We are indeed fortunate in this country to have such wonderful national parks. Yosemite, Glacier, Yellowstone are all amazing places. The trouble is in the late summer everyone and their accountant wants to visit.
Now I am in the tourism biz and I understand how important these places are to the U.S. but there is something strangely unnatural about these natural places. I have a few questions I think need answering:
Why do they need to charge you $20 just to get in and drive around? Sure they tell you it is a 7 day pass but who is really going to stay in Yellowstone for a whole week? Once you see old faithful do its’ thing and you got the picture it is pretty much a done deal. Personally I could not wait to get out of the place. Which brings me to question #2.
Why if you are going to be one with nature must the American tourist bring his entire house with him? I saw camper trailers so big you could house a football team in luxury. I saw signs that said “No trailers over 50 ft beyond this point”. Now common folks! There is something wrong with that. Which leads to #3.
Why does it cost $18 just to have a camp space for the night? It’s not Disneyland. You don’t have a staff of thousands that you have to make payroll for. Your electricity bill is not driving the national parks to the poor house. What gives? What kind of expenses do they really have? Or is it just another way to tax the snot out of us and disguise it as a Natural wonder? Which of course leads to #4
Where is it written that a buffalo on the side of the road means you no longer have to follow safe and normal driving protocol? I could have been killed when ma and pa motorhommers slammed on the brakes and almost jackknifed the Suzuki samurai they were towing behind the over the length limit Mondo motor mansion. They of course had no idea that 1 mile down the road there are more buffalo than you could ever want to take a picture of and the beasts are actually rubbing up against the parked cars to get that special smell off um.
I had to get away from all the tourists. They make me jumpy. But unfortunately there are no fast exit roads to get out of Yellowstone and the quickest way out is actually blocked this time of year due to bridge construction. I should have went for it. I am sure I could have got the little mule around the mess and made a bee line for the border to freedom but I opted to be the conformist today. Cost me the whole mornings ride to get out of there.
So the ride was good the rest of the day. I found a national forest (not to be mistaken for national park) campground tonight and it only cost me $7. Of course a white tale deer just walked through and took a crap in my campsite. I guess they train them not to do that in Yellowstone. Which may actually drive up overhead substantially for a National Park.
The ride is getting good now. Hope to be in Canada tomorrow night.
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