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I cycled through Yellowstone, down from Montana. I had high hopes for the place in part because I was meeting some friends there and it was Yellowstone!!! Yet, by the time I got there I had seen the big fauna/flora I was expecting to be 'park exclusive'. So, bear walks across the road, straight in front of me in broad daylight, I think 'just a bear!' not realising that this just does not happen. Instead I am thinking of how great it will be to finally get to the park where I can see the bears properly!!!

So, by accident of circumstance, I ventured through the park the low-carbon way, without the RV, snowmobile, hunting rifle, BBQ, plastic chairs or anything else. I was amazed the park had dual carriageways with overpasses for the traffic. I found my time in the park to be slightly frustrating and the time in the greater area more satisfying. The hordes of RV tourists and their eagerness to photo anything that moved was probably the thing that made it not so fun to be in the park.

I should say that bicycle + Yellowstone is a very good option as you can camp anywhere in the National Park campgrounds with no expectation to book. The RV people have to book aeons in advance and can't just casually turn up before dusk to get a pitch.

I am sure that cyclists annoy motorists on the park roads, it is apparent that you are annoying others - queue of traffic behind says that. But I am not sure motorists are aware that they might be a 'yahoo' of sorts. I am not sure that being a 'yahoo' is actually that wrong, perhaps it is the regular RV that is more insidious, as there the RV owner has taken everything to the park that cyclist types like myself have gone to the park to escape! TVs, motors, outside music - all nice things but nuisance and unnecessary too.

Obviously the park should be closed to all traffic that emits emissions, to make the place a nice drive for Tesla owners and cyclists. Then we could have lots of people driving their ICE car to the park to then hire some electric transportation. That would be better income for the snowmobile operator types.




it is apparent that you are annoying others - queue of traffic behind says that

Fun fact: lots of states have something like "if there's more than X cars following you you should pull over and let them pass" in their driver's manuals and driver's ed programs.

>to make the place a nice drive for Tesla owners and cyclists

So basically rich people and a few non-rich people who are really dedicated to cycling. That seems to be a pretty much direct contradiction with the purpose of the national parks.


Oh I completely understand about accessibility but then...

Let's build those motorways up to the geysers and up to those mountain tops and maybe straight to the bottom of the Grand Canyon too! It is only fair if every person is to be able to get there.

In the 'ban ICE vehicles' model you could walk or go on horseback. However, logistically a bicycle would make the most sense due to miles covered per calorie.

Poor people have no more rights than rich people to trash the planet with their vehicle emissions. These people that are 'really dedicated to their motoring' do not have a clue about how their actions deny the road to others, e.g. those that would cycle if they were not scared of motorists.

Now if there were bus services (non ICE!) in National Parks then everyone would be able to get around, right? But public transport is an insult to American values.


Yellowstone really isn't a place to go to if you want to avoid queues of traffic on the main roads. Cyclists can move over and let people pass, but bison herds frequently jam the road as well. Bison aren't terribly likely to understand these sorts of rules. :) (Last time I was there, I occasionally heard a honk during a "bison jam". That did not help anything.)

National parks (at least in the US) have a semi-contradictory purpose of preserving the land for future generations and provide for the enjoyment of the same. Yellowstone is a very crowded park, but the good news is that it's only the "big landmarks" that tend to be this way; most of Yellowstone is not directly accessible by road. All of the day hikes my wife and I did (eg Fairy Falls, Mount Washburn, etc.) were not terribly crowded at all. I can imagine backpackers actually getting some serious solitude.

I don't see a need to go as drastic as "ban all ICE vehicles" because keeping some things very accessible fits the public interest of enjoyment. It would be interesting to explore the idea of more cycling paths in parks, because cyclists are relatively low impact, and my perception of Yellowstone was that the number of long cycling-friendly trails was fairly low.


Yes we need to mandate that everywhere can be accessed by people sitting in giant piece of shit 2 ton internal combustion driven wheelchairs because they're too lazy to use their muscles. Total American cult of car mindset.


Yeah, rich people and people with disabilities or kids.




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