Summertime Sadness

National Parks are going to be a mess, but at least you won't be fighting tourists

Author

mister mix
March 19, 2025

When it comes to recreation, I’m a normie. I like to camp in National Parks, like tons of other people. Via the RV Miles podcast (a good source of National Park news), here’s a site tracking park closures and reductions in hours. Some lowlights:

  • All cave tours at Carlsbad Caverns cancelled

  • 2/3 campgrounds at Black Canyon of the Gunnison closed until further notice

  • Yosemite is only releasing half of its campsites for reservation, and timed-entry reservations are suspended

  • 9/10 campgrounds at Curecanti National Recreation Area closed

  • Visitors should expect longer traffic lines, dirty restrooms, overflowing trash bins, unmaintained trails and delayed search-and-rescue operations

The National Park Service is reeling after the DOGErs fucked fired a bunch of probationary employees. Courts have reversed those firings, but it’s unclear whether and how those employees will be re-instated, and it’s clear that this was only the first salvo from the DOGers.

So, what we’ll be looking at for the Summer is iffy availability of campsites at National Parks, a big reduction in park services, and a less pleasant park experience.

One of the fun parts of visiting National Parks is meeting foreign tourists. Well, no need to worry about that as much. Charlie Angus has a good rundown of a few of the most recent mistreatment of visitors by ICE:

Consider the treatment of Jasmine Mooney, the co-founder of a drink brand. The young entrepreneur was looking to renew her American work VISA. It should have been simple and straightforward. Instead, she was arrested by ICE and dragged to a detention cell. She was held in chains for the first three days without even a blanket to keep warm.

And then there is Becky Burke, a young British student who was backpacking in the United States and made the mistake of trying to cross into Canada without the proper paperwork. She was turned back, and United States officials had her immediately arrested as an illegal alien. She has been held for weeks in a brutal detention centre.

Jessica Brösche, a 29-year-old German, was arrested while trying to head to see friends in Los Angeles. She was held in an ICE detention centre for six weeks.

The Canadian drop-off in tourism is truly something to behold:

The Canadian boycott of U.S. travel is having a dramatic effect, with some tour operators reporting drops of up to 85% in business from north of the border. [...]

One National Tour Association member operator reported just two bookings for U.S. tours in the past two weeks compared to 39 bookings during the same period in 2024, she said. Another Canadian operator, with 85 per cent of their business focused on tours to the U.S., had to scrap every U.S. departure for March, April and May due to client cancellations. [...]

A tour operator in Ottawa, Travac Tours, expected to send 16 coach buses to New York City this year. But none of its customers — mostly retirees who tend to spend generously on restaurants, shopping and Broadway shows — have booked a seat since Trump imposed tariffs on Canada this month, and the company expects to cancel every trip, The Times said. [...]

Statistics Canada recently said Canadian auto trips to the U.S. were down 23% in February of this year, when compared to 2024. The U.S. Travel Association has warned that even a modest 10% decline in Canadian visitors could result in over $2.1 billion in lost revenue and jeopardize 14,000 U.S. jobs.

Companies that depend on foreign tourism will probably see a massive drop-off of foreign tourism because who wants to get dragged into an ICE gulag if your papers aren’t in order. Plus, forget about Canadians. If even the old folks who ride tour buses are giving zero business to US tour operators, the younger ones certainly follow suit. (And, from a personal perspective, my Plan B was to visit Canadian National Parks this Summer if US parks were a mess, but they’ll be full of Canadians.)

Anyway, yet another great opportunity to go at Musk/Trump for saving a few pennies by firing underpaid park workers so Musk can funnel more money into his pockets. Normies go to National Parks, Forests and Recreation Areas. Plus, by threatening war and mistreating foreign tourists, they’re also killing the tourism industry that relies on foreign travelers.

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