Foreigners in National Parks.

[RSKY]

We just got back a week or so ago from an eight day trip that took us thru parts of Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. This was a bucket list trip for my daughter's father in law who has been in bad health recently. Unfortunately he got sick and had to go home on the third day. But that isn't what I wanted to talk about.

We spent part of one day at Hoover Dam. Two days at the Grand Canyon. Three days in Yellowstone. And part of a miserable rainy day in the Grand Tetons before we headed back to Salt Lake City to fly out. At nearly all the stops the Americans were greatly outnumbered by foreign tourists. Especially those from the Far East. I'm not talking about a few at a time, they were unloading busses full of Oriental tourists. There were also several from Germany, the UK, and Scandinavia. The Europeans seemed to be in smaller groups or families. At one stop in Yellowstone I took pictures, with their cameras or phones, of six Japanese couples and one group of young women I think were Chinese. Daughter and son in law also took several pictures for couples at that stop and the SIL also lay down on the walkway and retrieved a hat for an older woman. With the exception of some Chinese in Las Vegas all we saw were polite and seemed to be having a good time. I hope Americans traveling to other countries act as well.

I don't know how much the Park Service does to promote Yellowstone and other national parks overseas but I hope they keep it up or increase the marketing effort. It has to be bringing in a lot of money to the US and can help to promote good will between countries.

RSKY

 

[BoylermanCT]

How were the crowds and traffic at Yellowstone? My wife and I were there this past October, and there were no crowds or traffic at all. We had the park to ourselves! Saw tons of wildlife - buffalo, grizzlies, pronghorn, moose, elk. Took this pic our the window of our rental SUV. He was about 20 feet from the road.

 

[MossRoad]

How were the crowds and traffic at Yellowstone? My wife and I were there this past October, and there were no crowds or traffic at all. We had the park to ourselves! Saw tons of wildlife - buffalo, grizzlies, pronghorn, moose, elk. Took this pic our the window of our rental SUV. He was about 20 feet from the road.

View attachment 560047

When we were there in the summer about 10 years ago, it was crowded. After summer, like September, it's not so crowded. My brother-in-law and his new wife went there in early October. They drove in one side of the park in the morning, saw some sights, but not many people, and were leaving another entrance that night. They pulled up to the guard house to ask for some information, and while they were there, another guard closed the road gate behind them. My B-I-L said something like "Closing up for the night?" and they said No. We're closing up for the year. You're the last ones out! :laughing:

 

[MossRoad]

Anytime someone starts a post with something like "I probably shouldn't post this here" or "at the risk of getting this thread closed", it should be obvious that the little voice in your head that told you that was probably right.... so don't post it. Just shake your head and move along, or, go over to the Front Porch or Unfriendly Politics and start a new thread on the subject.

 

[deserteagle71]

For many years I had the privilege of working with a Danish metallurgist, an older man who had worked all over the world. He was my dirt bike riding partner, and one thing he told me many years ago still sticks in my mind. He said this was one of the very few countries in the world where he could get on his dirt bike, ride the back country to his heart's content, and do it without an armed escort.

Yes, the United States has fantastic and varied features to see. So do a lot of other countries. But this is one of the few countries in the world that foreign tourists can travel in relative safety and with relative ease and not be sheparded about by an "official" escort. We have the infrastructure in place to take care of these tourists - and a reputation as a great place to visit or to live. I (a naturalized and not native-born citizen, by the way) spend a lot of time in the National Parks and Monuments in Utah and Arizona and I continually meet foreign tourists who are amazed that they can travel whereever and whenever they want without having to get the approval of some government agency.

 

[vvanders]

Anytime someone starts a post with something like "I probably shouldn't post this here" or "at the risk of getting this thread closed", it should be obvious that the little voice in your head that told you that was probably right.... so don't post it. Just shake your head and move along, or, go over to the Front Porch or Unfriendly Politics and start a new thread on the subject.

Hah, fair enough message received.

Like I was saying earlier CruiseAmerica does a ton of advertising outisdd the US as does a couple other of the rental RV places. The US offers a pretty unmatched diverse landscape. Heck even here in WA we have an incredible set of national parks.

 

[RSKY]

Anytime someone starts a post with something like "I probably shouldn't post this here" or "at the risk of getting this thread closed", it should be obvious that the little voice in your head that told you that was probably right.... so don't post it. Just shake your head and move along, or, go over to the Front Porch or Unfriendly Politics and start a new thread on the subject.

I don't understand what you are talking about. Who posted something like that?

 

[RSKY]

We wondered what the people from the more crowded countries thought about the long drives to get anywhere out there.

Reminds me of a story from where I worked right before retiring. A couple came to the western Tennessee factory from Europe. When asked what their plans were for the week following the meetings her husband was in the wife said they were going to drive see all of Disney World, then the Grand Canyon, then to Yellowstone, and back to Washington D.C.. The husband just stood there and nodded his head in agreement. My boss explained that is would take two LONG days of driving to get to Disney. Then three LONG days of driving to get to the Grand Canyon. They ended up cutting out a map of France and putting it on top of a same scale US map to make them understand. They had no concept of the distances involved in driving across the United States.

RSKY

 

[RSKY]

Hah, fair enough message received.

Like I was saying earlier CruiseAmerica does a ton of advertising outisdd the US as does a couple other of the rental RV places. The US offers a pretty unmatched diverse landscape. Heck even here in WA we have an incredible set of national parks.

We saw a LOT of CruiseAmerica RVs and there was also another company too. The strangest was the Dodge Minivans painted purple with writing all over advertising that they slept four and had a complete kitchen.

RSKY

 

[MossRoad]

I don't understand what you are talking about. Who posted something like that?

Me, and I regret it.

 

[MossRoad]

When we were in Yellowstone, I remember getting stuck behind many of those rental campers.... many, many, many rental campers. They'd get stuck on curves. They'd get stuck in parking lots. Gas stations, pull-offs, etc... seemed like everywhere we went, there was one of them trying to make u-turns, or 10 point turns to go back the way they came. At first, I was getting a bit perturbed, but then it happened so often it became comical.

 

[vvanders]

We saw a LOT of CruiseAmerica RVs and there was also another company too. The strangest was the Dodge Minivans painted purple with writing all over advertising that they slept four and had a complete kitchen.

RSKY

Don't underestimate the vans, we've got a VW Vanagon we inherited from a family member and that thing is a camping beast. Easily can do 2 upstairs, 2 down, kitchen, fridge and does 30mph up the mountains with all of its 97hp. There is something to be said about being able to get in/out of anywhere and where setting up camp is just popping the top.

I understand people deck out Sprinters these days in the same way although it doesn't feel quite the same to me.

 

[bunyip]

Speaking of rude I/we cringe when we see a group of our countrymen screaming 'aussie aussie aussie, oi oi oi', we just like to be unobtrusive and blend in as best we can.
I believe all countries have the same culprits.
On a funnier note, having a coffee in Milan the waiter asked where we were from, we told him and he said his cousin lived there and we should know him.

 

[Tomtint]

Last year we did a very similar route via motorcycle.. Pikes Peak, Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Glacier, Sturgis and a number of other stops is 12 days. .. From what I'm accustomed to out here in the North East.. Crouds were minimal although at the Grand Canyon there was a noticeable increase of traffic going is as we were coming out. ( we got there about 7:30 am) While I somewhat recall seeing oriental tourists, I don't recall a overwhelming large number of them...Unlike when we were in Honolulu.. Off topic.. but Wyoming just may be the most beautiful part of this country I have ever seen..and I have seen quite a bit of it..

 

[ovrszd]

When we were in Yellowstone, I remember getting stuck behind many of those rental campers.... many, many, many rental campers. They'd get stuck on curves. They'd get stuck in parking lots. Gas stations, pull-offs, etc... seemed like everywhere we went, there was one of them trying to make u-turns, or 10 point turns to go back the way they came. At first, I was getting a bit perturbed, but then it happened so often it became comical.

That's how it is with rent-a-jeep in my high country travels. Should require a test.......

 

[Citydude]

I spend a few days in Yellowstone every year fly fishing the Larmar valley. The foreigners are great, the American wolf watchers piled up along the highway through there, not so great...

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Anytime someone starts a post with something like "I probably shouldn't post this here" or "at the risk of getting this thread closed", it should be obvious that the little voice in your head that told you that was probably right.... so don't post it. Just shake your head and move along, or, go over to the Front Porch or Unfriendly Politics and start a new thread on the subject.

I wondered (not) where that post went.....

We had small crowd at grand canyon last yr. But we got there in morning, seems most people didnt show up till after noon.

Lots of foreigners working at the national parks.

 

[JPRambo]

My wife is a naturalized citizen from France. Her uncle was making arrangements for my wife's grandmother to come to Florida. He asked if we could pick her up in LaGuardia Airport in New York.

 

[oosik]

We would come down out of AK about once every five years. We always visited a few national parks on our trips. Our excursions were always so early in the spring that if the national park was open - there was seldom much traffic - foreign or domestic. We SPECIFICALLY made it a point to travel either before schools got out in the spring or after they started in the fall. We didn't hate children - we were avoiding massive crowds.

 

[MossRoad]

My wife is a naturalized citizen from France. Her uncle was making arrangements for my wife's grandmother to come to Florida. He asked if we could pick her up in LaGuardia Airport in New York.

That's funny! :laughing: