I don’t get to travel as much as I’d like. I wish I could take the time to go fish every blue-ribbon stream in Wyoming each summer, and broaden my experiences with forays to Iceland, Argentina, Europe and the Caribbean whenever the fancy struck me. But work responsibilities, chores around the house, and of course money (or more accurately a lack of money) get in the way of those desires.
But I still read The Discoverer Blog from time to time to get ideas on where to go if I ever win the lottery. It provides great suggestions on locations to see and tips about travel that have come in handy when I’ve been lucky enough to actually take a trip. But last week, the blog’s topic was “Five Places to Avoid This Summer.” And the very first of those five places was Yellowstone.
It immediately ticked me off. Don’t be telling people not to go to Yellowstone. Granted, we could do without the idiots who try to put baby bison in their SUVs or the morons who stroll across the Grand Prismatic geyser flats. And if I’m completely honest with myself, I could admit that I hate having to share Yellowstone with tens of thousands of tourists every time I visit. That was the reason The Discoverer gave for avoiding Yellowstone – the fact that it’s crammed with about 4 million visitors each year.
But our state could certainly use the money all those tourists bring when they come. Yes, we have to put up with dweebs who park their rental cars in the trailer-only parking spots, or repeatedly tell other jack-wagons to get away from the moose, bison and even grizzly bears. But I do hope we still get plenty of visitors this summer. I hope only the idiots read that blog … but I doubt it.
Here’s hoping for a good tourist season this year. Let them come – and those of us who live here can still go where the tourists don’t.
