By Carl Sampson
I love national parks. Some of my earliest memories are of a visit my family made to Yosemite in California.
After that trip, 5-year-old Carl was convinced he wanted to be a park ranger. Of course, that aspiration was later joined by astronaut, fighter pilot, fireman and ice cream truck driver, but park ranger was always my first love.
National parks represent all that’s beautiful in the good old U.S. of A. Among others, I’ve been to Katmai, Glacier Bay and Denali in Alaska, the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee and Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. They all offer something that you can’t find anywhere else.
My family and I recently visited Yellowstone in Wyoming, Mesa Verde in Colorado and Arches in Utah. Though we didn’t allow nearly enough time to give the parks the attention they were due, we still got an eyeful every direction we looked.
I’ve been to Yellowstone four times, and I still feel as though I’ve seen only a fraction of all there is to see. Though the sights are spectacular – geisers, hot springs, waterfalls and other scenery abound – you can also get up close and personal with the wildlife.
Once on a previous trip I was walking from a campground store with the makings for dinner, which included a couple of cans of beans and a bottle of Jack Daniels.
I heard some heavy breathing behind me.
I stopped and turned around. There was a bison standing, oh, about 3 feet away, wanting to sniff my groceries. I would have gladly given him the beans, but the Jack Daniels? Never!
We ultimately parted company, he for the forested area nearby and me for the campsite.
But all is not well with our national parks. During our most recent trip, I noticed a few things that need to be fixed.
COLLECT THE FEES: At Arches, no one was at the gate to collect the admission fee. I know the national park system is always short of money, but how on earth can they say that when car after car is allowed to enter the park for free?
That’s not the first time we ran into that situation. Some years ago, we visited the Grand Canyon, and there wasn’t anyone taking money there, either.
RAISE THE FEES FOR FOREIGNERS: Another thing I noticed is tons of foreign tourists. The folks we saw were from France, Germany, Russia and other countries whose languages I didn’t recognize. They obviously had spent thousands of euros, rubles and dollars to get to the parks, yet there were charged only $25 at Yellowstone, $15 at Mesa Verde and nothing at Arches.
If you look at some of the fees charged in France and other places, a few more dollars to get into a national park here is peanuts by comparison.
MOST IMPORTANT, MORE OUTHOUSES: I was standing in line at a picnic area in Yellowstone, waiting for my turn at the lone outhouse.
“I can’t believe this park gets 3 million visitors a year and there’s only one outhouse,” I said to my son, who was also in line.
The 10 other people in line all nodded, too, as we danced in unison.
