Yellowstone's backcountry zones are way too popular now

I hit the Thorofare trail in Yellowstone last August and it was a total mess. I saw 12 other groups in just 3 days on a route that's supposed to be remote. The permit system needs to cap numbers way harder or we're gonna ruin the whole point of going there. Has anyone else noticed major trails getting flooded with people like this?

2 comments

2 Comments

taylor_moore16d ago

Have you noticed how everything cool has this same problem nowadays? It's like when you find a great local burger spot and then it shows up on some food blog and suddenly there's a line around the block. I went to a remote lake in the Wind Rivers a few years back and it was dead quiet, then went again last summer and there were people camped every 50 feet along the shore. The permit system feels like it's trying to keep up but it's just way too slow. Social media is probably part of it too, everyone wants to post their epic wilderness shot and then the secret spots get blown up. Makes you wonder if we're just loving these places to death without even realizing it.

the_aaron16d ago

Something people don't talk about enough is how the permit system itself changes the character of a place. I hiked into the Enchantments in Washington years before permits were required, and it felt like real wilderness. Now with the lottery system, the people you meet out there are almost all hardcore planners who prepped for months. The spontaneity is gone. It shifts who gets to experience these places from anyone who can just go to only people who can plan a trip six months in advance. We're not just loving places to death, we're sort of filtering out the very thing that made them feel wild in the first place.