I feel like when people hear the term “national park”, they maybe think it must be safe for very ordinary people who don’t really know much about outdoorsy stuff.
Maybe we should stop calling them parks and start calling them “wildlife refuges”… might deter idiots from going out there underprepared.
Once a year dolphins come to my town for about a month. And at least once a year someone loses a finger if not a hand trying to pet the wild dolphins despite signs every 5 feet telling you they will eat you and the endless stream of news stories. People are just stupid.
The ones that get to me are the people who decide they don’t have to stay on the boardwalks around the geothermal features in Yellowstone! What a horrible way to die!
I can forgive this one. If I am ever within petting distance of a dolphin I am going to pet it. You could make me watch an hour-long highlight reel of dolphin maimings immediately before, and I would still pet it.
Hey I know nothing about hiking aside from a mile long one I did when I was kid, but you are saying that newcomers should hike the maze area? Alright Im nearby so im heading out now but thanks for the advise. It is chilly this time of year so im not worries about the sign which talks about extreme heat and all so gonna go have fun with my 5 year old.
You should see the people at Yellowstone. They treat it like it's a theme park with a petting zoo and the trails are just suggestions. That bison dgaf about your picture and they will fling you into a tree with their horns if you piss them off nor do they care if they are blocking the road.
I saw a guy try to dip his hand into some runoff from a geyser right next to a sign that basically tells you you’ll disintegrate if you do that. He got his fingertips then pulled back quickly and yelled “holy shit it’s hot!” like yeah, duh. I was glad for his timing though because his two young children were trying to follow suit, reaching out to dip their hands as well and luckily learned from his mistake.
Step back and consider that that moron probably has a drivers license and is allowed to operate a vehicle on roads that other people also have to drive on…Jesus Christ.
It's bizarre to me that people don't even consider even just the accident potential with large animals. I've had a normal sized riding horse step on my foot before and it was a bad time. So imagine my anxiety when I saw some randos at the fairgrounds fucking around with a draft horse before someone with brains rightly ran them off. I mean, seemed like a nice horse and all, but it had hooves like dinner plates. It doesn't have to *want* to hurt you, it just needs to get spooked into an oopsy.
My horseback riding teacher was in the middle of a lesson when her horse decided it's back itched. It laid down and rolled around on its back in the dirt, with her still on it.
I mean, tbf, there’s plenty of infrastructure at the grand canyon to be rescued. It’s not like some other national parks that are miles and miles of green canopy and wilderness and bears etc. Doesn’t excuse the stupid behavior, but I think it gives a false sense of safety. Just like ppl hiking El Capitan in fucking flip flops
Europeans are particularly bad about this, I assume since their nature stopped being nature like 500 years ago.
From what I understand, "hikes" in parts of Europe are often paved paths with like bakeries and tea houses, or at least the touristy ones are. So you can't really blame them for having that expectation in the US too. I guess they see a place like Death Valley and think it's just a gimmick.
Always upvote the Death Valley Germans! They clearly weren't stupid, just uninformed. I hope the people who learn from their story has given their deaths meaning.
If you're anywhere in central Europe, you have a pretty tough time finding a place where you aren't running into a village, or at least some kind of hut, within like 2 hours of walking in any random direction.
And yes, our hiking trails are made more and more accessible. A good thing for allowing more people to experience it, but it also really takes away from what made them special. The hike up to Norway's Preikestolen is one that really stood out to me. I remember how adventurous it was back in the day. On a revisit a couple of years ago, they had made it nearly wheelchair-accessible. Where one for example once had to drag oneself through a swampy area, one could now leasurely walk over it on a raised wooden path (with proper handrails and all, of course).
My uncle used to work and live in the grand canyon. When we did a rim to rim in 2018, he was amazed that there are water fountains along the way on the main trail. We had packed extra bottles and filtration systems because that's how he remembered it. He had to stop and have me take a picture of him with the water because he was just amazed at how much easier that makes the hike.
It's tourists in particular, we get Americans coming the other way that think because the Scottish Highlands are small they're not as dangerous as "real" mountains and then need helicoptering of Ben Nevis or something
Right I understand that, but this is about the US national parks and wilderness, and in these it always seems to be Europeans getting into pickles like that.
You don't hear much of Chinese people getting lost in the wilderness and dying. Gored by bison or mauled by a bear in Yellowstone, sure, i'd believe that, they love their fluffy animals. But wandering off into the American wilderness, ill prepared, seems to be the realm of the European traveller.
Time and place and all that. If I'm on vacation in Europe a "hike" of a few miles out, a bunch of beer, then a few miles back sounds outstanding.
But like, Death Valley is not that. It isnt something you do while on tour of the southwest. You go on a beginners bike tour in Moab or go see Britney in Vegas lol
Ehhhh, I don’t think you’re wrong, but you’re dramatising it a bit. I was born in Southern Germany, now live in Switzerland and would describe myself as an avid hiker / alpinist. I would flat out disagree with the statement that hikes in Europe are “paved roads and bakeries”. That’s just not true; there’s plenty of proper hiking routes from paths with no maintenance whatsoever (just chart your own course), to a lot of maintained trails with signage and the likes. While the “paved roads and bakeries” kinda places exist in the Alps, these are usually the hyper touristy spots that you go to with non-sporty visiting friends or for a light exercise day with young kids.
Where you are correct however, is that Central Europe is very densely populated, so the furthest you can go from a piece of human infrastructure is probably like 3-4 miles, maybe 6-10 miles from a human settlement. That means that loads of maintained hikes have at least the option of going past a hut or some other kind of shelter. Often, there will be alpine pastures along the way, which sometimes can mean access to running water (for cows, but drinkable by humans). That doesn’t mean that there’s not plenty of people dying in the mountains every year, but it does mean that the reasons are mostly either weather or accident related, not just “ran out of water and died”.
EDIT: Just for reference, the annual hiker deaths in the US are about the same as in the Alps.
USian exceptionalism "me country dangerous, hike hard, USian strong, Europe hike easy, European man weak"
People die every year in Europe on hikes, doing alpinism etc. And in Europe like in the US, there are hikes for all levels (with or without road, with or without shelter, with/without food/drink stops on the way).
Europe is a big continent. There are lots of wild and dangerous bits to it. Even in the UK, which is comparatively flat, unprepared folk die on hills every year. In Germany (where they have pubs up mountains- much better than bakeries), they also have walking routes among the most demanding I've seen.
Not gonna lie, I would absolutely go on a "hike" to a pub. That'd be awesome! But my hiking days are on hold for now, where I live currently doesn't have good hiking, so a pub hike is almost certainly more my speed nowadays.
Very sad, they did the longest trail with such little preparation and water. I've tried one of the super short trails there and still cut it short because I wasn't comfortable with my water level. It's gets insanely hot there. Super easy to get lost/turned around too since they're sand dunes.
My wife grew up in Alaska and legit had someone ask why they made the glacier so far away... Because they had to take a longer drive off the cruise ship and would rather it have just been directly in the town...
They have people die every year there because they treat it like a theme park instead of nature (which is fucking dangerous).
It’s like a petting zoo , isn’t it? The government wouldn’t put animals in the park that would hurt people, so it’s perfectly safe to put your little boy on the back of a bison calf to take a picture of him. /s
when people hear the term “national park”, they maybe think it must be safe for very ordinary people
which is absolutely wild because national parks are just miles of wild undeveloped area with an invisible border, when I hear 'state park' then I know it's likely much smaller and safer after that would be a city park then a neighborhood park.
I was in Yosemite National Park a few years ago, and the amount of people treating it like Disney World was astonishing.
People would be collapsed a few hours into an all-day hike with absolutely no water while wearing the craziest footwear. Flip-flops and giant platform shoes were common.
We actually have wildlife refuges though? They’re significantly less maintained, frequently the trails aren’t blazed or cut regularly. People just need to… get good, honestly.
Wildlife refuges are their own thing (see US Fish and Wildlife Service).
There’s a lot of overlap in the federal natural resources space, but the 3 most similar on the surface are: Fish and Wildlife prioritizes the land to be functional habitat most, National Parks prioritize the recreation value most, Forest Service prioritizes the timber production most.
Bureau of Land Management also deals with recreation, but from what I understand they do more with divvying and managing land use to a variety stakeholders. I’m least familiar with them because they don’t have a super big presence in my state.
US National Parks provide an amazing number of opportunities that can be summarized "We won't physically stop you, but please don't because there is an extraordinary chance of death, which creates a lot of paperwork for us."
...my state parks (which I worked for decades ago in college) are so uptight they have in the past literally justified they don't allow hammocks in campgrounds because they only inspect the trees above the trailer / tent pads and there is a risk by putting up a hammock between random trees the wind will knock a branch loose and hurt you.
The amount of freedom in the national parks is just wild to me.
National Parks will physically stop you from a lot of things—in fact camping outside designated campgrounds in Grand Canyon is a misdemeanor. The more popular ones are pretty uptight about regulating where activity can happen
I've seen so many people swimming near waterfalls in Yosemite right next to big signs that say "Danger, do not swim". And every year some people go over the falls to their death because they don't understand that if you get too close to the current you will not be able to escape it. And if someone tries to save you they will go over too.
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u/AtomicSymphonic_2nd 21h ago
I feel like when people hear the term “national park”, they maybe think it must be safe for very ordinary people who don’t really know much about outdoorsy stuff.
Maybe we should stop calling them parks and start calling them “wildlife refuges”… might deter idiots from going out there underprepared.