Yellowstone victory?

[sled_guy]

Just read on the local news (ksl.com) web page that the Park service has announce they will reverse themselves and allow 720 sleds per day into the Park this year. That is compliance with a ruling by a Wyoming judge on Nov 7.

Here's a link to the story

sled_guy

 

[Desperado]

That is good considering you rarely see anything revert back, it always seems more not less. What I would like to see change is this whole guide deal. I have no problem renting sleds with "best available technology" but I do have a problem getting a guide and going at their pase when seeing the winter sites. One of my biggest enjoyments was having the freedom to stop where I wanted and look at what I wanted for however long I wanted. Unless the current guide requirement is recinded I doubt I will ever visit yellowstone again in the winter. Glad I have picts and memories from years past.

 

[Ollie]

That is good considering you rarely see anything revert back, it always seems more not less. What I would like to see change is this whole guide deal. I have no problem renting sleds with "best available technology" but I do have a problem getting a guide and going at their pase when seeing the winter sites. One of my biggest enjoyments was having the freedom to stop where I wanted and look at what I wanted for however long I wanted. Unless the current guide requirement is recinded I doubt I will ever visit yellowstone again in the winter. Glad I have picts and memories from years past.

^^^X2^^^
We went up every year till they went guided on everything.
I don't need a guide to drive down the road.
It was nice to just be able to stop and watch the critters do their thing as long as you wanted without having someone tell me we have to go or what not.

 

[bullfrog123]

That is good considering you rarely see anything revert back, it always seems more not less. What I would like to see change is this whole guide deal. I have no problem renting sleds with "best available technology" but I do have a problem getting a guide and going at their pase when seeing the winter sites. One of my biggest enjoyments was having the freedom to stop where I wanted and look at what I wanted for however long I wanted. Unless the current guide requirement is recinded I doubt I will ever visit yellowstone again in the winter. Glad I have picts and memories from years past.

X3^^
Last time we went in was when you could still use ANY sled, not just rentals. I'm all for the cleaner sleds, but don't like being told what to do on a road.

 

[Bull]

yep, i agree. i went the last year you could go "on your own". went with my (at the time 82 year old) uncle. we had a great time. i feel like a man that was shot down twice in WWII, captured twice and escaped from the germans twice......has MORE RIGHT THAN ANYONE to visit our nations parks. that is part of what is missing in this argument. i have a great pic i took during our visit of a coyote with a elk femur bone in his mouth. as we were riding, i noticed him working a carcass off the trail a ways into the woods. we stopped and watched for a while. several guided groups whizzed on by. i would not mind renting some BAT's from an outfitter as long as i can go on my own. if someone is speeding, hassling wildlife....make it a serious offense and arrest them. most are responsible.

 

[Ector]

I would call this a victory! It gives anyone at least another 1-3 years to ride in the park. I don't know Amy McNamara or anyone with the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, but I can only imagine the tantrums that were thrown when this decision came out.

 

[Poleman]

That is good considering you rarely see anything revert back, it always seems more not less. What I would like to see change is this whole guide deal. I have no problem renting sleds with "best available technology" but I do have a problem getting a guide and going at their pase when seeing the winter sites. One of my biggest enjoyments was having the freedom to stop where I wanted and look at what I wanted for however long I wanted. Unless the current guide requirement is recinded I doubt I will ever visit yellowstone again in the winter. Glad I have picts and memories from years past.

West Yellowstone has not seen our tourist $ ever since you had to start using a guide. What a joke! Lose that requirement and we'd likely make annual treks south again. Argument is flawed. More pollution and animals killed from vehicular traffic than snowmobiles. Friggin tree huggers!

 

[AZ800]

Yeah, haven't been back since they placed the noise restrictions....couldn't get in that yr ('02 ??) with our piped sleds, which I consider fair. Then the next year they went to BAT and guided only. What a crock!
I'd love to take my kids for a ride thru there, and they would really appreciate it too, but If I gotta rent sleds, I want to get my money's worth outta them, not putz around for 2 days!

 

[Ollie]

Every year it's the same thing.
They wait till the last minute and try their best to disrupt access to the park.
Each year it gets re-instated but not before there is lots of confusion and people cancel their trips.
The enviro-nazis are doing a pretty good job of destroying the will of the people to try to get access. That is their goal. If they can't shut it down completely they will make it so difficult and so expensive no-one will want to try it.

 

[SnowSnob]

I really doubt they'll lift the guided tours only thing. I went in once about 2 years ago and enjoyed having a guide. It was very informative and I enjoyed it. Yeah it sucks to be stuck with a group of 20 but the sleds you rent don't go over 45mph and I'm not in there to ride a sled anyway.
You let people go in with out a guide and they'll be trying to jump ol faithful and chase buffalo.
Think about it, most people that go in there are from places that have no snow and have never riden a sled. If they lift the guided only thing those people will REALLY make us look bad since they just like to lump all of us as one group. Most of the people that were in our group were from Georgia!!! Those people NEEDED their hands held.
Plus even with the guides idiots go riding off trail.

 

[SnowSnob]

Every year it's the same thing.
They wait till the last minute and try their best to disrupt access to the park.
Each year it gets re-instated but not before there is lots of confusion and people cancel their trips.
The enviro-nazis are doing a pretty good job of destroying the will of the people to try to get access. That is their goal. If they can't shut it down completely they will make it so difficult and so expensive no-one will want to try it.

True.
I sure am glad it blew up in their faces this year.
Maybe they won't try this approach again.

 

[Vertical_Escape]

I have to agree with SnowSnob, most visitors are tourist from out of area, they need to be lead/controlled. BTW my wife and I took the tour 3 years ago, wasn't bad at all. Guide even let everyone open up sleds on 1 long open stretch.

 

[Rattlin_Ram]

I really doubt they'll lift the guided tours only thing. I went in once about 2 years ago and enjoyed having a guide. It was very informative and I enjoyed it. Yeah it sucks to be stuck with a group of 20 but the sleds you rent don't go over 45mph and I'm not in there to ride a sled anyway.
You let people go in with out a guide and they'll be trying to jump ol faithful and chase buffalo.
Think about it, most people that go in there are from places that have no snow and have never riden a sled. If they lift the guided only thing those people will REALLY make us look bad since they just like to lump all of us as one group. Most of the people that were in our group were from Georgia!!! Those people NEEDED their hands held.
Plus even with the guides idiots go riding off trail.

There where guides before for ppl that needed them... and ppl used them... those that didn't need them... didn't use them...

If you dont' need a guide for a car or RV why do you need one on a sled???

 

[Vertical_Escape]

There where guides before for ppl that needed them... and ppl used them... those that didn't need them... didn't use them...

If you dont' need a guide for a car or RV why do you need one on a sled???

Car or an RV are so much less likely to bail off into a meadow? Just a guess here.

 

[bobback]

West Yellowstone has not seen our tourist $ ever since you had to start using a guide. What a joke! Lose that requirement and we'd likely make annual treks south again. Argument is flawed. More pollution and animals killed from vehicular traffic than snowmobiles. Friggin tree huggers!

How many cars go though the park during a summer? You can't tell me that the 4 stroke sleds are polluting the park more than the cars! Don't even get me started...

Pass the grape kool-aid!

 

[Ollie]

You let people go in with out a guide and they'll be trying to jump ol faithful and chase buffalo.
Think about it, most people that go in there are from places that have no snow and have never riden a sled. If they lift the guided only thing those people will REALLY make us look bad since they just like to lump all of us as one group. Most of the people that were in our group were from Georgia!!! Those people NEEDED their hands held.
Plus even with the guides idiots go riding off trail.

UM, no offence, but that is the dumbest thing I have read all day.
They had and still have forest rangers. They watch for that stuff. They had them stopping speeders and such and I didn't hear of ANYONE riding off the road any of the times I have been up there.

I personally am sick and tired of daddy government thinking and telling me they need to hold my hand to do anything. PEople wonder why visitorship to our national parks and camping areas is down over 60% in the last 30 years, stupid stuff like that is why.

If you make it hard or inconvenient for people to do this stuff, they stop doing it. That is why the greenies win. We let them.

 

[Ollie]

How many cars go though the park during a summer? You can't tell me that the 4 stroke sleds are polluting the park more than the cars! Don't even get me started...

Pass the grape kool-aid!

Stop using logic and reason.
It doesn't apply when talking about enviro-nazis and enviromental policy.
THey go after sleds because we are a minority.
It's easier to pick off the groups one at a time than to take on the vast majority that come in the summer. All they are doing now is getting the presedence they need to get the laws they want to shut it down in the summer. They have to get the laws now, before they try to tackle the summer crowds.

 

[bobback]

It kills me how you have people deciding what's best for Yellowstone that have never been there. For those who have never been to West Yellowstone, how do you think that town makes a living in the winter?

This is one of those scenarios/issue that would be great to if one of the big 4 got involved in.

 

[Big D rmk700]

Now I go to west every year and have done so since 95. First year there went into the park with buddy's did 80 mph most of the time on the trails in there got stopped by the rangers three times No tickets never went off trail. Thought it was pretty cool to see all the animals but that was it. Then during the winter of 96-97 got hired to be a guide for the Holiday Inn in West Yellowstone. Over the next three seasons guided over 60 different groups into the park and never had one injury or accident in all of the trips yet over two thirds of those trips I would see a accident or someone breaking the rules by going somewhere they were not suppose to be. I never made my groups do things they didn't want to, gave them freedom to stop where they liked just made sure I had a few simple guide lines to follow and things went smooth. Most of the people I would guide were newbies and took direction well it was the ones who had rode before that thought that they knew it all that caused problems. Do I think that there should be only guided trips YES, however I think that you should not have to feel as if the guide is going to total direct your ride and keep you from seeing what you want to see. In fact the guides should make your trip more enjoyable by showing you the best areas that where often over looked by the unguided groups. I took a lot of people on guided tours into the park who had been in there on there own many times and they couldn't believe all of the things and info that they had never seen or heard about before.

 

[CrazyCanadianCat]

Just to add to your note Big D, the Grand Canyon and Old Faithfull are pretty cool to see also.