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Overcrowding at Garibaldi Provincial Park

emilyanthem

2014-08-26 11:08:46

Overcrowding at Garibaldi Provincial Park

The last weekend before Labor Day just came and went, with perfect weather and ideal hiking conditions (10C at night / 24C during the day). A friend and I headed up to Garibaldi Park for her birthday weekend, assuming it would be a bit busy, but that we could do long days / early mornings and avoid the crowds. (Wrong)

Friday evening we hiked up Rubble Creek to find the Garibaldi Lake campground already 100% full, which meant turning around and heading to Taylor Meadows with headlamps to another nearly full camping area. This wasn't a huge surprise, as there are only 90 sites to share between the hundreds of people who visit this park each day, but slightly disappointing nonetheless.

The thing that actually did surprise me were the sheer number of people on the trails. There were at least a hundred other people on the summit or ridge and en route up (see below) on Saturday. We still had a great day, as it's impossible to let anything spoil this incredible scenery, but it was a different experience, that's for sure.

Living in Whistler, I'm no stranger to weekend crowds. I would usually head far into the backcountry on a sunny weekend like this, but it worked better to meet my friend here and blah blah.. so there we were.

The next day we got up at 6AM to have some alone time with the Black Tusk before it got swarmed, and had another great day.

When we got to the parking lot, the cars were stretched down past 3 full lots almost all the way to HWY 99, and someone was in the parking area interviewing people on overcrowding in the park for her thesis. Limiting backcountry access, building more trails, expanding services.. these are a few things that Parks could consider doing to deal with the crowds. Since I live close by, my tactic will be to just go there on quiet weekday mornings this fall, but for most people that isn't an option.

What do you think? Where is the line between when overcrowding creates a bad experience for visitors, and encouraging park patronage + stewardship by inviting the whole world in? I'm not sure on this one myself. We need people to connect with nature if this world has a hope in hell of us standing up for our wild places. Then again, if those people create a bad experience for everybody by throwing their trash on the trails, being disrespectful at the camping areas, etc.. is it really for the best? Throw your two cents into the comments below.
gwest

2014-08-27 00:31:53

I think overcrowding is a problem that will continue to worsen unless we start getting better access to wilderness (or quasi-wilderness) type areas. Looking through Mat Gunn's scrambles book prior to this weekend, it occurred to me that about 75% of the routes in that book are either only possible with 4wd high clearance, or at least shorter with it. I had friends up visiting from the States. They actually have forest service roads down there who's purpose is recreational access for the public. The vast majority of our forest service roads are to serve the logging industry. It's a sad state of affairs. It's definitely great that people are getting out, and even *more* should be, ...but overcrowding of areas that have relatively easy access will turn people off of their outdoor experience. The outdoor recreation industry is one that could be growing a lot faster in BC if people had better access to more of the mountains. There were almost 50 people camping at Tenquille Lake this weekend.
emilyanthem

2014-09-02 10:38:09

I agree that overcrowding will turn people off of enjoying the outdoors. There was a push from Garibaldi Park a number of years ago to encourage visitors to the park, and all the parking fees were removed. Now that people are coming in higher numbers, I think they need to be ready for what they hoped for in the beginning. We headed up to camp at Joffre Lakes this weekend, and the parking area was full, with some crazy pants parking right at the entrance, then the next bit of gravel on the side of the road was also spilling over onto the highway. We just kept driving and went to Keith's hut instead, where there were just 3 groups. We had the tent anyhow, and were the only campers, so it was great. I guess it's a matter of looking further into the backcountry for solitude.. and having that 4x4 truck to get you there! I do love the parks here though.. but I have avoided them most of this summer because there are just too many bodies for the trail systems in place, and it's not a nice experience to feel crowded in the wilderness.

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Overcrowding at Garibaldi Provincial Park