4 ms·

Crazy that you can call a place Death Valley and still have people not take it seriously.

basementcat 4y ago
Death Valley can be quite beautiful in the spring, especially after a rainy winter. https://www.nps.gov/deva/learn/nature/wildflower-seasons.htm https://www.nps.gov/deva/learn/nature/wildflower-seasons.htm
- msrenee 4y ago
  They disappeared at the end of July.
dsfyu404ed 4y ago
The threshold for warning people of danger in modern society is so low that people become desensitized.
- panzagl 4y ago
  I mean, if you go to Death Valley from the California side you've already been told you have, like, a million cancer exposures.
- prawn 4y ago
  At Valley of Fire, 30-60 minutes from Las Vegas, there's a hike with a permanent sign at the beginning no matter the season/weather saying: "HEAT WARNING. Hiking is not recommended." This is despite the park recommending the hike on their map/brochure and at the visitor centre... Obviously it gets hot there and being close to Vegas means people show up in jeans and with poor wayfinding skills. But I do wonder if the sign dissuades no one but desensitises others. Bit of a balancing act trying to adequately warn people who pay little attention, but keep it as the wild experience people want to have.
  - LorenPechtel 4y ago
    Yeah, that sign is stupid. In the right time of year it's perfectly reasonable to hike. In the hot time you would have to be insane--but the sign doesn't distinguish between those cases.
    - dsfyu404ed 4y ago
      Because of pervasive ass-covering in the kinds of organizations responsible for this kind of messaging and infantilization of people just in general they just put a "pls don't do the thing you're here to do" sign that everyone will ignore rather than an informative sign and "make your own decision" that might actually help a few people think twice about doing something actually dumb.
    - prawn 4y ago
      Even in the heat, it's not a particularly long hike. Morning or evening wouldn't be an issue. That said, it's not like the majority of tourists show up early!
      - LorenPechtel 4y ago
        The people who need the signs aren't the ones who are paying attention to conditions. I never head out without either checking the weather myself or knowing that a person whose judgment I trust has checked the weather.
    - twelve40 4y ago
      Just drove down US-50 in Tahoe this morning in all the snow, and a good portion of road signs is out of whack: 55mph limit signs are a joke when you have the mandatory chains on, 35mph yellow signs are a joke in the summer, seems like they are trying to come up with some "average" values safe all-year-round despite winter and summer conditions being complete opposites.
  - jojobas 4y ago
    Australian parks have hike grades, indicated on trailheads. I guess they should not scrimp on signage and put more explicit descriptions, such as "if you can't run half a marathon under X hours or don't have Y liters of water per person you will likely die".
- euroderf 4y ago
  I read an interview with a US park ranger. They said people walk right up to the edge of canyons to get a gander. Like they're at home watching TV. Makes the rangers cringe.
  - LarryMullins 4y ago
    It's like they think the canyon was engineered by Disney amusement park engineers to be safe and normie-proof. Surely they wouldn't open a canyon attraction without first engineering the cliff to never collapse, right? If there's no guardrail, that must mean it's safe.
sizzzzlerz 4y ago
people are idiots. every year people die in the park because they know better than the rangers and go out when it’s 130 without water or a hat
LorenPechtel 4y ago
By summer the name is quite appropriate. In the winter it can be a nice, albeit stark, place to visit.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
cratermoon 4y ago
There's an entire series of books titled "Death in ..." for US national parks, each one detailing incidents where people (not always tourists) ended up dead because they didn't take the risks seriously. https://longreads.com/2022/11/15/death-in-national-parks/ https://longreads.com/2022/11/15/death-in-national-parks/

Death Valley can be quite beautiful in the spring, especially after a rainy winter. https://www.nps.gov/deva/learn/nature/wildflower-seasons.htm https://www.nps.gov/deva/learn/nature/wildflower-seasons.htm

msrenee 4y ago
They disappeared at the end of July.

dsfyu404ed 4y ago

The threshold for warning people of danger in modern society is so low that people become desensitized.

panzagl 4y ago
I mean, if you go to Death Valley from the California side you've already been told you have, like, a million cancer exposures.
prawn 4y ago
At Valley of Fire, 30-60 minutes from Las Vegas, there's a hike with a permanent sign at the beginning no matter the season/weather saying: "HEAT WARNING. Hiking is not recommended." This is despite the park recommending the hike on their map/brochure and at the visitor centre... Obviously it gets hot there and being close to Vegas means people show up in jeans and with poor wayfinding skills. But I do wonder if the sign dissuades no one but desensitises others. Bit of a balancing act trying to adequately warn people who pay little attention, but keep it as the wild experience people want to have.
- LorenPechtel 4y ago
  Yeah, that sign is stupid. In the right time of year it's perfectly reasonable to hike. In the hot time you would have to be insane--but the sign doesn't distinguish between those cases.
  - dsfyu404ed 4y ago
    Because of pervasive ass-covering in the kinds of organizations responsible for this kind of messaging and infantilization of people just in general they just put a "pls don't do the thing you're here to do" sign that everyone will ignore rather than an informative sign and "make your own decision" that might actually help a few people think twice about doing something actually dumb.
  - prawn 4y ago
    Even in the heat, it's not a particularly long hike. Morning or evening wouldn't be an issue. That said, it's not like the majority of tourists show up early!
    - LorenPechtel 4y ago
      The people who need the signs aren't the ones who are paying attention to conditions. I never head out without either checking the weather myself or knowing that a person whose judgment I trust has checked the weather.
  - twelve40 4y ago
    Just drove down US-50 in Tahoe this morning in all the snow, and a good portion of road signs is out of whack: 55mph limit signs are a joke when you have the mandatory chains on, 35mph yellow signs are a joke in the summer, seems like they are trying to come up with some "average" values safe all-year-round despite winter and summer conditions being complete opposites.
- jojobas 4y ago
  Australian parks have hike grades, indicated on trailheads. I guess they should not scrimp on signage and put more explicit descriptions, such as "if you can't run half a marathon under X hours or don't have Y liters of water per person you will likely die".
euroderf 4y ago
I read an interview with a US park ranger. They said people walk right up to the edge of canyons to get a gander. Like they're at home watching TV. Makes the rangers cringe.
- LarryMullins 4y ago
  It's like they think the canyon was engineered by Disney amusement park engineers to be safe and normie-proof. Surely they wouldn't open a canyon attraction without first engineering the cliff to never collapse, right? If there's no guardrail, that must mean it's safe.

sizzzzlerz 4y ago

people are idiots. every year people die in the park because they know better than the rangers and go out when it’s 130 without water or a hat

LorenPechtel 4y ago

By summer the name is quite appropriate. In the winter it can be a nice, albeit stark, place to visit.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

cratermoon 4y ago

There's an entire series of books titled "Death in ..." for US national parks, each one detailing incidents where people (not always tourists) ended up dead because they didn't take the risks seriously. https://longreads.com/2022/11/15/death-in-national-parks/ https://longreads.com/2022/11/15/death-in-national-parks/