Re: High altitude party!

I used to live right across a dirt road from a "world class swimming hole" -- a big deep green pool with a high jump, a gorge with water tumbling over and around big boulders, up at the top a little waterfall you could hide behind, and the coolest natural jacuzzi I have seen anywhere in the world. Since we lived there, we felt a little like it was "ours".

But on hot summer days the road became a zoo, with people parking everywhere, going up and down the trails, lots of people in the water, and of course a certain amount of drinking and smoking on the sunny rocks by the big pool. That last means that some people would leave bottles and cigarette butts on the rocks, which we regularly cleaned up, with at first a lot of grumbling and talk about somehow excluding people from the place. There were other hassles, too, and my wife and I sometimes got sick of the whole scene and angry about the way people abused the privilege.

But sometimes I'd head down there on a hot day to cool off, and I'd see some first-timers picking their way up the gorge with looks of open wonder on their faces, and maybe some other folks relaxing on the rocks over a beer, not doing anything obnoxious, and I'd realize that 90% of the people using the place were really having a good time and not causing any problems (in the gorge anyway, the big problem was always he parking situation), and to somehow take it away from these people because the other 10% were leaving bottles and butts around would be unfair, sad, and elitist.

We got an opportunity to put our money where our mouths were -- when the private property that gives access to the gorge came up for sale, we were one of 80 local families that put up at least $500 each to buy and hold the property until the local land trust could pick it up, with the goal of keeping it open to the public. I was later on the management committee for the property and did some trail/maintenance work etc.

So what's the point? I guess it's that just because hordes of people use a place and somewhat despoil it, it's not necessarily all bad. Many of those users are getting the same kinds of rewards that we get from our more intensive backcountry activities, and an opportunity to explore, learn and care about these places. So it's a trade-off, but as long as the place doesn't get too run down maybe "worth it" in some sort of nature-karma sense. This applies not only to my local swimming hole, but Mt. Washington, the S. rim of the Grand Canyon, the campsites on the way up Mt. Whitney, and so on ad infinitum, maybe up to and including Mt. Blanc.