(via) One of my favourite institutions on this planet has to be the US National Park Service. I just love that so many of the best and most picturesque parcels of land on our continent were conscientiously set aside for the enjoyment of the masses instead of, say, for the exclusive use of a collection of wealthy or royal families (as was the case in Europe). To me, it really does stand as ‘America’s Best Idea’. Over the years I’ve explored just about every single park west of the Mississippi River, which is to say I’ve been part of a growing problem: overcrowding. Here’s a short explainer detailing how and why American and international tourists had been visiting the US National Parks in unprecedented numbers in recent years…

Visitation to National Park Service sites has seen a boom in recent years. For five years in a row, the park service has tallied over 300 million visitors per year. It’s an unprecedented spike, and the reason why this is happening now goes deeper than social media alone. While the threat of COVID-19 will likely change those numbers this year, the park service is still figuring out how to regain the balance between preservation and visitation. Cheddar explains the history of crowding in America’s national parks, and the impacts we are seeing from that today.