I thought they were already doing that? Is that a free lot? I went through there once last year (looking for a brewery I had heard of in the area on the way to the Kinsman Trail - Iron Furnace Brewing I believe) and it was absolute pandemonium there - barrels and tape blocking street, port-a-pottis, cars and shuttles all over the place and HUNDREDS of people all over the freaking place. NO THANK YOU. I could have sworn there were signs for a parking charge but I may be remembering it wrong. I was just trying to get the hell out of their without hitting a car or a person.Paid parking there would alleviate the budget shortfall 🤣
I was in the area last year and this year, and it looked like Saturday this year was worse than last year. At 3 PM on Saturday the exit for Cannon/Artist Bluff was backed up onto 93 causing a major traffic jam. Supposedly, the rescuers heading up to Franconia Ridge were delayed by an hour due to the traffic. Maybe next year I will remember to stay away!Someone posted a photo of a totally jammed trail at Artists Bluff over on the reddit wmnf forum. However, others said, that pic is from last year. In any event, it looked like a few busloads of people all on the trail at once. No thanks!
The closest I've come to that was when I hiked to Nymph, Dream, Emerald, Hiyaha, and Bear lakes at Rocky Mountain NP. However, I started at 5:30am, and had the place to myself. The crowds were just coming in as I finished the hike.
I work for the state, I can assure you, nobody at the state house will do anything to aggravate tourist. There are two trailheads that lead to Artist bluff and it would take quite the feat to man both and charge people. It's two weeks a year and if all those tourons don't mind being elbow to elbow, so be it. Frankly, its not an issue that needs a solution. The millions of dollars all those people bring to the towns and state mitigate any desire to mess with them. The Govenor saw those pictures and was probably sitting at home smiling like a cheshire cat.
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