NPS Closures - Yosemite and Rocky Mountain NP are closed

[USStrongman]

Small communities funded by tourism and surrounded by NATIONAL PARKS funded by TAXPAYERS arbitrarily closed their gates. This has gotten out of hand.

National Parks Coronavirus Closures: Icons Lock Gates

Two of the most spectacular landscapes in the United States, Rocky Mountain National Park and Yosemite National Park, closed their gates in response to Coronavirus.

gearjunkie.com

 

[SquishBang]

Yup. They closed the campgrounds in WA State also.

We have massive taxes here, I'll be holding my breath until they refund me some of those taxes.

Another fun fact, whilst the gov't makes private businesses close down and people lose their jobs, gov't entities continue to pay their employees even when the employees are at home.

 

[Jim SoG]

Sad but the first bit tells us all we need to check before we go: "If you’re planning to visit a National Park, take note. Even though the Interior Department directed the National Park Service to waive entrance fees last week, some parks are instead closing their doors."

Jim

 

[USStrongman]

Here is the reason why. Taken on Saturday at Zion. Social Distance much?

 

[Sparksalot]

This has gotten out of hand.

National Parks Coronavirus Closures: Icons Lock Gates

Two of the most spectacular landscapes in the United States, Rocky Mountain National Park and Yosemite National Park, closed their gates in response to Coronavirus.

gearjunkie.com

Gotten? It's been that way since this nonsense started. Control freaks overseeing their fiefdoms.

 

[Brian Glendenning]

It's maddening that some people place the health and welfare of their staff and local community ahead of your desire to turn a global emergency into a nice vacation! (And yes, I'm going to lose my trip to the Maze district, so it affects me as well).

 

[USStrongman]

Wrong. Here is where I have the problem:

CDC et al want people to get outside and reconnect with nature just respecting illness, social distancing, etc. So lets do some math:

For argument sake, 5,000 people want access to Yellowstone. 2.2+ million acres to spread 5,000 people across. Now they can't.
Those same 5,000 people now have to go to Henry's Lake state park which is near the west entrance to yellowstone. 558 acres. They most certainly can.
Systematic dispersion of people across wide areas is the goal and that can be accomplished by doing what they did in 2018 at Yellowstone/Glacier.

In 2018 Glacier NP was shut down due to a series of monster forest fires. The Xanterra staff (private company who hires seasonal employees for the DOI and NFS) and the majority of NFS were forced out of Glacier and they went to Yellowstone. They were housed, fed, and they worked. Why not combine resources and open one of the parks? Not to vacation as some shortsided people allude, but a day time only access with NFS actively policing where people go? You now have more staff to allow for better control and dispersion.

The bottomline is we can't fix stupid. WHen you pull into a NP and the parking lot is near full, go somewhere else.

 

[Brian Glendenning]

I'll agree that we can't fix stupid, but disagree about where it is in evidence.

 

[702FJC]

Sad times indeed, stupid people on the chains at Angels Landing ruining it for everyone! Those are closed now too.

 

[USStrongman]

I can't find the article now, but the uber socialist "online news" The Daily Beast ran an interesting story yesterday about the parks service employees wanting to shut down all parks, but more interesting was the DOI and NPS issued an email to all parks employees to do two things:

1. Zero political discussion on parks OR private, social media accounts.
2. Zero discussion to parks patrons about virus testing.

The testing issue is interesting. Grand Canyon is now closed thanks primarily to the NPS staff because they had a "staff member" test positive for the virus. That person was not a parks employee, but a Xanterra employee and not considered in the statistical data for NPS staff. So when a patron asks " has anyone here gotten sick?" The reply from NPS staff is according to DOI is no, no NPS staff are sick. When in reality, there was (concessions employee), but because someone else signed their paycheck, they were not a NPS employee, and thus, they are telling a half truth.

Outright closures are simply wrong. Combining resources, developing a system to allow X amount of people in different regions of the park, closing all indoor access (bathrooms are easy to clean and monitor), capping the total number of people into the park and allowing dawn to dusk activities is more than reasonable. The DOI and NPS are unwilling to look past their selfishness and be creative. If an NPS employee doesn't want to work, cool, go home... there are 6.6 million people who on Monday filed for unemployment that would love to work in the park and put food on their families table.

 

[702FJC]

Well said Strongman! Lots of blanket approaches being taken when more measured action would accomplish the same goal.