Out Of The Wilderness

The Economist has an article about why visitation to the National Parks is down.

Yosemite is long on staggering views but short on what most people would today regard as entertainment. It contains fewer diversions than it once did. Scott Gediman, the park’s spokesman, points out that it used to have a Cadillac dealership and a zoo. Although pretty, Yosemite’s hotels are basic compared to most cities (if they were in Las Vegas they would have been dynamited long ago). Camp Curry, a vaguely military cluster of fixed tents and cabins, has hardly changed in a century.

As in other national parks, Yosemite’s rooms tend to sell out in descending price order. Expensive hotels go before cheaper ones—indeed, they routinely book up as soon as reservations can be made, 366 days in advance. Cabins with bathrooms go before cabins without. This suggests there is pent-up demand for luxury hotel rooms. Not only is there little chance more will be built; it is proving almost impossible to put up a handful of campsites.

I think people have become used to certain creature comforts and are not willing to give them up. I have been to Yosemite and it is near impossible to shower there. You have to be in the hotel or cabins that offer showers. Camping areas offer no showers. I think all National Parks are this way. I am not sure of the reasoning.