In the late Obama years I, like a lot of people my age, got swept up in the National and State Park craze. My wife and I would load up the car, drive out, and try to enjoy whatever the park was known for. It should have been great. It wasn’t.
Everywhere we went, the parks were overrun with these entrenched “volunteers” who acted like they owned the place. Campsites were always “fully reserved” even though half of them sat empty because people book six months out and never show. But if you try to take an open spot, they’ll hunt you down. Meanwhile the volunteers themselves treat the campground like their personal RV compound, trash and gear piled everywhere, no consequences.
At one site, we were maybe three minutes past checkout. They didn’t knock, didn’t speak to us. They dragged our tent off the site with a Gator and dumped it a quarter mile away. And the punchline: the people who had reserved the site weren’t even due to show up for hours. That was normal. That was how it worked.
Try to go for a run on a marked trail. Try to enjoy the land like a normal person. The hiking monitors act like you’re attempting a jailbreak. Everything is regulated to the point of absurdity unless you’re part of the volunteer clique, in which case you can do whatever you want.
The bigger issue is that the entire system encourages this. Campsites get locked up months in advance by people treating bookings like lottery tickets, not plans. The land sits empty, access is rationed, and the public is treated as a risk to be managed instead of the actual owner of the land. The NPS has basically turned public space into a federally-branded HOA. You’re not welcomed into nature. You’re tolerated under supervision.
After that season, my wife and I agreed we’d avoid giving the NPS another dollar if we could help it. The parks themselves are beautiful. The administration and culture around them have become a gatekeeping mess.