Tourists during pandemic overwhelming parts of Appalachian Trail, other national and state parks

Hikers the stretch of the Appalachian Trail known as the Roller Coaster took in the view of State Highway 7 at the Bears Den Overlook in Northern Virginia this month. (Washington Post photo by Amanda Andrade-Rhoades)

The Appalachian Trail has always been a popular destination for day-trippers and tourists, but during the pandemic, interest has skyrocketed, overwhelming local officials' ability to maintain some parts of the trail, Lizzie Johnson reports for The Washington Post.

"Sandi Marra, the president and CEO of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, said the increased usage is most obvious on the trail itself: abandoned banana peels and aluminum cans, four-foot-wide trails that have suddenly doubled in size, the overflowing parking lots," Johnson reports.

At Max Patch, a popular campsite in North Carolina's Pisgah National Forest, the damage was especially bad. Marra said it looked like "a field at a music festival. . . . People were up there with their dogs and tents and coolers and pavilion tents." The field has been shut down, and it will be two years before the damage is repaired and camping can resume.

Big national parks like Yellowstone have tried to limit visitors with tactics such as timed entry tickets and a reservation system, but crowd control is more difficult on the Appalachian Trail because it runs through 14 states and has hundreds of access points, Johnson reports.

The throngs of visitors to national parks all over the country prompted a Senate subcommittee hearing in July to discuss congestion and overcrowding. "We can accidentally love our parks to death," said subcommittee chairman Angus King, I-Maine, who said he couldn't think of any immediate solutions other than encouraging tourists to visit less-crowded parks and places. "Watching the sun rise from the top of Cadillac Mountain is a wonderful experience," he said, referring to a feature in Acadia National Park in his home state. "Staring at the taillights of the car in front of you as you’re trying to get up the mountain and find a parking place? Not so much."