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I once read about yellowstone that 95% of visitors never travelled more than 400 feet from thier car or bus. The parks are basically empty. The busy parts are

I once read about yellowstone that 95% of visitors never travelled more than 400 feet from thier car or bus. The parks are basically empty. The busy parts are the visitors centers and the easy campgrounds. The actual wilderness is still there for anyone willing and able to put in the effort.

bombcar 3y ago
400 feet seems short, unless it was “never sleep more than 400 feet from their method of arrival” or similar. Even a short walk down a path will quickly go past 400 feet. But maybe you can drive right into Old Faithful; I’ve never been.
- thehappypm 3y ago
  It is 100 yards from the road maximum
- ng12 3y ago
  Anecdotally the majority of tourists I've seen just drive to viewpoints and stand around. The Grand Canyon is my favorite example. The rim by the visitor center can be packed but once you're a half mile down one of the trails you won't see a soul.
- amethyst 3y ago
  We've been to Muir Woods multiple times and it's easily 400ft from most of the parking spots just to get to the main entrance.
- jcranmer 3y ago
  This is the satellite photo of Old Faithful: https://maps.app.goo.gl/fXNekEy7SYYPhDQj7 https://maps.app.goo.gl/fXNekEy7SYYPhDQj7 Technically, it's about 600 ft. from the parking lot, but half of that is the distance from the viewing area to the geyser (you never actually walk right up to the geysers, you always want to see them from a bit of a distance). From what I remember of Yellowstone (it has been two decades since I visited), it's a national park where pretty much everything is pretty damn close to roadside, as the roads are designed to take you by all the interesting things.
- saltcured 3y ago
  If I can recall from over 30 years ago, yes Old Faithful viewing is within a few hundred feet of a parking area. For those who naturally wander, it can be hard to understand. But a lot of visitors barely leave parking lots and pull-outs. I don't know about 95%, but I've definitely noticed this at my favorite California parks. The road-bound will take pictures at the scenic viewpoint on the shoulder of the road and at various entrance signs, and maybe use the restrooms. Then they pile back into the car to go to the next pull-out, restaurant, or hotel parking lot on their itinerary...
tiltowait 3y ago
I think it depends on what you mean by empty. I was about 25 miles in last month (backpacking; Hoover Wilderness/Yosemite), and we all remarked at how surprised we were by the number of people we saw every day. It felt pretty crowded.
rgmerk 3y ago
While the exact number may be a little higher this tallies very much with my experience of US national parks. Walk a few hundred yards and even at the busiest sites you’re basically on your own. While many people with disabilities can’t go very far beyond their car, they represent a minority of visitors. The vast majority of visitors are people who are theoretically physically capable of walking further but just choose not to. I don’t get it, but it does make the experience for those of us who are prepared to walk a whole lot nicer!
- nullc 3y ago
  It's good, everyone gets the experience they want. Old faithful has a parking lot nearby. I don't know that I'd want to encourage people with little experience in the actual wilderness and not enough interest to read up first to go too far in any case. That's the group that contains the people who think petting the bison is a good idea or who never considered that their cell phone might not work everywhere. More tourists getting killed just ends up making things worse for everyone, esp the people who get killed.
nineplay 3y ago
That would astonish me and I can't find any reference except a blog post that also says "I read that..." without any citations. I don't believe it and I certainly wouldn't encourage people to form opinions on national park policies based on it.
oblib 3y ago
I visited Yellowstone back in the early 80's, and that's probably about right for me, and for good reason. I got there late at night and pulled off on a forest road to sleep and early in the morning I got up to take a pee. I walked about 20 feet from my van and started peeing and then heard a loud "whoosh" noise and then two big billows of what looked like steam blew by me. I'd been looking at my feet while peeing so I watched the billows blow by and then heard another big whoosh noise. My first thought was there must be some kind of little geyser around so I looked to find the source of the steam and saw it wasn't a geyser, it was a giant bull moose not more than 20 from me and it was snorting at me and basically telling me it was about ready to kill me. Pretty much every year we hear about someone getting killed by bears there. I have spent many nights in many national forests and bushwhacked many miles off trail in them, but not Yellowstone. I'll leave that to the bears and those giant freaking moose.

bombcar 3y ago

400 feet seems short, unless it was “never sleep more than 400 feet from their method of arrival” or similar. Even a short walk down a path will quickly go past 400 feet. But maybe you can drive right into Old Faithful; I’ve never been.

thehappypm 3y ago
It is 100 yards from the road maximum
ng12 3y ago
Anecdotally the majority of tourists I've seen just drive to viewpoints and stand around. The Grand Canyon is my favorite example. The rim by the visitor center can be packed but once you're a half mile down one of the trails you won't see a soul.
amethyst 3y ago
We've been to Muir Woods multiple times and it's easily 400ft from most of the parking spots just to get to the main entrance.
jcranmer 3y ago
This is the satellite photo of Old Faithful: https://maps.app.goo.gl/fXNekEy7SYYPhDQj7 https://maps.app.goo.gl/fXNekEy7SYYPhDQj7 Technically, it's about 600 ft. from the parking lot, but half of that is the distance from the viewing area to the geyser (you never actually walk right up to the geysers, you always want to see them from a bit of a distance). From what I remember of Yellowstone (it has been two decades since I visited), it's a national park where pretty much everything is pretty damn close to roadside, as the roads are designed to take you by all the interesting things.
saltcured 3y ago
If I can recall from over 30 years ago, yes Old Faithful viewing is within a few hundred feet of a parking area. For those who naturally wander, it can be hard to understand. But a lot of visitors barely leave parking lots and pull-outs. I don't know about 95%, but I've definitely noticed this at my favorite California parks. The road-bound will take pictures at the scenic viewpoint on the shoulder of the road and at various entrance signs, and maybe use the restrooms. Then they pile back into the car to go to the next pull-out, restaurant, or hotel parking lot on their itinerary...

tiltowait 3y ago

I think it depends on what you mean by empty. I was about 25 miles in last month (backpacking; Hoover Wilderness/Yosemite), and we all remarked at how surprised we were by the number of people we saw every day. It felt pretty crowded.

rgmerk 3y ago

While the exact number may be a little higher this tallies very much with my experience of US national parks. Walk a few hundred yards and even at the busiest sites you’re basically on your own. While many people with disabilities can’t go very far beyond their car, they represent a minority of visitors. The vast majority of visitors are people who are theoretically physically capable of walking further but just choose not to. I don’t get it, but it does make the experience for those of us who are prepared to walk a whole lot nicer!

nullc 3y ago
It's good, everyone gets the experience they want. Old faithful has a parking lot nearby. I don't know that I'd want to encourage people with little experience in the actual wilderness and not enough interest to read up first to go too far in any case. That's the group that contains the people who think petting the bison is a good idea or who never considered that their cell phone might not work everywhere. More tourists getting killed just ends up making things worse for everyone, esp the people who get killed.

nineplay 3y ago

That would astonish me and I can't find any reference except a blog post that also says "I read that..." without any citations. I don't believe it and I certainly wouldn't encourage people to form opinions on national park policies based on it.

oblib 3y ago

I visited Yellowstone back in the early 80's, and that's probably about right for me, and for good reason. I got there late at night and pulled off on a forest road to sleep and early in the morning I got up to take a pee. I walked about 20 feet from my van and started peeing and then heard a loud "whoosh" noise and then two big billows of what looked like steam blew by me. I'd been looking at my feet while peeing so I watched the billows blow by and then heard another big whoosh noise. My first thought was there must be some kind of little geyser around so I looked to find the source of the steam and saw it wasn't a geyser, it was a giant bull moose not more than 20 from me and it was snorting at me and basically telling me it was about ready to kill me. Pretty much every year we hear about someone getting killed by bears there. I have spent many nights in many national forests and bushwhacked many miles off trail in them, but not Yellowstone. I'll leave that to the bears and those giant freaking moose.