Robert Cartright and his friend saw anything when they arrived at Glacier National Park in Montana on Saturday: the park’s trails were crowded, but few people wore masks.
The park reopened in June after a nearly three-month closure due to the coronavirus pandemic. The National Park Service encourages, but requires park visitors to wear masks.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that others use them to prevent the spread of the virus, which has inflamed more than 5.7 million Americans and killed more than 177,000.
However, in national parks, which have a pleasant outdoor escape for Americans who have stayed at home for weeks or months, their use is far from constant.
“We had no idea how bad it would be here, otherwise we would have reconsidered vacationing at Glacier,” said Cartright, a computer specialist who lives in Portland, Oregon. “There are no mask reminders on the trails. Only at the front door.”
According to NPS data, Glacier saw nearly 50% fewer visitors last month than in July 2019, possibly due in part to the fact that tickets on the east side of the park remain closed during the season. But other national parks are getting more visitors than they did a year ago.
Yellowstone, which reaches Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, recorded a 2% increase in July.
Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, a few hours west of Washington, D.C., received 39% more visitors in July than a year ago. The most visited national park in the United States, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, on the border of Tennessee and North Carolina, received nearly 7% more visitors last month.
Updated visitor statistics cannot be available for the 419 sites controlled through the National Park Service, as the pandemic has sent many workers to their licensed homes, according to spokeswoman Sally Mayberry. Other sites remain closed or partially closed, especially those inside.
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Some lawmakers in Washington require the Ministry of the Interior to require visitors and national park workers to wear masks.
Several Democrats in the House of Representatives wrote to Interior Secretary David Bernhardt this month asking the park branch to comply with the CDC and the state about mask and social estrangement.
“We urge you to require visitors and workers to wear an outdoor mask when they cannot maintain an adequate social distance,” lawmakers wrote, adding House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Raul Grijalva of Arizona and the chairman of the House National Subcommittee. Parks, Deb Haaland from New Mexico. “When workers and visitors are in buildings, they must wear a mask.”
Lawmakers have generated confusion about national and local rules that do not conform to those of the National Park Service. For example, Independence National Historic Park, the House of the Liberty Bell, is located in Pennsylvania, where a state order requires covering your face in indoor public spaces.
The National River and the Big South Fork recreation area stretch between Kentucky and Tennessee. The first has a mask requirement, while the time does (although some counties do).
Grand County, Utah and Springdale, Utah, approved the needs of the masks in July. These needs apply to Zion, Arches and Canyonlands National Parks.
“The conflicting rules between NPS-regulated spaces and communities that require masks threaten the protection of park employees, visitors, and those who live closest to our public lands,” lawmakers wrote.
So, once a guest has entered a national park in a state that doesn’t require a mask, do you deserve to wear one?
Mayberry said the National Park Service guidelines, which inspire close to CDC and state and local guidelines, are the same in all of its parks.
Cartright, who is visiting Glacier National Park with his girlfriend, said hikers were not the only ones ignoring public fitness recommendations about masks. He said his hotel was the only conscious position of the coronaviruses they observed. He also said local restaurant workers handled food without gloves or masks, in violation of a state order.
The couple replaced their plans to come with less popular hikes and wider trails. Instead of going out for dinner for the rest of the trip, the rest of the time, they bought their own food. And they made a decision.
“After this trip, we didn’t plan a vacation until there’s a vaccine,” he said.
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