06 Bringing Edward Abbey Into My Life: Yosemite CA, Mount Washington NH & Machu Picchu Peru
The past few weeks, we have read many great selections from Edward Abbey as well as have gotten the chance to learn more about his personality and character. And I, like many others in this class, thoroughly enjoyed doing so. What Abbey stands for and believes in is great but the fact that he can communicate it through his writing in a way that is informative, entertaining, and with just the right amount of edge makes it even better.
However, reading and engaging with Edward Abbey has not been only a source of enjoyment for me. After learning more about Abbey and reading his specific article, Polemic, I have also found myself growing more mindful and adopting some of his views, opinions, and outlooks on life. Abbey’s writing and persona has impacted and inspired me, causing me to become more passionate about wanting to protect our National Parks and other outdoor locations from people, most specifically the Industrial Tourists, so that others may get the chance to enjoy them for years to come.
This being said, Abbey’s writing has motivated me to write about my own experiences with Industrial Tourism and how I have seen it in my own adventures.
“They work hard, these people. They roll up incredible mileages on their odometers, rack up state after state in two-week transcontinental motor marathons, knock off one national park after another, take millions of square yards of photographs, and endure patiently the most prolonged discomforts: the tedious traffic jams, the awful food of park cafeterias and roadside eateries, the nocturnal search for a place to sleep or camp, the dreary routine of One-Stop Service, the endless lines of creeping traffic, the smell of exhaust fumes, the ever-proliferating Rules & Regulations, the fees and the bills and the service charges, the boiling radiator and the flat tire and the vapor lock, the surly retorts of room clerks and traffic cops, the incessant jostling of the anxious crowds, the irritation and restlessness of their children, the worry of their wives, and the long drive home at night in a stream of racing cars against the lights of another stream racing in the opposite direction, passing now and then the obscure tangle, the shattered glass, the patrolman’s lurid blinker light, of one more wreck.”
The above excerpt from Abbey’s Polemic is one of my favorites. It ironically and sarcastically describes the “struggles” and “hardships” that the Industrial Tourist must go through in their pursuit of exploring our National Parks by car. I also believe, however, that this passage is very accurate. In my past experiences, the people who drive through our National Parks always seem to be more stressed out and worried than those who are visiting on foot. They are more concerned with parking, long lines, and seeing the Park as quickly as possible rather than simply enjoying the magnificent landscape around them.
The passage also reminds me of when I visited Yosemite National Park two summers ago. We took a shuttle into the park, however, I remember the roads leading into it being filled with cars, busses, and lots of people. Although I love giving everyone the opportunity to see and experience our National Parks, allowing so many people to drive into them does cause for some less ideal circumstances. In Yosemite, we decided to take a hike that would bring us past a huge waterfall and misty stairs. Soon after starting our trek however, we were stuck in line behind other tourists on the trail. It was packed! I remember waiting off to the side of the trail for about 15 minutes to snap a photo of the falls without other people blocking my view. One of my mom’s biggest pet peeves is when she has strangers in the background of her nature photos, and she managed to pass this trait down to me as well.
Expectation vs. Reality
“What does accessibility mean? Is there any spot on earth that men have not proved accessible by the simplest means — feet and legs and heart? This being the case, why is the Park Service generally so anxious to accommodate that other crowd, the indolent millions born on wheels and suckled on gasoline, who expect and demand paved highways to lead them in comfort, ease and safety into every nook and corner of the national parks? For the answer to that we must consider the character of what I call Industrial Tourism and the quality of the mechanized tourists — the Wheelchair Explorers — who are at once the consumers, the raw material and the victims of Industrial Tourism.”
This passage from Edward Abbey is also very impactful and thought provoking. What exactly does accessibility mean? I agree with Abbey’s viewpoint that many spots have proved accessible by the simplest means — feet and legs and heart. If people gave walking on their own two feet a try more often, they would come to realize just how special and more enjoyable it can be, rather than staying confined to their cars.
This section of Abbey’s writing reminded me of my hike this summer to the top of Mount Washington, the highest peak in New England. I completed this hike with my parents, hiking just over 8 miles and rising 4,654 feet in elevation. The hike was amazing, peaceful, quiet, and just the right amount of challenging.
However, when we made it to the summit the Wheelchair Explorers, as Abbey would call them, were all around. An auto road and train had both been created in order to bring tourists to the top. Complete with a huge parking lot and gift shop, it is clear that the top of Mount Washington has been exposed to Industrial Tourism.
My favorite (and by favorite I mean the absolute WORST) thing I saw were so many of these bumper stickers on people’s cars all over New Hampshire.
Seriously? These made me laugh at the ridiculousness of them. To counter the terrible car stickers, I also saw a few hikers wearing t-shirts that read “These Legs Climbed Mount Washington” which I enjoyed much more. :)
“Industrial Tourism is a threat to the national parks. But the chief victims of the system are the motorized tourists. They are being robbed and robbing themselves. So long as they are unwilling to crawl out of their cars they will not discover the treasures of the national parks and will never escape the stress and turmoil of the urban-suburban complexes which they had hoped, presumably, to leave behind for a while.
How to pry the tourists out of their automobiles, out of their back-breaking upholstered mechanized wheelchairs and onto their feet, onto the strange warmth and solidity of Mother Earth again?”
My last experience that I wanted to talk about was my trek to Machu Picchu, which I believe this paragraph above relates to very well. My family and I hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu two summers ago. It was a 5 day, 4 night trek and it was absolutely amazing!! Throughout the entire journey, we never saw another tourist. It was only us and the Inca trail. We hiked, ate, learned, and slept completely alone on this spiritual journey.
On our final day, we finally arrived. The clouds cleared and we saw it in front of us: Machu Picchu. It was a beautiful and transcendent moment, and some people on our trip even shed a few tears. The feeling was indescribable.
We took a few photos and started working our way down into the great civilization that the Incas built. Once entering, I soon realized that there were so many other tourists around me. These people did not hike the Inca Trail in, but instead took the train.
In this case, I was not upset at these people for creating crowds, but found myself feeling bad for them. Similar to how Edward Abbey described, they had robbed themselves by not experiencing the true treasures and experience of the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu. I could tell that these people were not as affected by the surroundings as my family and I, being that their experience was completely different than ours. We had been immersed in our trip for 5 days, learning and experiencing the Inca culture while the Industrialized Tourists had woken up from their hotels that morning. I wished that everyone had chosen to get on their feet instead of taking the train, spend time with Mother Earth, and could feel the same emotions and appreciation that my family and I did.
In closing, Edward Abbey has managed to evoke a passion out of me to be more caring and mindful about protecting our National Parks, thus inspiring me to share these personal experiences. His writing has impacted me, and I wish for it to impact others as well in the hopes that it will give them the opportunity, strength, and willingness to visit all of these amazing places that our Earth has to offer — and hopefully will step out of their cars to do so.
Revision:
After realizing just how much I could see the concepts and concerns that Edward Abbey discussed in his writing in my own life, I decided I wanted to investigate his ideas even further. Being that Abbey wrote his Polemic in the 1960s, I was curious just how much things have changed today, over 50 years later. I believed this blog post was missing some up to date research, so therefore turned to the Internet to see what I could find on the topics related to Abbey's work and my own experiences.
The first thing I found upon my research, and something that is very shocking and eye-opening, was the Climate Clock. This art exhibit, which also serves as a warning, was unveiled by artists Gan Golan and Andrew Boyd in September, announcing that we had only 7 years, 102 days, 12 hours, 2 minutes and 1 second until Earth’s carbon budget would be depleted, based on our current emission rates. If Edward Abbey was so mindful and concerned about wanting to protect our National Parks and other outdoor locations from people 50 years ago, I could not even imagine what he would think today. Abbey wished to protect the environment so that others may get the chance to enjoy them for years to come, and it is a scary thought that said time is running out. I think that this art exhibit would scare Abbey immensely, being that we have allowed things to get so bad and reach this point. The one positive about this situation is that there is hope that the exhibit will serve as the wake-up call that people need. Hopefully, it will inspire or scare people into taking better care of our planet, as Abbey wished years ago.
"We need to arrest this decline and make the park system the national priority it should be."
The author states that we need to assess the health of these magnificent parks and truly determine if they can withstand the millions of visitors who arrive every year. The article also lays out some facts, stating that in 2016, the centennial of the Park Service’s creation, 330 million people were recorded at the 419 parks, recreation areas, monuments, seashores and battlefields and other places that make up the system. Another shocking fact read, the least-studied mammal in Yellowstone is the most abundant: humans. Reading this statistic was so surprising to me and made me extremely disappointed and sad.
The author of the article then proceeded to write about his own experiences in a way that was very similar to my blog post, which I thought was very cool. He touched upon waiting in lines on the trails in Zion, the Everglades being overrun with motorboats, and melting glaciers at Denali. I saw close ties to what this author experienced to what I did, which proves that these issues are going on consistently and all over the world.
"Our parks were intended as havens from the stresses of the modern world and places where the nation’s natural and historic legacies would be preserved. But the world continues to close in on them."
This quote from the article illustrates the exact problem that Abbey discussed in his work. Industrialized Tourism, Wheelchair Explorers, and the constant overcrowding of our National Parks was then and is still currently a problem.
Overall, what I have learned from my additional research is that Edward Abbey was right so many years ago. Our National Parks, environment, and the Earth as a whole is in danger. As much as we want to explore these places and experience them for ourselves, their protection should be the number one priority. Places like Machu Picchu have limits on how many people are allowed into the historic Inca sites at one time, and many other places may soon need to follow suit. If we do not take action, these beautiful places will be at risk of disappearing forever. This additional research I have conducted is sad, however, I believe it is of the utmost importance in order to save our planet. I hope others can be exposed to Edward Abbey's influential work, as it inspired me and I would hope it could potentially inspire them too.
Emma, your blog posts are simply amazing. Thanks for expressing your thoughts so beautifully and fully. I loved the photos, especially the expectation and reality photos of Yosemite Falls. I have had some similar experiences in national parks and thus try to avoid them in the summer. but it's not just the parks. A few summers ago I hiked up Pike's Peak in CO, a long difficult hike, only to find hundreds of people on top who had either driven up or taken the cog railway. I confess that I felt a bit too self-righteous in thinking I had earned the magnificent views. I envy you your Machu Picchu trip.
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