By the way guys, in all seriousness? Do not hike in the US this year
Unless you are completely, 10000% sure there are no possible circumstances under which you’d need a ranger’s help to get you out, do not go on a trail
(If you are this sure there are no circumstances under which you’ll need help you either do not understand hiking well enough to go, or you’re comfortable with the idea of crawling out on two broken legs. Gravity sucks, anyone can fall)
3 rangers for the entirety of Yellowstone means that if something goes wrong you are literally on your own
People already go missing in national parks every year, because the park rangers were already wickedly under staffed and under funded
Between 2018 and 2020, there were 371 search and rescue incidents in Yellowstone. In the same period, Yosemite reported 732. The Grand Canyon had 785, in the same 2 years, and over 900 confirmed deaths overall - and that’s the bodies that were found
Most of these search and rescue incidents end well… because of the tireless expert work of park rangers who will not be there this year
People are going to die on family vacations, provided they can get into the parks at all - cuz they’re not going to have the staff to handle parking
Let alone trail maintenance after every storm, trash removal, camp and fence repairs…
Nature is beautiful and wild and free and fucking dangerous and it is exactly as easy to die of exposure now as it always has been
Fuck, people are going to die running at the bison to take a selfie with them, because no one will be around to tell them not to
And if you’re in an area that counted on tourism to a national park for revenue… I genuinely have no idea what’s going to happen, but it’s not going to be good
May “liberal tears” be a great comfort to every family that loses a loved one because they wanted one cool vacation pic
snowghoul
blakekathryn
tangentwithtanner
theartofmadeline
titsay
germansingergirl
