The National Parks: Arguably America's Only Good Idea

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > The Great Outdoors > The National Parks: Arguably America's Only Good Idea

«‹›9 »

Oracle: Oct 9, 2004

tesilential posted:

drat my buddy is heading to Yellowstone this weekend from Florida. Anything else he should look to do if the park is out?

There's several national parks to stop in along the way, just check a map. Or pick any of the others. Rocky Mountain, Grand Teton, Badlands, Glacier, Theodore Roosevelt (my personal favorite, never crowded, lots of wildlife, amazing scenery, just wear a hat and bring sunscreen cuz there ain't no shade).

# ? Jun 14, 2022 06:32

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Jun 1, 2024 14:36

Natty Ninefingers: Feb 17, 2011

tesilential posted:

drat my buddy is heading to Yellowstone this weekend from Florida. Anything else he should look to do if the park is out?

Tetons

(uh, tho I dunno what�s open there yet)

# ? Jun 14, 2022 07:37

otter: Jul 23, 2007; Ask me about my XCOM and controller collection

word.

GrandTetons we�re mind blowingly majestic. The pizza place there is pretty good too.
For whatever reason (altitude? Bison milk?) the McDonald�s ice cream is fluffy in Wyoming in a way it isn�t elsewhere. That�s most of the good things I have to say about Wyoming. We went mid June last year and it was really hot. Didn�t see a single live buffalo.

# ? Jun 14, 2022 08:54

xzzy: Mar 5, 2009

Wyoming has the bighorns and wind river range too, which are gorgeous areas. And their chunk of the medicine bow forest is nice.

# ? Jun 14, 2022 10:28

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

I think the vast majority of the Bisons I've seen are in either Utah around Zion or on the way to the north rim of the Grand Canyon.

But yeah even if Yellowstone was closed the Tetons were very memorable. I was so tired, I'd been on the road most of the previous 19 hours and just lazily returning through the tetons and seeing all the beautiful places beteween there and eventually reconnecting to the 89, truly memorable poo poo, so many beautiful rivers and forest just on the side of the road. It's one of those things I'm not 100% sure how I survived it anymore.

# ? Jun 14, 2022 10:51

Zero One: Dec 30, 2004; HAIL TO THE VICTORS!

Yeah I would make alternative plans for this weekend. My trip isn't until the end of September so we are just waiting to see what's going to happen.

https://twitter.com/wtae/status/1536688903176200193?s=21&t=xZ41WfsxqddJ9_8zTslkJA

# ? Jun 14, 2022 13:46

tesilential: Nov 22, 2004; by Fluffdaddy

Thanks guys and gals.

He is going to a wedding and was going to hit Yellowstone after for a couple days so I sent him all your recommendations.

# ? Jun 14, 2022 17:22

Cat Ass Trophy: Jul 24, 2007; I can do twice the work in half the time

Natty Ninefingers posted:

That road I�m sure is hosed for a good long time. Probably other roads as well. That being said Yellowstone is one of the few places that I�m sure tax dollars will be thrown at to fix. I doubt we will end up with a Carbon River solution, and while overall mobility is going to be pretty hampered when the goon above does go, it�s not worth giving up just yet

Being one of the most popular, you are probably right about the tax dollars being thrown at it. Hopefully it will all work out for everyone.

Here if a brief personal story of optimism. We were in a similar situation with Zion this time last year. We were on out way when the park and city at the entrance were hit by flash floods. We had an RV spot reserved in town and it was washed into the river. Park was closed too, mud everywhere. But we said screw it, we have an RV, we can squat in a parking lot somewhere.

We got luck, both the park and the town put in a huge effort and they were cleared of mud and debris as we arrived, and since everyone was warned away, we had a relatively (by summer Zion standards) empty National Park to ourselves for the first day and a half.

We still got to see plenty of unprepared hikers getting heat exhaustion. Bring a hat and water people.

# ? Jun 14, 2022 17:25

Fitzy Fitz: May 14, 2005

Mr. Crow posted:

Bear spray bear spray bear spray. Also make sure you can access it at a moments notice

One of the highlights of my Yellowstone visit was when a man dropped his bear spray and gassed the entire Grand Prismatic overlook. He was right at the entrance to it, so everyone was either trapped, sprinting through it, or jumping the barriers to get away.

# ? Jun 14, 2022 19:58

Rick: Feb 23, 2004; When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

I think they have pepper gel now that is harder to gently caress up than bear spray and at least the dude in the vid said it was more effective.

# ? Jun 14, 2022 21:55

Zero One: Dec 30, 2004; HAIL TO THE VICTORS!

Update from Yellowstone

quote:

UPDATE: June 14 at 6:38 p.m.

Northern portion of Yellowstone National Park likely to remain closed for a substantial length of time due to severely damaged, impacted infrastructure; Visitors traveling to park in coming weeks must stay informed about current situation, road and weather conditions

Updates

Aerial assessments conducted Monday, June 13, by Yellowstone National Park show major damage to multiple sections of road between the North Entrance (Gardiner, Montana), Mammoth Hot Springs, Lamar Valley and Cooke City, Montana, near the Northeast Entrance.
Many sections of road in these areas are completely gone and will require substantial time and effort to reconstruct.
The National Park Service will make every effort to repair these roads as soon as possible; however, it is probable that road sections in northern Yellowstone will not reopen this season due to the time required for repairs.
To prevent visitors from being stranded in the park if conditions worsen, the park in coordination with Yellowstone National Park Lodges made the decision to have all visitors move out of overnight accommodations (lodging and campgrounds) and exit the park.
All entrances to Yellowstone National Park remain temporarily CLOSED while the park waits for flood waters to recede and can conduct evaluations on roads, bridges and wastewater treatment facilities to ensure visitor and employee safety.
There will be no inbound visitor traffic at any of the five entrances into the park, including visitors with lodging and camping reservations, until conditions improve and park infrastructure is evaluated.
The park�s southern loop appears to be less impacted than the northern roads and teams will assess damage to determine when opening of the southern loop is feasible. This closure will extend minimally through next weekend (June 19).
Due to the northern loop being unavailable for visitors, the park is analyzing how many visitors can safely visit the southern loop once it�s safe to reopen. This will likely mean implementation of some type of temporary reservation system to prevent gridlock and reduce impacts on park infrastructure.
At this time, there are no known injuries nor deaths to have occurred in the park as a result of the unprecedented flooding.
Effective immediately, Yellowstone�s backcountry is temporarily closed while crews assist campers (five known groups in the northern range) and assess damage to backcountry campsites, trails and bridges.
The National Park Service, surrounding counties and states of Montana and Wyoming are working with the park�s gateway communities to evaluate flooding impacts and provide immediate support to residents and visitors.
Water levels are expected to recede today in the afternoon; however, additional flood events are possible through this weekend.

Known damage and issues

Known damage (at this time) to some park roads includes:

North Entrance (Gardiner, Montana) to Mammoth Hot Springs: road washed out in multiple places, significant rockslide at Gardner Canyon
Tower Junction to Northeast Entrance: segment of road washed out near Soda Butte Picnic Area, mudslides, downed trees
Tower-Roosevelt to Canyon Junction (Dunraven Pass): mudslide on road
Canyon Junction to Fishing Bridge: Segment of road just south of Canyon Junction potentially compromised and closed for evaluation
The power continues to be out in multiple locations in the park.
Water and wastewater systems at Canyon Village and Mammoth Hot Springs are being impacted by flooding conditions and are being monitored.

# ? Jun 15, 2022 04:08

xzzy: Mar 5, 2009

I saw a couple pictures of Lamar valley, it looks like a braided stream from a glacier now. Except brown.

It's gonna be interesting to see how nature recovers next year, should be an informative visit if the road can be rebuilt by then.

# ? Jun 15, 2022 04:16

Fitzy Fitz: May 14, 2005

It's probably not a big deal for the ecosystem. The damage is localized and largely to human development. The wildlife may benefit from a break from people. I hope it won't derail conservation work too much though if staff resources are diverted.

# ? Jun 15, 2022 16:08

Zero One: Dec 30, 2004; HAIL TO THE VICTORS!

https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/16/weather/yellowstone-national-park-flooding-closed-thursday/index.html

quote:

Yellowstone National Park could partially reopen as early as Monday as officials continue to assess the damage caused by historic flooding, which now threatens to hamper the peak of the summer tourist season.

Heavy rains and rapid snowmelt caused rivers to swallow bridges, sweep away entire sections of roadway and forced the evacuation of more than 10,000 visitors. The sudden closure has fueled concerns from business owners and employees in surrounding communities who rely on Yellowstone visitors as a key source of revenue.
The park's northern region, which bore the brunt of the flood damage, is expected to be closed for a "substantial length of time," which will likely go through the end of the season, the park said in a release Tuesday.
The less-impacted southern loop could reopen as early as Monday, Park Superintendent Cam Sholly told residents and tourists in Cody, Wyoming, on Wednesday, according to the Casper Star-Tribune.

# ? Jun 16, 2022 16:31

xzzy: Mar 5, 2009

Lookin' neat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTZ7jkcXfLQ

# ? Jun 16, 2022 16:39

Zero One: Dec 30, 2004; HAIL TO THE VICTORS!

Thisisfine.jpg

https://twitter.com/glaciernps/status/1537454703327465474?s=21&t=EbMjCppEN8r9-xII3lkUPg

# ? Jun 16, 2022 16:57

Mr. Crow: May 22, 2008; Snap City mayor for life

Zero One posted:

Thisisfine.jpg

https://twitter.com/glaciernps/status/1537454703327465474?s=21&t=EbMjCppEN8r9-xII3lkUPg

To be fair glacier is "only" 400 miles away and it was a big storm system.

But ya

Etc.

# ? Jun 17, 2022 02:10

otter: Jul 23, 2007; Ask me about my XCOM and controller collection

word.

I got a chuckle from the video of glacier.
My wife and her mother are going on a trip there in a few weeks.
It's going to be awesome! (10 days without the wife around = more grilling, less yelling)

There was already an incident in which my wife mentioned being able to "just turn on the tv and zone out at the end of the day" and I noted "yeah, there are no tvs in the lodge bedrooms". Cue the wife and her mom calling the lodge to confirm their sad fate of having to talk to one another.

# ? Jun 18, 2022 21:36

Zero One: Dec 30, 2004; HAIL TO THE VICTORS!

Yellowstone update: https://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/flood-recovery.htm

quote:

North Loop of Yellowstone (Primary Flood Recovery Zone)

(North Entrance to Northeast Entrance, including Mammoth Hot Springs to Norris, and Tower Junction to Canyon Village)
We anticipate this area of the park will likely remain closed for a substantial length of time. Many sections of road in these areas are completely gone and will require substantial time and effort to reconstruct. Yellowstone staff are working to determine other potential sections of the park that may be reopened prior to all park roads closing for the season on Nov. 1. Park managers are evaluating plans to reopen roads connecting Canyon Village, Tower Junction, Mammoth Hot Springs, and Norris; however, this will not happen initially. Decisions will depend on the extent of damage and ability to safely open additional sections as the year progresses. The park is also working to reconnect Mammoth Hot Springs to Gardiner, Montana, and Cooke City and Silver Gate, Montana, as soon as possible with temporary solutions, while long-term reconstruction is planned.

South Loop of Yellowstone (Operations Zone)

(Norris to Canyon Village to Fishing Bridge to West Thumb to Madison, accessed via the West, South, and East entrances)
While the park�s north loop remains closed due to flood damage until further notice, Yellowstone will begin allowing visitors to access the south loop of the park at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, June 22, 2022. To ensure the south loop does not become overwhelmed with visitors and to balance park resource protection and economic interests of surrounding communities, the park is instituting an interim visitor access plan, referred to as the Alternating License Plate System (ALPS).

# ? Jun 19, 2022 14:10

Zero One: Dec 30, 2004; HAIL TO THE VICTORS!

Another update: https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1207/emergency-yellowstone-funding-reopening.htm

They also announced that in addition to the park�s southern loop reopening on June 22, the park�s northern loop is expected to reopen in two weeks or less following completion of clean-up, repairs and final inspection of the northern loop infrastructure. This will allow visitors to access Dunraven Pass, Tower, Mammoth Hot Springs and Norris opening visitor access to approximately 80 percent of Yellowstone National Park. Additional details on access will be announced in the coming weeks.

The initial $50 million will be used to restore temporary access to Gardiner and Cooke City, Montana and other additional sites. Plans are being finalized for improving the Old Gardiner Road for temporary access between Yellowstone and Gardiner, Montana. In partnership with the Federal Highway Administration, road construction crews and materials that were already in the park for a previously scheduled road project to repair 22 miles of the Grand Loop Road between Old Faithful and West Thumb Geyser Basin will be diverted to the Old Gardiner Road project.

The NPS currently anticipates the Old Gardiner Road will be substantially improved over the upcoming months, ensuring that essential emergency services, food, supplies and other administrative needs will be available throughout the winter months. As work proceeds through the summer, the NPS will look for opportunities to restore limited visitor access at the park�s North Entrance. Emergency environmental and historic preservation compliance is underway in accordance with the National Historic Preservation and Environmental Policy Acts. Permanent reconstruction options are being developed and alternatives will be completed in the upcoming months.

In addition to plans to reopen Yellowstone�s northern loop much sooner than initially anticipated, the NPS is working with the Federal Highway Administration on a range of temporary and permanent options to restore access to Silver Gate and Cooke City at the park�s northeast entrance. Currently, the Northeast Entrance Road is impassible between Lamar Valley and Silver Gate. Cost, funding and timelines are not yet available for these short or long-term repairs to the Northeast Entrance Road but will be released as soon as possible.

# ? Jun 22, 2022 17:11

Zero One: Dec 30, 2004; HAIL TO THE VICTORS!

Yellowstone north loop reopening tomorrow.
https://twitter.com/yellowstonenps/status/1542584421286658049?s=21&t=Cthyq8FQoCsqArzBAVOZkA

# ? Jul 1, 2022 20:53

blue squares: Sep 28, 2007

Thoughts on Olympic in early October? Wanting to elope there but my fianc� is worried the weather will make it impossible to tame her hair enough to get decent photos

# ? Jul 4, 2022 17:42

Zero One: Dec 30, 2004; HAIL TO THE VICTORS!

Cool. Cool cool cool.

https://twitter.com/reuters/status/1556326805295882240?s=21&t=G23XwQ04T2UH6F2GYfL8iw

(Death Valley was a last minute drop from my upcoming trip. Better watch out, Arches!)

# ? Aug 9, 2022 04:14

Oracle: Oct 9, 2004

Zero One posted:

Cool. Cool cool cool.

https://twitter.com/reuters/status/1556326805295882240?s=21&t=G23XwQ04T2UH6F2GYfL8iw

(Death Valley was a last minute drop from my upcoming trip. Better watch out, Arches!)

Well that's... not normal.

# ? Aug 9, 2022 04:33

Mr. Crow: May 22, 2008; Snap City mayor for life

Why are there a thousand people in death valley in the middle of summer, does the whole place not get insanely hot (genuinely curious)?

# ? Aug 9, 2022 07:52

newts: Oct 10, 2012

I posted these to Reddit, but thought some people might also enjoy them here. My parents have an old photo album of a family trip to Rocky Mountain National Park from around 1916-1920. I�m not sure of the exact dates because my grandfather (who is the little boy called �Bim� in some of the photos) was adopted, but never knew what year he was born.

There is some cool stuff of my relatives (?) climbing Long�s Peak and other CO hikes, and some photos of RMNP from right after it became a national park.

The photos and album are in good condition, my pics of them are atrocious (apologies), but here�s a lot of them: https://imgur.com/a/6ALhpYq

# ? Aug 9, 2022 15:17

Mr. Crow: May 22, 2008; Snap City mayor for life

newts posted:

I posted these to Reddit, but thought some people might also enjoy them here. My parents have an old photo album of a family trip to Rocky Mountain National Park from around 1916-1920. I’m not sure of the exact dates because my grandfather (who is the little boy called ‘Bim’ in some of the photos) was adopted, but never knew what year he was born.

There is some cool stuff of my relatives (?) climbing Long’s Peak and other CO hikes, and some photos of RMNP from right after it became a national park.

The photos and album are in good condition, my pics of them are atrocious (apologies), but here’s a lot of them: https://imgur.com/a/6ALhpYq

These are very cool thanks for sharing! Did I read that right they climbed longs in 3 hours? Thats insane

# ? Aug 9, 2022 15:51

newts: Oct 10, 2012

Mr. Crow posted:

These are very cool thanks for sharing! Did I read that right they climbed longs in 3 hours? Thats insane

Yeah, I have no idea�they must have started from pretty high up. I�ve never been up to Long�s.

# ? Aug 9, 2022 16:20

xzzy: Mar 5, 2009

newts posted:

I posted these to Reddit, but thought some people might also enjoy them here. My parents have an old photo album of a family trip to Rocky Mountain National Park from around 1916-1920. I�m not sure of the exact dates because my grandfather (who is the little boy called �Bim� in some of the photos) was adopted, but never knew what year he was born.

There is some cool stuff of my relatives (?) climbing Long�s Peak and other CO hikes, and some photos of RMNP from right after it became a national park.

The photos and album are in good condition, my pics of them are atrocious (apologies), but here�s a lot of them: https://imgur.com/a/6ALhpYq

Just for funzies, the spots I could find compared to now:

- this is from the peak of Deer Mountain. https://www.google.com/maps/@40.379...0!7i5760!8i2880

- feels like it's from the rockslide area at Fern Lake. https://www.google.com/maps/@40.336...0!7i5760!8i2880

- somewhere on the final approach to dream lake. https://www.google.com/maps/@40.309...0!7i9216!8i4476

- somewhere around a switchback on the flat top mountain trail. https://www.google.com/maps/@40.314...0!7i5760!8i2880

- somewhere along the flat top mountain trail above bear lake. https://www.google.com/maps/@40.316...0!7i5760!8i2880

- flat top mountain trail, again. snow fields don't change much! https://www.google.com/maps/@40.313...0!7i7168!8i3584

- somewhere along the ridge above tyndall glacier. https://www.google.com/maps/@40.307...0!7i5760!8i2880

- I think that's lake haiyaha in the distance, putting them on the ridge between hallet peak and otis peak. https://www.google.com/maps/@40.295...0!7i5760!8i2880

- flat top mountain trail again. hallet peak in the background https://www.google.com/maps/@40.310...0!7i9728!8i4106

- south side of longs peak. If I'm following the narrative of this hike correctly, they started at camp timberline, summited longs peak, then hiked down the back side for lunch in the rock field east of keplinger lake. Then hiked back over the top of mt. meeker to get back at timberline after dark. god drat they put some work in. It's at least a 15 mile loop (with no established trail), not to mention two or three cliffs they had to scale around. https://www.google.com/maps/@40.254...0!7i8704!8i4352

- should be spectacle lake. https://www.google.com/maps/@40.447...0!7i5760!8i2880

# ? Aug 9, 2022 18:27

newts: Oct 10, 2012

Woah, awesome! That�s pretty amazing. Thanks so much for finding all of those spots. Weird how the snow looks the same.

# ? Aug 9, 2022 19:33

Morbus: May 18, 2004

Mr. Crow posted:

Why are there a thousand people in death valley in the middle of summer, does the whole place not get insanely hot (genuinely curious)?

Yes but don't tell anyone because I like having it to myself in the winter

# ? Aug 10, 2022 04:44

tesilential: Nov 22, 2004; by Fluffdaddy

Thanks for sharing Newts��.drat they sure had style back then.

# ? Aug 10, 2022 05:00

Oracle: Oct 9, 2004

xzzy posted:

Just for funzies, the spots I could find compared to now:

This is awesome.

newts posted:

Woah, awesome! That�s pretty amazing. Thanks so much for finding all of those spots. Weird how the snow looks the same.

You know you should contact the park service about these photos... I want to say they have a program where they use old photos to see how much things like glaciers have receded, this might be scientifically useful!

Yeah, the Repeat Photos Project

# ? Aug 10, 2022 06:11

newts: Oct 10, 2012

Oracle posted:

This is awesome.

You know you should contact the park service about these photos... I want to say they have a program where they use old photos to see how much things like glaciers have receded, this might be scientifically useful!

Yeah, the Repeat Photos Project

I contacted someone in the history department at RMNP. Haven�t heard back yet. There are probably a lot of people out there who have old family photos like this (RMNP was a popular destination even back then), so I�m not sure if they�d be of any interest to people there.

The photos also don�t really show a ton of the permanent snow fields I know are up there. I�ll still write to them and see if they might be interested, though. I mean, why not? Good call.

# ? Aug 10, 2022 13:49

Oracle: Oct 9, 2004

newts posted:

I contacted someone in the history department at RMNP. Haven�t heard back yet. There are probably a lot of people out there who have old family photos like this (RMNP was a popular destination even back then), so I�m not sure if they�d be of any interest to people there.

The photos also don�t really show a ton of the permanent snow fields I know are up there. I�ll still write to them and see if they might be interested, though. I mean, why not? Good call.

They can probably also use them to figure out how much forest they've lost to fires and climate change (emerald ash borers etc).

# ? Aug 10, 2022 15:05

xzzy: Mar 5, 2009

Oracle posted:

They can probably also use them to figure out how much forest they've lost to fires and climate change (emerald ash borers etc).

Along those lines, the photo above bear lake was pretty interesting to me, it looks like a fire had gone through there in recent years. Today you can't even see the lake from the trail because the trees have filled back in.

# ? Aug 10, 2022 15:09

Zero One: Dec 30, 2004; HAIL TO THE VICTORS!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn4IJFERCRM

# ? Aug 12, 2022 01:33

smackfu: Jun 7, 2004

We are taking a road trip from Denver to Salt Lake City in late September. Anyone have thoughts on the national parks around there� I guess mainly Arches and Canyonlands and Rocky Mountain?

# ? Aug 20, 2022 19:15

xzzy: Mar 5, 2009

"Late September" is peak fall color for most of Colorado, if that's something that interests you I would make a point to hike around Capitol Peak (road sucks but I saw lots of low clearance AWD cars back in there so it depends on your comfort level) or Kebler Pass (a quality dirt road).

RMNP will have some good color too but might be wearing off by that point. I don't think Canyonlands and Arches turn until late October.

So yeah, the road trip will be pretty.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison and Dinosaur monument are also well worth the trip, just depends how far off the interstate you're willing to go.

# ? Aug 20, 2022 20:34

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Jun 1, 2024 14:36

smackfu: Jun 7, 2004

Ooo, Black Canyon of the Gunnison sounds great, not sure we can justify the detour but maybe!

# ? Aug 22, 2022 01:54

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > The Great Outdoors > The National Parks: Arguably America's Only Good Idea

«‹›9 »