I don't think Thompson and Ed Abbey ever met, but they'd have hit it off quite well. (Or killed each other, I suppose.)
Points 1, 2, and 4 remind me of nothing so much as Abbey's stance on protecting the national parks: avoiding regulation via personal responsibility and barriers on idle, disinteresting consumption.
As I remember, his plan for the Grand Canyon was to put the last parking lot 5+ miles from the Canyon, with a bus line and a fleet of bicycles. You bike in (or take the bus, iff you've got a health reason not to bike), see the Canyon, then take a bus back out. No Canyon-side parking, less litter, no tourists seeking 5 minutes of photos, and no hucksters selling tickets for glass bridges or anything else. And yes, I seem to remember he wanted to keep names like "Hell's Half Mile" on everything possible, the better to limit demand.
A bit exclusionary, maybe, but sort of a nice vision given what we've got instead. (As far as I know, the park that came closest is Zion, and it's definitely better for having done so.)
Denali has also mostly prohibited private cars including for people staying deep in the park. (Unlike the Zion canyon where you can still drive to the lodge.) The park service has introduced shuttle buses in a number of places. It seems to be their general trend to at least stop building additional parking to meet increases in demand.
Points 1, 2, and 4 remind me of nothing so much as Abbey's stance on protecting the national parks: avoiding regulation via personal responsibility and barriers on idle, disinteresting consumption.
As I remember, his plan for the Grand Canyon was to put the last parking lot 5+ miles from the Canyon, with a bus line and a fleet of bicycles. You bike in (or take the bus, iff you've got a health reason not to bike), see the Canyon, then take a bus back out. No Canyon-side parking, less litter, no tourists seeking 5 minutes of photos, and no hucksters selling tickets for glass bridges or anything else. And yes, I seem to remember he wanted to keep names like "Hell's Half Mile" on everything possible, the better to limit demand.
A bit exclusionary, maybe, but sort of a nice vision given what we've got instead. (As far as I know, the park that came closest is Zion, and it's definitely better for having done so.)