[QUOTE
Have you read Bill Bryson's "A Walk In The Woods"? I found his disdain for NPS's mismanagement and incompetence hilarious. The NPS has been understaffed and under-budgeted for quite a long time now, all while NP attendance has skyrocketed throughout the nation. So I don't blame them for trying to make ends meet, but it still leaves a bad taste[/QUOTE]

Alston Chase's "Playing God in Yellowstone" remains, for me, the definitive text on the attitude of NPS administration towards all things - wildlife, visitors, staff, politics. It is a little kingdom to itself. Underfunded? Yes. But also incestuous and often brutal to its seasonal employees. On the one hand you have clueless tourists getting boiled in hot springs even though there are warning signs in 16 languages - and on the other hand you have seasonal rangers living in housing that any city housing authority would condemn as unsafe and unsanitary.

In the crown jewel parks, the RVs rule. Cyclists? Hah!
I mean, if you just dropped $300 grand, you'd expect the parks to open their doors wide, too.