The Grand Canyon has made the news recently because of plans to basically prohibit cars from the park. I talked with one of the shuttle bus drivers and she said the park was planning to start a light-rail service outside of the park where people would be taken into the park and then have to rely on shuttle buses to get them around each place on the southern rim of the park. Given that it was hard to find parking even when I went to the park, this made sense to me.
I ran into more than the normal share of idiots at that park. I was at the first turn-out when these two kids were throwing something over the edge. Then one of the kids turned to their mom and asked for more change. I said to the woman, "That is, of course, illegal" and she said "It is??"
I can't imagine someone going to a national park and not realizing this but some how she (and her kids) had totally missed the concept of "take nothing, leave nothing". They were tossing coins which would litter the land for hundreds of years and thought nothing of it. (Park service personnel immediately raised the issue of throwing a piece of metal off the ledge when there could be hikers a hundred feet below.) Of course most smokers for some reason don't count their cigarette butts as litter either so maybe this is normal for humanity but it's pretty sad.
At a later stop, I ran into Magic Marker graffiti which announced that the Barnes family had been here. It then proceeded to name everyone in the Barnes family. Separate gra ...More...
underneath the file name (just above the picture). Spammers need not apply.
