself, but it was quiet enough. At that time of year it was definitely chilly but not awful. This was 2013. I wonder if a few years made a difference.
- lostandbored 6y ago
  Definitely. Since 2013, Iceland has been advertised more as a tourist destination leading to more tourists.
  - jfengel 6y ago
    Interesting. I had wanted to go for years, because Icelandair had been promoting "Fly to Europe, lay over in Iceland for a few days" rather than Iceland as a destination unto itself. Sounds like I nabbed it just in time. I only had time for the touristy stuff in the immediate vicinity of Reykjavik. I would like to go back and see it more intimately.
    - lostandbored 6y ago
      Some reason HN didn't notify me you replied. Weird. Anyways, I hypothesize that some TV shows from taking place in Iceland brought a lot of attention to the landscape which was capitalized on by the Tourism departement.
- alistairSH 6y ago
  I'd guess so. We went 4? years ago, in late January. Every site off the southern side of the ring road had 4-5 tour buses full of tourists, plus assorted individual cars. It wasn't crowded to the point of annoyance, but it was close. What was annoying was poor behavior by many tourists - stepping inside the chains and touching water at Geysir, going into the "caldera" of Kerid Crater, and going near the water at Reynisfjara Beach. All despite many signs in many languages. And poor tour guides chasing the idiots back to safety. I'd guess if we went north, it would have been relatively quiet, but we only had 4 days, so based out of a flat in Reykjavik.

retzkek 6y ago

Abbey (and climate change) has had a profound effect on my view of traveling. I once had a bucket list to visit every national park (and every continent, and every wonder, etc), but after reading Desert Solitaire I've tried to better appreciate and pursue a deeper relationship with what's around me (even in somewhere as "dull" and flat as the Midwest), rather than dreaming about and planning shallow, wasteful trips to other places. One quote in particular has really stuck with me: "A man on foot, on horseback or on a bicycle will see more, feel more, enjoy more in one mile than the motorized tourists can in a hundred miles." Looking over the tens of thousands of miles I've traveled, it's always the hiking/walking that's the most memorable, despite being the tiniest proportion, in distance, time, and cost. Whether hiking to Half Dome or walking around my local park, forest preserve, or neighborhood, there's so much more to experience. Most tourists today are just checking off items on their list and taking a selfie for Instagram, then moving on to the next item, without ever really experiencing anything.