Yellowstone
Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2013 10:33 pmI will post some photos later tonight or early tomorrow, but I wanted to vent on my experience today. As you know, I have driving a 32' Class C without a toad. Today, after it being closed all week, the Middle Geyser Basin opened.
Visualize a road into the Middle Geyser Basin that goes slightly downhill and curves through trees for about 800' to get to a loop parking lot. NPS puts logs along one side of the road to prevent people parking there because it was supposed to be one lane in and one out. I got into the lot easily because they had just opened it. However, by the time I tried to leave, people had illegally parked all along the logs lining the entrance/exit road. Cars were lined up to get in to the full parking lot, but no one could get out because it was now only one lane wide! One car (maybe a rental?) scraped underneath driving over some rocks, but I turned off my engine and tried to get help stopping people coming in so a long line of us could get out. I was not about to damage my vehicle driving over the big rocks meant to keep you on the road.
No rangers in sight because of cutbacks, and no cell service to call 911. (Half the people trying to get in could not speak English. I know this because I went down the line trying to get help to stop traffic coming in so a bunch of us could get out.) I finally got one man to stand in the roadway and a lady to use her vehicle to block the entrance!! Half an hour later, I got out after a few cars in line managed to squeeze into the parking lot, and then I drove to the ranger station and told them they had a major problem and visitors should not have to direct traffic!
What is really frustrating is that people are parking in lots every which way, and no one is ticketing anyone. Add that to the people who stop in the middle of the road whenever they see an animal, and this place is a mess. It just isn't being patrolled, and you have places where there are 50-100 cars parked and no ranger in sight. I am glad so many Europeans and Asians have come to visit, but they need to be able to read road signs and follow rules.
Frankly, and especially without cell service and no rangers with radios to call for help, this is a disaster in the making. What happens if someone passed out or had a heart attack? Not only could no emergency crew be called, but no one could get out to drive for help. There is cell service only in about 30% of the park. There are big fights about how cell towers damage the wilderness look of the place and how we should not need our electronics in the wilderness, anyway. A new one has finally been approved for Fishing Bridge, but will not go in until next spring. That will mean that maybe 40% will have cell service.
Anyway, a 70 year old woman, an older man, and a younger woman should not have to be traffic cops at a major tourist area parking lot!! I know there are serious cutbacks in national parks, but couldn't they make some money fining people and writing tickets?
Visualize a road into the Middle Geyser Basin that goes slightly downhill and curves through trees for about 800' to get to a loop parking lot. NPS puts logs along one side of the road to prevent people parking there because it was supposed to be one lane in and one out. I got into the lot easily because they had just opened it. However, by the time I tried to leave, people had illegally parked all along the logs lining the entrance/exit road. Cars were lined up to get in to the full parking lot, but no one could get out because it was now only one lane wide! One car (maybe a rental?) scraped underneath driving over some rocks, but I turned off my engine and tried to get help stopping people coming in so a long line of us could get out. I was not about to damage my vehicle driving over the big rocks meant to keep you on the road.
No rangers in sight because of cutbacks, and no cell service to call 911. (Half the people trying to get in could not speak English. I know this because I went down the line trying to get help to stop traffic coming in so a bunch of us could get out.) I finally got one man to stand in the roadway and a lady to use her vehicle to block the entrance!! Half an hour later, I got out after a few cars in line managed to squeeze into the parking lot, and then I drove to the ranger station and told them they had a major problem and visitors should not have to direct traffic!
What is really frustrating is that people are parking in lots every which way, and no one is ticketing anyone. Add that to the people who stop in the middle of the road whenever they see an animal, and this place is a mess. It just isn't being patrolled, and you have places where there are 50-100 cars parked and no ranger in sight. I am glad so many Europeans and Asians have come to visit, but they need to be able to read road signs and follow rules.
Frankly, and especially without cell service and no rangers with radios to call for help, this is a disaster in the making. What happens if someone passed out or had a heart attack? Not only could no emergency crew be called, but no one could get out to drive for help. There is cell service only in about 30% of the park. There are big fights about how cell towers damage the wilderness look of the place and how we should not need our electronics in the wilderness, anyway. A new one has finally been approved for Fishing Bridge, but will not go in until next spring. That will mean that maybe 40% will have cell service.
Anyway, a 70 year old woman, an older man, and a younger woman should not have to be traffic cops at a major tourist area parking lot!! I know there are serious cutbacks in national parks, but couldn't they make some money fining people and writing tickets?
That is a real danger for lots of reasons. 
...but my advantage was we drove through on the way back from Alaska....and the perspective of Yellowstone is different after driving through all that Canadian and Alaskan wilderness.....so I didn't feel too cheated....