Next on to Nevada and the Great Basin National Park. I arrived on a heavily overcast day with an ominous bank of low cloud, and many of the main attractions off limit due to rain and snow. Nevertheless, I’m far more interested in the texture of the landscape than caves and other points of interest, so I was satisfied with the photos I got. The road to the park also offered up some amazing scenery. The park itself, located about 500 km north of Las Vegas, was only established recently in 1986.
The big attraction at this park are the Lehman Caves, but I gave them a miss when I saw people lining up to try to buy tickets, getting turned away, and having to wait a few hours to try again. It’s unfortunate, but I come across this wherever I go: overcrowding, overtourism, too many people with too much money to burn. I look back fondly to last century, when travelling was a luxury enjoyed by a much smaller segment of the population. Now every tattooed Tom, Dick and Harry, and his kids, plus the Watanabes from Japan, as well as the Wangs from China, and Schmidts from Germany, are all cashed up and cluttering up every location. Fortunately, if you avoid the obvious tourist traps and “must-see” sites, and just keep to the ordinary landscape, exploring the atmosphere, the warp and weft of the natural environment, you can still find great enjoyment in travelling. Many are the times I have wandered off by myself into the landscape while nearby, on the road, loud and crass tourists stream past in their cars and buses, heading for the nearest location promoted in tourist brochures, completely oblivious to the real treasures right under their noses.
Next, I decided on a whim to revisit California’s Yosemite and King’s Canyon parks. I last visited those parks over 30 years ago with my late wife. On the road, more gorgeous landscapes can be found.
