Reference no: EM133373582

National Parks attract visitors from around the country and around the world. The number of entrances, road systems, and existing/aging facilities limits access to the Parks. In many Parks the pressure to develop infrastructure for visitors must be balanced by maintaining wilderness and the natural features people want to visit. Some of the iconic National Parks like Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Zion, and Yellowstone are so busy in the summer that visitors experience long traffic jams, cannot find accommodation, must travel on buses, and/or have difficulty experiencing the beauty of vistas because of large crowds.

Is there a point were we love the parks too much? Are extreme crowds at the parks an acceptable fact of the times? If not, what should be done: raise admission fees for all or some groups, make visits on a lottery system as some sensitive sites (e.g. Angels Landing in Zion) have started, limit entrances on a particular day to a certain number, increase the infrastructure and if so how to fund it, convert more public land into national Parks, decrease infrastructure so the only wilderness-style or guided visits are possible, other ideas?