In other words, trail counters do little to capture dispersed and highly variable recreation (Beeco and Hallo 2014) or monitor trends in these contexts. However, trail counters are only as good as an install, and installation sites are determined a priori of where people go. Trail counters, for example, are useful for their consistent data collection and, if calibrated regularly, their reliability (D’Antonio et al. Researchers have used a variety of technologies to track visitor use trends for planning, regulation, and mitigation purposes. Our study provided the park with season-long spatial data of backpackers’ trip extent, access points, camping locations, and use densities to assist in backcountry patrols and give park managers an overview of common visitor pathways. Thus, little is known about where visitors travel and if dispersed hiking and camping guidelines are being followed. Also, these occasional backcountry patrols are the only means to enforce dispersion. Currently, park managers primarily rely on this seasonal monitoring effort to understand where backpackers disperse into the backcountry. Additionally, backcountry patrols have a protocol in place to identify and locate impacts within the backcountry, adapted from the problem assessment survey method (Leung and Marion 1999). Rising numbers of park visitors over the last decade has increased pressure to both facilitate and preserve quality experiences related to landscapes, species, and sense of place (including wilderness character) that national parks are mandated to protect.ĭenali has had an informal trail monitoring program using trail counters, patrols, photographs, and erosion monitoring for over a decade. The specific motivations for why backpackers choose the route they do is less understood, but general motivations include experiencing pristine nature, quiet and solitude, and adventure (Keller and Toubman 2019). Routes can become popular due to reasons related to topography and vegetation where higher elevations involve less bushwhacking, length of time to get into the heart of the park, recommendations made by staff, and social or other media. In Denali, managers have expressed concern over a growing network of informal trails and concentrated impacts of camping areas along popular routes. Due to the immense size and trailless qualities of Denali, understanding the geographic extent of backpackers’ travel is challenging. The road is often used as a launching point into the backcountry. The 92-mile road into the park also influences travel patterns. During peak season (June through August), the quotas are often met and aid in dispersing campsites and foot traffic, especially in popular backcountry units. Denali is segmented into 87 backcountry units, and the units in the “old park” (Mt McKinley National Park) have specific visitor quotas per night. However, the park’s unit quota system affects dispersion of use. In the backcountry, visitors are instructed, in most instances, to avoid using informal (or social) trails and to “Find Your Own Trail.” This slogan is used as a purposeful management strategy to disperse visitor use in fragile tundra ecosystems.īackcountry visitors to Denali have the freedom to travel within the park. An especially unique experience for visitors is the fact that most of the park is trailless. Denali provides a multitude of recreational experiences for visitors in untrammeled settings within its two million acres of designated wilderness. Backpacking in Denali National Parkĭenali National Park and Preserve covers six million acres of subarctic land in the Alaska interior. We point the reader to van Riper and others (2017, 2019, and 2020) and Stamberger and others (2018) for descriptions of the characteristics of backcountry users who participated in GPS tracking. The aim of this paper is to provide a detailed description of the methods of GPS visitor tracking used in Denali in 2016. 2018) as part of a larger project focused on front and backcountry visitor values and pro-environmental behaviors (van Riper et al. In Denali National Park and Preserve, we used GPS units to track backpackers’ locations (Stamberger et al. However, a growing body of research uses Global Positioning System (GPS) technologies to track visitor use in remote and wilderness settings (Gundersen and Andersen 2010, Gundersen et al. Tracking use in remote and expansive wilderness areas is challenging as there are few reliable methods to record detailed use patterns. Knowing where visitors travel within a park helps park managers allocate resources more effectively, identify potential environmental impacts such as vegetation trampling and soil erosion, and preserve the experience of other park visitors. One important aspect of visitor use is to understand where people go. Visitor use in national parks is dynamic and can be challenging to understand. A backpacker admiring the view of Denali.
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