What's the problem with Yellowstone Park?

I spent most of last week in Yellowstone National Park.  I wandered, wondered, and was amazed … but also disappointed. The place is so damn organized that it’s more like making stops on a pilgrimage than exploring the incredible aspects of nature surrounding you.  That’s because the Park is a victim of its own success and is cursed by the long-ago decision making it automobile-dependent.

Yellowstone is laid out for an automobile-based visit.  This year I’m told that a record 8 million people visited the Park … that’s about 2 million cars. And it looks as though at least half of them are hulking RVs. Way too many!  Even now, in mid September, 8,000 people a day are visiting the Park, far more than in years past.  When I asked a Ranger what had happened to boost attendance,  he snarled “Ken Burns” at me and changed the subject.

This volume of traffic provides huge challenges for camping and lodging spaces, for safety, for service stations, and for plumbing.  It puts great pressure on the ecology and wildlife of the region.

The Park’s approach has been to turn the Park into a sort of nanny-state.  Virtually every feature has a name, a wooden walkway,  railings, signs telling you it’s dangerous, don’t step off the path, don’t do this, don’t do that, don’t feed the bears, don’t approach bison or elk (they’re dangerous), don’t, don’t, don’t  … and DO do exactly what everyone else does, in the same order.

You can, of course, hike anywhere you want to.  But don’t even think of bringing your dog (even leashed) on any trail, or even onthe boardwalked sites. You can’t leave them tied to anything, can’t leave them alone at a campsite, can’t take them on a trail or path.  You can lock them in your car, or stay with them in a parking lot or campsite. But that’s it. It’s a gulag for Lassie, no kidding.

Lots of people do take hikes.  But the huge majority of folks drive around from one “village” (cluster of lodging, gas, food, shops, and info center) to the next seeing the requisite sights along the way.  . 

There are a few drives where rvs and trailers aren’t permitted – too narrow and dangerous.  Thank God.  But the park will spend lots of money upgrading roads, but won’t remove a single branch that blocks visual access to the sight you’re on this road to see! 

Another real oddity concerns how people interact with wildlife in the Park.  If you’re driving along and see a cluster of cars crowding the turnouts (the only place you can stop) and spilling onto the road, you can be 100% certain that they’re seeing bison, bear, elk, or (very unlikely) wolves.

It’s amazing.  But word of animal sightings passes telepathically or by some sort of tribal instinct, and like vultures heading for the carrion, the tourists flock to any animal sighting.  It’s both scary and amazing to see how this operates … and on their heels a ranger wagon is likely to appear, telling them by loud speaker to “stay away from the wildlife, back up, stay in your car” or something similar.  People get excited and act crazily when  wildlife sightings occur, especially if the confrontation is at close quarters.

There’s an almost scary avidity to see these animals in their environment.  I have given real thought to this, and can’t decide if people are feeling so cut off from nature that they are desparate to see other large life forms operating within the natural order (we, of course consider ourselves above nature, not of it, but that’s a topic for a later essay).  Or perhaps it’s a vestigial hunting instinct.  For most folks, point-and-shoot cameras have replaced point-and-shoot guns.  But there are quite a number of Canon-toting hunters who will do anything to get the shot.

Here’s an example.  As I was leaving the Park, bison were massing along the Lamar River.  Would have done a movie producer proud.  About two miles past the Soda Butte a herd of 30 plus animals started down the hillside, obviously intent on crossing the road.  I stopped to let them.  The car coming towards me also stopped, leaving a corridor about 100 feet wide for the herd to pass through. Not terribly wide, but as wide as could be under the circumstances. Here's what it looked like at the start of the migration:

Three bison had crossed the road when ZOOM … two identical SUVs (identical cars, though the plated were from 2 different states) roared past me, blocking my view and narrowing the herd’s corridor even further.  Then Canon-toting middle aged men poured form both cars, for all the world like mobsters taking down a squealer, and started blasting away.

Here's what it looked like when they did their thing:

This wasn’t merely unconscionably rude, it was really dangerous for them, for me, and for the bison.

You see, they forced 3 of the bison to choose between ramming my car, changing course to the rear, or charging into them.

 Bison are unpredictable and erratic, and have been known to trample a vehicle until nothing in it moved (fact, not folklore). You’re supposed to stay 100 yards from them if possible, and to stay in your car if you are closer than that.

So for these jerks to have barged out of traffic, blocking me, and exposing all of us to danger …. That says something about the aggressive hunting behavior some folks exhibit.

I’m a pro photographer, with a car plainly marked on all 4 sides, and these guys were amateurs on a tour (as suggested by their age, apparent wealth, and identical vehicles, whose drivers were NOT dressed like the passengers).  For them to have intentionally blocked my view AND have put us all in danger is not excusable.  It was both unbelievably rude and stupid.

Ignorant assholes is too kind a phrase, and their drivers/guides should NEVER have done it. They had to have known better.

As it happened, when the beasts were coming straight at me, I got some amazing shots (the bull was grunting, saliva dripping, and eyes rolling, NOT a good sign, and I saw it way too close for safety!).  But it shouldn’t have happened.

In fact, this episode represents the reason Yellowstone is so nanny-fied.  People let their lust for the shot over-ride common sense, especially where wildlife is concerned.  When there are that many people, packed so tightly into an exciting and unfamiliar (to most of them) environment, where they don’t know how to behave, you DO have to regulate pretty heavily. 

I get that.  I just hate it.  Other parks, with less congestion and just as many ways to get in trouble (notably the Badlands, where terrain will get you even quicker than the bison) are less regulation-bound.  Fewer rules, sensible rules, and they expect you to follow them.

But Yellowstone is on the verge of being ruined by its very success.

I talked with one Ranger about the problem of so many cars, and opined that the Denali solution (no cars, just interminable schoolbus rides of up to 11 hours in length) sucks too.  He replied that the Denali solution can’t work in Yellowstone because the lodging is INSIDE the park, whereas at Denali, almost all of it is OUTSIDE the park.

I have two suggestions to help with the problem.

1. Limit the number of visitors per week by having a lottery system.  In March you put in your bid for a given week, and if you don’t get it, you get a priority for the following year.

2. Go for a monorail system which  makes stops for all the major venues and villages.  From there you either walk or rent a bike or moped to get around… or walk, of course.

Neither of these ideas is trouble-free or likely to be popular, but the current approach just isn’t able to carry the load.

And as for those guys in the SUVs …. Their drivers / firm should be banned for 2 years for criminally dangerous behavior. And the Canon-wielding passengers should be condemned to Panasonic point-and shoots for the next 2 years as well. 

Now as for the hordes of oversized RVs ….. well, that’s another story.