Making foreigners pay more for national park visits

That's the story, per the Beeb.

Note that three states will be most hit, because relatively few US national parks are unique.

Europeans can see Yellowstone's geysers in Iceland and bison in the wisent of Poland, for example. They can stay at home for the Alps instead of the Rockies. Chinese and other Asians can do Banff instead of the Rockies, and there are plenty of waterfalls, in a couple of exceptions I'm about to note, in Europe and Asia.

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There's only one Grand Canyon, and only one saguaro cactus, and both are in Arizona. I'm not sure how much foreign visitation Saguaro NP gets, and Tucson has other attractions, but Tusayan et al losing foreign visitors to the Grand Canyon would be big.

Many canyon visitors also do one or more of Utah's Mighty Five, and like with the Grand Canyon, the small towns in this area might be affected.

In the Pacific Northwest, Olympic's temperate rain forest and Crater Lake's starkness are semi-unique, but not biggies.

Further south? California's Redwoods, in the combined state and national parks, the giant sequoias in that national park, the all-around beauty of Yosemite Valley, and especially for Germans, it seems, the starkness of Death Valley all are special.

The parks that will have a steep hike in per-park fees for foreign visitors without a fee-hiked foreign Parks Pass? Acadia National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Everglades National Park, Glacier National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, Grand Teton National Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks, Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Parks, and Zion National Park.

So, we have Grand Canyon, two of the California parks, and two of Utah's Mighty Five. Why Arches isn't on the list I have no idea.

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That said, just days after The Donald announced this, The Louvre said it was more than doubling the admission cost for non-EU visitors. So, it's not like this is unique, or in terms of Trump-world, that bad. That said, he's just trying to soak visitors. He doesn't actually care about national parks and monuments; we already know that. 

Democrats care about the system somewhat more than Republicans, but not THAT much more. After all, they gave us

RIP Steve Curry

 Golden Canyon at sunset (my photo).

Steve Curry was nobody famous. He was just someone who loved to hike, and who fatally pushed his luck in Death Valley. (Yes, this story is a year old, but I saw it via another website, which talked about how climate change is making med-evac helicopter rescues in summer in the Southwest more and more problematic, because of lesser air lift in hotter temperatures.)

Since he's not famous, this isn't a takedown obit, but it IS a precautionary obit.

First, he was 71 years old. By no means does that mean, go to a retirement home. It does mean work within your limits, and know that as we (I'm no spring chicken any more) get older, our bodies get less efficient at thermoregulation in both extreme heat and extreme cold.

I hate rock circles and cairns, but this was 20 years ago, and at least I played with it in Photoshop. Golden Canyon, my photo. And, a reminder to enjoy hiking.

Second, know your adaptedness to the conditions. He was from Sunland, a "foothills" neighborhood in Los Angeles. He didn't regularly get exposed to Death Valley weather or close to it. Me, I'm in Tex-ass. Not the most humid part, but certainly not the least humid part. I'm used to 100-degree temperatures with 40 percent or more humidity, which produce heat indexes near 110. Also, even North Texas (not the Panhandle) is at a lower latitude than LA, so I'm used to sun more nearly directly overhead than Curry was.

Badwater Basin from the west side; HDR photography. Author photo. Click to embiggen.

Related? It sounds like he'd never hiked DV in anywhere near full summer, and like some of the nutbar Germans who do similar, decided he had to do this:

But on Tuesday, Curry collapsed after completing a hike in Death Valley, one of the hottest places on the planet, and died of what officials believe were heat-related causes.

“He went having accomplished something he wanted to do,” said Rima Evans Curry, his wife of 29 years. “He wanted to go to Death Valley. He wanted to do a hike.”

The temperature in the park Tuesday was unbearably hot, but Curry was intent on completing his round trip from Golden Canyon to Zabriskie Point, a scenic overview overlooking the sun-drenched moonscape. ...

More later on that:

“He had talked about Death Valley for at least a week or more,” his 76-year-old wife said. She told him she was worried about the temperature. “But once he got an idea like that ...” she trailed off.

Wrong move, if you hadn't done this before.

That leads to No. 3.

I've done Zabriskie Point and Golden Canyon before. In January and in April. I would never do that in July, because I know this:

Around 10 a.m., Curry stopped to rest under a metal sign, the only spot of shade at Zabriskie Point. He declined offers of assistance, determined to finish what he set out to do.

Yeah, wrong.

Fourth? Stop comparing yourself to others.

It had taken him about two hours to reach Zabriskie Point — and the return hike would take longer — but he said he was mostly worried that he wasn’t keeping pace with younger people he had seen out walking.

Since I'm not a spring chicken, whether it's in the Desert Southwest or a 14er in Colorado, as was the case last year? I expect to get passed left and right by younger people. Sadly, tying this in with Point 1, it sounds like he couldn't accept that he was 71 years old.

Fifth? Know what other things will and will not do.

SPF 50 sunscreen? Great at keeping you from sunburn. Does nothing to cool you off, other than the cooling from not being sunburnt. In other words, it's not spray-on Freon. (And, please, folks, don't think that a bottle of computer keyboard cleaner will get you around DV incident-free, either.)

Fifth, part 2? Per what I said about that environmental website, know that, even in what seems to be a well-traveled place, medical help may not get to you. This is also going to apply to some degree to other popular state and federal outdoors sites in the U.S. Southwest. In other words, don't be a Steve Curry at Mojave National Preserve, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, Joshua Tree National Park, etc. Also, contra both German tourists and some Americans, don't listen to Google Maps.

Sixth, here's more to know on what heat can do to you.

If you want to "visit" Zabriskie Point with fiery heat, do it another time, and do a Michel Foucault, drop a tab of acid there, and wait for a fiery vision. And also, be poetic about your deserts.

Yes, AC is making most of you Tex-ass Texans wimps

I say YOU and not ME because, per this Texas Monthly story on the issue, I rarely use it, and basically never have it running during the daytime when I am home and yes, you read that right. And, yes, with strategic shutting of vents and use of box and ceiling fans, it IS possible to sleep at, or at least near, that 82°F overnight temperature the EPA suggests; Vox discusses that and daytime temps as well.

At home, I benefit from an apartment complex swimming pool, I should add.

And, since I run a small biz where I'm the only full-time on-site employee, it runs somewhere between 78 and 80 there. 

I HATE places that run it anywhere below 74. Yes, 72, not just 70, is loathsome, ridiculous and ...

Climate killing. So, librulz who claim to care about the environment? Look in the mirror.

The reality is that if you get outside and exercise in the outdoors enough, you'll grow at least somewhat heat-tolerant. 

Update: No, I am not joking, per this story about permanent residents of Death Valley:

Those who are here that long have more blood in their systems, which allows the body to more efficiently carry heat from the core to the skin. They’re also able to sweat more to shed heat.

There you go.

Even if my daytime numbers are too high for you, by not running it at all? The EPA still says 78 for daytime; I'd set it at 80, even. And, if 82 is too hot at night? You should be able to do 80, or 78 to start, with enough fans. (I have two box, a smaller oscillator, and a ceiling fan in my bedroom.)

The story is interesting in noting Japan ranks right up alongside the US in degree of AC "penetration." Lots of Japan can be pretty humid, but, lots of it can also be not that hot.

Death by GPS

More and more tourists are blindly trusting GPS systems in places like Death Valley and getting led down roads that, if not technically closed, may be too advanced for their rental vehicles.

Increasingly, park rangers say tourists are being led into danger by technology, especially satellite-based GPS units designed to guide them to unfamiliar destinations along a network of roads in a navigation database.

In Death Valley, many roads shown on some GPS systems are no longer passable. Some have been officially closed. Others are simply too rough for most vehicles and pose serious danger.

"People are so reliant on their GPS that they fail to look out the windshield and make wise decisions based on what they're seeing," said Alley.

One case happened last summer, when visitors arriving from the west on Highway 190 told their GPS to take them to Scotty's Castle, a popular tourist destination at the north end of the park, which is easily accessible by paved road.

Instead, the unit directed them over an unpaved, winding, washboard road toward Saline Valley, where they turned right onto an even rougher four-wheel-drive road and became stuck near a remote abandoned mine site called Lippincott.

"People don't realize that if they tell the unit to find the shortest route to somewhere, it's not necessarily finding the shortest, safe, paved route," Callagan said.
"One of the healthier ones walked out, 20 to 25 miles, and made contact with one of our rangers," he added. "Everybody survived, but they weren't in great shape."

And, in some cases, it's killing people.

If you're new to a national park or monument that has lots of backcountry, stop at a visitor center first. Besides DV, that would include places like Joshua Tree, Mohave National Preserve, Canyonlands and Grand Staircase-Escalante.

And, admit when you've gone beyond your backcountry nature and/or driving skills level:

"A lot of people don't realize you should just turn around and go back the way you came," (Death Valley ranger Amber Natress) said. "We see that a lot here."

And, if you're too stubborn for that, consider not visiting one of the aforementioned parks. Many such people think that, if they do get stuck or lost, all they need to do is whip out their cell phones. Well, in larger, remote parks and monuments, you may not get cell service. Inside a deep canyon, since electromagnetic waves don't bend, you CAN'T get cell service unless you're on a satellite phone.

German tourists' remains found in Death Valley?

German boyfriend and girlfriend tourists, and their two kids, who had the "bright" idea of taking a minivan on some of Death Valley National Park's worst unpaved roads, in the summer of 1996, went missing. Their apparent remains have apparently finally been found.

"Bright"? Three of the four tires on the minivan were shredded; the fourth was loose from its wheel.

A dry Wild and Scenic River?

Yes, indeed, if the river in question is the Amargosa River, which runs underground most of its brief life before emptying into Death Valley National Park’s Badwater Basin. The enabling legislation is due before the House later this month.