Monday, July 30, 2012

Decline of Backpacking

... the number of backcountry campers in our national parks has fallen by nearly 30 percent since 1979.
I was sensitized to this issue since I was hiking in the UK on vacation this summer and the mountains seemed quieter and the paths harder to find than when I was doing the same thing as a teenager.

I wanted to see a fuller picture of the drop in US backpacking, so I made a graph of all the available National Park Service data (from 1979 to 2012):


http://earlywarn.blogspot.com/2012/07/decline-of-backpacking.html

Very interesting information. The graph showed a precipitous decline since 1995 which corresponds with the first of the baby boomer generation turning 50.

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KenS
... the number of backcountry campers in our national parks has fallen by nearly 30 percent since 1979

Quotas have fallen too.

I wonder if this decline actually applies to high interest areas such as Yosemite. Eeek, you mentioned quota reductions. Have trailhead quotas been reduced in Yosemite?

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tomdisco
I wonder if this decline actually applies to high interest areas such as Yosemite.

The ranger I spoke to 11 days ago in Yosemite said last year saw a record-breaking number of permits issued. They were expecting similar this year. My personal observation has been that even the less-popular trailheads have been showing up "full" much more this year.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/20/2012 06:49PM by Royalist.