7 Ways to be a Good National Park Visitor

July 16, 2018 Liana Safian

(AKA How to Not be an A$$ in Nature)

It’s that wonderful time of year when the days are long and the sun is hot. Summer has always been my favorite season—promising road trips, camping adventures, and many hours in nature. It’s also the busiest time of year at national parks. We’ve already shared some tips for finding solitude in the parks this summer, but with rising national park visitation, comes an increased human impact on these beautiful places. Here’s what to know about visiting national parks to keep your impact to a minimum and basically how not to be an ass in nature. Note: no soapboxes were harmed in the making of this post.

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National parks are our happy place. Last year we visited 21 parks in the US. This year we’ve been fortunate enough to explore some international parks—Manuel Antonio in Costa Rica last winter and recently Cinque Terre in Italy.

With rising national park visitation, comes an increased human impact on these beautiful places. Here’s what to know about visiting national parks so that you can keep your impact to a minimum and be a good steward of our beautiful planet. — On the boardwalk at Manuel Antonio National Park in Costa Rica earlier this year.

People come here to enjoy the incredible beauty of nature. Sadly, we’ve seen a lot of people behaving badly in parks across the country and around the world. Some offenses are blatant, like climbing right over the guard rail in front of the “Don’t Climb Over Rail” sign. Most times though it’s unintentional or even accidental, like walking away from your food for a minute and having it snatched up by the local wildlife.

Either way we’ve learned a lot about how much our presence affects these natural ecosystems. We’re sharing what we’ve learned in hopes that we can all be a bit more conscious and careful while enjoying these sacred places.

What to know about visiting national parks to keep your impact to a minimum

1. Stay on the trails

You may see signs telling you this. Even if you don’t see a sign, never go traipsing off the trail. It can ruin the fragile ecosystem. In deserts, the crypto on the ground literally holds the earth together and stepping on it can undo hundreds of years of growth. This seems like the simplest thing, yet in our experience it’s the most commonly disregarded rule.

2. Don’t take anything from the parks

Not a rock, not a shell, not sand, nothing. If you want mementos, take pictures or buy a souvenir from the gift shop.

3. Leave the cairns alone

You know those rock piles you see? Those are cairns and you should let them be—certainly never add to them or create your own. I know that some people are opposed to cairns all together and even go so far as to knock them down. There are many parks that use cairns as trail markers and they’re placed there by the rangers. Unless you’re on the official trail management team, don’t knock them down and don’t add to them.

4. Always store your food safely

Use bear boxes when available. Never leave coolers (or even your lunch) unattended. We’ve seen crows steal an entire banana and granola bar in seconds.

5. Stay away from wildlife and (for the freaking love of nature) don’t feed wildlife

This includes squirrels, chipmunks, and birds. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve seen people feeding small animals. I know they’re cute, but this is as much for the animals’ safety as your own.

When animals start relying on humans for food, they forget how to get it naturally. When humans leave for the season, you’ll find some sad hungry creatures. Also, they can carry disease. One national park campground we stayed in was shut down 2 days after we left because of plague outbreak (Yes, the plague. The bubonic plague.) carried by the small rodents in the area. How cute are those squirrels now?

In the case of larger animals, eating our food makes them less adverse to humans and more likely to approach them in the future. This is bad news for all species involved.

6. Share the park

In other words, be considerate. Especially this time of year, the popular trails and viewpoints will be crowded. Sometimes you’ll have to wait to pass people on trails or snap your pictures. Alternately, don’t hog the best views. Share the space with others, you might even make some new trail friends.

7. Practice leave no trace principles

You can learn more about the principles here. They pretty much cover everything on this list. You’d think that most of these things would go without saying—like don’t liter. Sadly, this needs to be said. The amount of trash left in parks is crazy. Also, surprising are the number of fresh carvings and markings on rocks, trees, caves, etc. If you’re a good visitor to the wilderness, when you leave, it will be like you were never there. If you’re a really good visitor, it might be like other humans weren’t there either (i.e. if you see someone else’s trash, be a good citizen and pick it up as well).

We hope that you can get outside this summer and enjoy the national parks (or anywhere in nature really) while being a good steward of our beautiful planet. Did anything on this list surprise you? Is there anything that we missed? Let us know in the comments below.