A Lickety-Split Park Tour: What do you actually learn in 5 hours?

Sunset near King's Canyon National Park.

So you've just driven hundreds of miles to get to visit a national park. Maybe some of you have come all the way across country. Some of you have come from other countries. How long did you actually stay in the park once you got there? And .... the ultimate question.... was it worth it?

Last summer, I traveled around the western United States following the route of the 1920 National Park-to-Park Highway dedication tour. But many of you already knew that. But did I tell you how long they spent on the road to visit those 12 parks? How long they stayed in each one?

I was curious, because I have been dogged by the feeling that my compressed schedule - albeit unavoidable - gave these parks short shrift. Unworthy, somehow. And yet .... I felt exhilarated. Was I too easily satisfied? What was I looking for?

Thanks to the original itinerary, which was reproduced in The Playground Trail by Lee and Jane Whiteley, we can estimate how much time those 1920 travelers spent on the road vs. time spent they spent in the parks. We know, for instance, that the original route covered 6,350 miles. It took them 77 days -- about 82.5 miles per day. In most parks, they spent a just a half a day - probably around 5-6 hours. In rare cases they spent the night (although in vast Yellowstone they stayed on for several days and still felt that they hadn’t scratched the surface). In comparison, my trip around the loop took only 24 days (subtracting the days spent on diversions) -- an average of around 265 miles per day.

Service Station (1929), Longmire Historic District, Mount Rainier NP.

It’s not unexpected that the Park-to-Park tour took 3 times longer than it took me to drive about the same the distance, given the challenging road conditions in 1920. But I what I found most surprising: they spent about the same amount of time within each park as most visitors spend today.

Statistics about how long visitors stay per visit, what parts of the park they are most likely to see, the purpose of the visit (hiking, driving through, camping, hotel stay) – all these are useful tools for good park management. Without the numbers, it’s hard to prepare for possible adverse impacts to delicate ecosystems from foot traffic. How otherwise to anticipate vehicular impacts on roads and the level of regular and special maintenance that will be needed? What kind of merchandise should be stocked in the visitor centers? How many rolls of toilet paper should be ordered for the restroom facilities?

Visitor Center, Zion National Park, Utah

Putting aside the essential mission -- preservation of these unique environments for the benefit of humankind -- there are very practical needs that must be met for optimum accessibility and enjoyment by the public.  For the planners, each aspect of park use is studied and user needs anticipated to create a good visitor experience. For without a positive experience in the parks, no matter how extraordinary they may be in themselves, there is the deep-seated fear that we will become disenchanted with them. And if fewer people come, it may ultimately be felt in the budget allocations that allow us to protect the parks. The effects would be devastating, not only to the park system, but also to the many ancillary enterprises that depend on visitor traffic.

Needless to say, it's critical to make the parks work smoothly. The parks constantly work to accommodate a wide range of programs - recreational, educational, scientific, artistic - as well as handle the large crowds deftly, so that no one feels discomforted.  The optimum result is that each visitor senses that he or she has had a unique, personal encounter with nature at its most magnificent - a feeling perhaps shared by fellow travelers, but a private one nonetheless.

This summer's visitor count in our national parks reached historic highs during July and August. The overwhelming number of visitors made it something of a challenge to experience these breathtaking places on one's own terms. Unless you were camping in wilderness areas, moments of solitude were all but impossible. And, since I had no intention of giving some bear the opportunity of having me for an afternoon snack, camping for me was out of the question. Accommodations at the lodges and cabins had been fully booked for months. So I usually stayed in a hotel just outside the entrance gates.

Dawn at Twentynine Palms, CA, just outside Joshua Tree National Park.

Each morning began at dawn with a quick breakfast, then off to the entrance gate. I stayed, for the most part, on the major roads through the parks, stopping occasionally at a sampling of the more spectacular sites. Towards the end of the morning, a stop at the visitor center to look for books on the history and natural features of the park. Before noon, if I was lucky, my visit would happily conclude with lunch at one of the historic lodges where I could scan through the books I had just bought. Given a demanding schedule, I felt I didn’t have the time – at least on that trip – to take advantage of Ranger talks. And, although I am ashamed to admit it, I often gave the interpretive exhibits a only quick once-through. I was in and out of the park in less than 5 hours.

Dining Room, Glacier Park Lodge (1913), East Glacier, MT

Five hours doesn't sound like much. But according to the website National Parks Traveler, that's pretty typical. By its calculations, in 2008 the average visitor spent less than 5 hours per visit in almost 82% of America's national parks; in fewer than 5% of the parks did the average visit include an overnight stay. In spite of the great distances some travel to arrive at the entrance gates, the actual time spent in the parks seems minimal. And yet, many find the experience so valuable that they come away saying, “That was fantastic!”

I loved every second of my five hours. Seldom have I been more absorbed in my surroundings - looking, wondering, puzzling, trying to understand what I was seeing. And, of course, being on the alert for Wild Things. This urbanite had brought several multi-tasking amusements along just in case I got bored slowly crawling along the wilderness roads - satellite radio, audio books, etc. But I never once used them in the parks - they were an intrusion of the mundane into the sublime.

It is fascinating that, with so little time devoted to actually experiencing our national parks, we are so deeply entranced with them. Our love affair is certainly not founded in a John Muir-kind of sojourn: a contemplative meandering through the mountains and valleys of the American West.

Western Columbine, Mount Rainier NP

No, unlike Muir’s Nineteenth Century pace, our enjoyment of these Western wilderness areas is high-impact: immediate, sensual, experiential. Perhaps in another kind of park it would have been different, but I felt none the poorer for not having attended the Ranger talks or studied the interpretive exhibits with greater attention. All of that seemed an intellectual distraction from my more elemental experience.

Still-vivid memories of each park linger: the smell of crisp mountain air; the delicate drops of mist clinging to the wildflowers; the rays of light filtering through the giant Sequoia forests; the acrid sulfur smell that wafts through Yellowstone. These remembrances continue to inspire. No doubt, each traveler’s journey through our national parks is touched by similar moments that make the experience so pleasing to the senses, so uplifting for the spirit.

But, back to the practicalities of crowd management, toilet paper helps, too. And so to the engineers who fix the roads. And the Rangers who take care of us. And the naturalists who take care of the flora and fauna. And who could forget the visitor centers? And ….. well, lunch.

With all that to manage, I think the National Park Service has been doing a masterful job. Our national parks are as magical to us as they were to John Muir. Even though we can't stay very long.

Resources:

Bernstein, Danny. “The Numbers Behind National Park Visitation.” The National Park Traveler. (April 23, 2010). Website: URL: http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2010/04/numbers-behind-national-park-visitation5723 accessed January 29, 2011.

Eagles, Paul F. J. and Stephen F. McCool. Tourism in National Parks and Protected Areas: Planning and Management. New York: CABI Publishing, a Division of CAB International, 2002.

Repanshek, Kurt. “Odds and Ends From Visitor Surveys at National Parks: You'd Be Surprised At Some of the Answers.” The National Parks Traveler (September 19, 2010). Website. URL:

http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2010/09/odds-and-ends-visitor-surveys-national-parks-youd-be-surprised-some-answers6861 accessed January 29, 2011.

Tilden, Freeman. Interpreting Our Heritage. 1957. 4th Ed. Chapel Hill NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2007.

Whiteley, Lee and Jane Whiteley. The Playground Trail - The National Park-to-Park Highway: To and Through the National Parks of the West in 1920. Boulder CO: Johnston Printing, 2003.