Then they think they’re pulling a fast one and would utilize it.
Surely there won't be enough people wasting their time like me to fill up the bus and make it unusable for others.
"Back and forth begging/busking" is another.
Second, people can also do drug and beg in public parks. Should we add a fee to get into a public park?
It’s to manage crowds and limit the amount of ecological damage the public does due to the huge number of people wanting to come, esp post-COVID restlessness.
I recall seeing an interview with either a state or federal park employee and they used the wonderful euphemism “Disincentive visitation” when discussing timed entry permits.
Translation: “Fuck off. But if you do come we’re gonna make your life as hard as possible and that will be 39.99 please (Fees not incl.)”
They really destroy less fortunate peoples chances to enjoy our beautiful landscapes.
If you didn’t plan your summer last February good luck finding a space that isn’t on the weekday. Then you have to plan kids out of school and two jobs and pets and their after school and…
You know what fuck it just drink beer and watch the game instead.
There will be just as many instagram models with tripods, just not the people who it would mean a lot more to than a picture.
Going off season or to side entrances finds miles and miles of … nothing.
If you’re quiet and out of the way, I dare say you could live on BLM land permanently and nobody would know, let alone care.
And some BLM land is really impressive.
In the wild parts of the US, even the government tends to adopt the “live and let live” ethos of that type of country.
This mostly applies to the west coast though. The eastern US has very little public land that is freely accessible.
An annual park pass isn’t that expensive. People who live in an RV would spend far, far more driving to and from the park for various things they need (gas, supplies) than they’d save on the park pass.
Regardless, having a pass doesn’t eliminate the rules regarding duration of stay. You can’t live in a national park even if you have a pass. If you try to do it in an RV, you’d get noticed and cited.
https://www.wired.com/story/meet-camperforce-amazons-nomadic...
The national forests OTOH, yes they are largely still free, but they are also heavily managed, frequently with commercial interests (ex, ski resorts at the top of the mountain, logging rights, etc). Which has resulted in the push to reclassify a number of them as wilderness, which has its own issues if you happen to be anyone but a birdwatcher (ex hunter, fisher, mountain biker, trail maintainer).
So, to me the recent moves sound more like they are closing all the loopholes around avoiding the parking fees (ex parking on the road rather than in the lot) which were there to replace the entrance fees.