"... and it should be based on intelligence, respect for nature and intent. No selfie sticks, no babies, no kids younger than an age where they can grasp their surroundings and the concept of nature. Littering and damaging nature in any way should be met with a fine so steep that no one would dare. In NYC, our parks and landmarks are overrun by the ugliest, rudest tourists one can imagine. They have ruined life here and with a welcome mat fro[m] officials who only see dollars."
That's a comment at the NYT article, "How Crowded Are America’s National Parks? See for Yourself. Americans are flocking to national parks in record numbers, in many cases leading to long lines and overcrowded facilities. Here’s what four parks looked like over the holiday weekend."
As the "See for Yourself" part of the headline indicates, there are lots of photos and video clips at the link showing beautiful landscapes obscured by roiling crowds of uncool people in summer clothes.
Do people really love empty landscapes and solitude? Everyone's a photographer now, and no one — except these journalists documenting overcrowding — wants strangers doing selfies in their photographs. You go out to experience nature, and then you're stuck with whoever else chose the same vantage point. And some places are just terribly well-known vantage points that jump right onto all those bucket lists. There are many interesting rock formations all over the country where you might muse about what that rock looks like to you, but you've got to follow the signposts to Skull Rock, that one rock that been determined to look a particular thing, and you can stand in a group that must all think that indeed it looks like a skull.
Yet it's easy to avoid crowds. Hike to less accessible parts of crowded National Parks or just go some time other than summer. Much easier: Go to state parks. There are 66 state parks in Wisconsin — lots of variety — and it's easy to get to them — many just for day trips — and there's hardly anyone else there.
The most grandiose landscapes have been snapped up into National Parks, but if you genuinely love nature, you should value the mellower beauties of the state (and county) parks. Learn to look more closely and find details — especially if you are bringing children along. Those videos at the NYT link show some little children, and many of them look fussy and bored. They were dragged across the country, cooped up in cars, subjected to lines, exposed to glaring sun, and told what to look at, told it is amazing, told it belongs in their head as a memory. They should be grouchy. They should be outraged.
But I wouldn't exclude them. No kids allowed! The commenter who says invitees only is, I hope, a satirist. But parents on their own ought to decide to scale down the encounters with nature. Way down. Maybe to the level of your own town or — it might be best — your own backyard.
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