Illegal Camping In Death Valley National Park, Ranger Fears For Yosemite - National Parks Traveler https://apple.news/AnQ3tUfZ9TVmC2NJrf-l6hA
Some people shouldn’t be allowed outside
Some people shouldn’t be allowed outside
Hope this wasn’t a member
- Thread starter Traverser
- Start date
Member III
Unfortunately, this is not uncommon. I will never advocate illegal camping, but someone will argue that they weren't hurting anything by just sleeping there. They could have a propane fire pit and would leave no fire ring. They could have also followed another set of tracks and set up near a fire ring. Or just flat ignored the signs and camped where they want because its their right to camp where they please. What ever their reason, they should have been ticketed or made to move. Government shut down or not, they would have still done this.
Working as a volunteer for my local forest service and for a wildlife group, I have seen some pretty stupid and arrogant people. During our Adopt a Trail runs, we would have to scatter fire rings and remove tire tracks because if people saw them they would ignore the signs and claim "that was the road" or "if it's illegal to camp here, why is there a fire ring". I have heard this statement and others like it most of my adult life.
Being as I'm not law enforcement, all I'm allowed to do is take pictures. I will try to inform them of where they can camp and why they cant do it here. Most people give me the "OMG, I didn't know" response and others have given the "who cares, what are you going to do? It's my right to camp/drive here, this is open land and I drove here from far away."
With car camping, vehicle camping, overlanding being main stream were gonna see more of this. I gather from the article, the people who took these pictures were outraged. Maybe I'm just numb to it but, I would have taken a few pictures then informed them of their poor choice.
I love the way the author of the article tied this into Yosemite. Soooo.....the ripple effect of these people camping in a sensitive area will cause massive destruction in Yosemite? No. The biggest problem I find in Death Valley is illegal camping and sometimes the local kids doing something stupid. What I see in the forested National Parks are people visiting from other countries throwing trash on the ground, going into very sensitive and sometimes dangerous areas to take pictures. Go to Yellowstone and be amazed. None of this makes any difference whether or not the rangers are there. People will do things in front of them then claim they didn't know.
The biggest thing we can remember is, we are a responsible minority. We get grouped with the irresponsible majority. Try to lead by example
Scott
Working as a volunteer for my local forest service and for a wildlife group, I have seen some pretty stupid and arrogant people. During our Adopt a Trail runs, we would have to scatter fire rings and remove tire tracks because if people saw them they would ignore the signs and claim "that was the road" or "if it's illegal to camp here, why is there a fire ring". I have heard this statement and others like it most of my adult life.
Being as I'm not law enforcement, all I'm allowed to do is take pictures. I will try to inform them of where they can camp and why they cant do it here. Most people give me the "OMG, I didn't know" response and others have given the "who cares, what are you going to do? It's my right to camp/drive here, this is open land and I drove here from far away."
With car camping, vehicle camping, overlanding being main stream were gonna see more of this. I gather from the article, the people who took these pictures were outraged. Maybe I'm just numb to it but, I would have taken a few pictures then informed them of their poor choice.
I love the way the author of the article tied this into Yosemite. Soooo.....the ripple effect of these people camping in a sensitive area will cause massive destruction in Yosemite? No. The biggest problem I find in Death Valley is illegal camping and sometimes the local kids doing something stupid. What I see in the forested National Parks are people visiting from other countries throwing trash on the ground, going into very sensitive and sometimes dangerous areas to take pictures. Go to Yellowstone and be amazed. None of this makes any difference whether or not the rangers are there. People will do things in front of them then claim they didn't know.
The biggest thing we can remember is, we are a responsible minority. We get grouped with the irresponsible majority. Try to lead by example
Scott
Off-Road Ranger I
This was my thought, too. I realize I'm jumping to conclusions having only been giving a tiny fraction of information about the situation - but I the feeling I got (even after looking at the original tweet from @BasinRange) was that this was another "fix" for our "outrage porn" culture here in the states. Seems like it was taken as an opportunity to publicly shame them and appear "outraged" and "concerned", when the human thing to do would have been to just walk over there, inform them diplomatically, direct them to some beautiful /legal/ camp spots, maybe even offer to help them pack up, and leave it at that. Instead it appears they took a photo from a distance, then tattled on them via Twitter. This doesn't help the situation at all, IMO, and I'll even go as far as to say it's completely ingenuine "concern" for the area. If you are really concerned, inform people so they have a chance to learn from the situation. It's quite possible these people didn't see the sign, or didn't know that you shouldn't drive off-trail, and unless they are educated, they may unfortunately do this again.
again, I'm forming this reaction from only seeing a tiny bit of the actual situation that may have gone down. It's entirely possible they talked to the people - but if that's the case, what's the point of publicly shaming them on twitter afterwords?
Traveler III
Definitely possible that in that barren landscape, someone who doesn't see the sign or isn't pre-informed would have a hard time seeing any harm to camping out there. Best response is to try educating them first.
Member III
I find myself frustrated because the latest trend is find something that offends you and post it on social media. Not help educate. I followed your link to the twitter page. Probably shouldn't have done that. It just took society down a notch in my book.
Scott
Edit: I hope you don't mind me stealing "Outrage Porn". Im definitely going to use it next time I am forced to speak with "those type" of people
