A crowd waits for Old Faithful geyser in Yellowstone ( ) I was sitting on my tailgate, listening to the sounds of songbirds and car honks, when a scuffle broke out in a nearby picnic area. Shouts echoed from the woods as a crowd swarmed two dudes who were shoving and swinging at each other. Welcome to a hot summer day in Yellowstone National Park.
The tussling group seemed to be a motorcycle club, based on their headwear and matching T-shirts. Given their sweaty disposition, I’m not sure “staying hydrated” was listed in the bylaws. Then we embarked on a long trek through the semi-apocalyptic parking lot.
Frantic drivers whipped around corners, cutting each other off. Exasperated families double-parked and hurried away. Frustrated sightseers returned to their blocked vehicles and laid on the horn.
Finally, my wife and I breathed a sigh of relief as we reached the safer confines of the world’s most active hydrothermal zone, the scalding Upper Geyser Basin. Yellowstone seems to be having a moment as the poster child for rising threats facing the National Park Service (NPS), including bad visitor behavior. While the parks attract record-setting crowds, the Trump administration simultaneously gutted the workforce, cutting NPS staff by nearly 25 percent since 2025.
Interpretive signs about important topics like Indigenous displacement and slavery were torn down and replaced by nationalistic propaganda. More trash than ever was recently pulled from Yellowstone geysers, including strange stuff like fidget spinners, fake nails, and a baseball cap displaying the words cowboy hat. For outdoor enthusiasts watching these disturbing events, it can feel like there’s never been a worse time for national parks such as Yellowstone.
My wife, who’d never been there before, was shocked by the wackier things we saw during one high-season day. I arrived better prepared, having come to Yellowstone a grand total of TWO times. My first visit happened 20 years before, when some young whitewater paddlers and I came through on a cross-country road trip.
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