How Are National Park Trips Different From What They Used to Be? | National Geographic

I think that every generation experiences the natural world differently. Like the 50s and 60s, like this glorified Yellowstone, go see the bears. Maybe during my parents' generation, the park system was sort of blooming and emerging, whereas now it's a bit more in place. The last generation it was more like, "Let's take the whole family in the camper van and spend a week in Yellowstone."

My dad always took us camping. I went a lot of places when I was in a stroller in Yellowstone. We went to a lot of national parks, did a lot of camping, Shyam, Bryce. I don't really remember any of it. We just actually went to Joshua Tree, but I was like... I mean, I never grew up in a family or anything like that where we went out and kind of explored that much. I used to like the outdoors, but I didn't have any opportunities to do anything other than biking the roads.

I've never seen the mountains before. I've never been past Illinois. The way national parks were developed for visitation is that they were made for automobile driving. Driving through, older couples have usually been the youngest people. It's definitely the older crowd that's still here, people who have been dirt-bagging it before I was born.

So we do get a lot of youth from places like China, sometimes even France, Germany, that come here, and they usually seem pretty excited. People in my generation? Yeah, they experienced national parks a little differently. I think it's more active, for one. Our generation? It's more like just kind of scattershot, let's go. Our generation definitely appreciates beautiful places.

I think our generation is getting out there a lot more. My family and friends thought I was crazy. My family has really followed me into the outdoors. People who are starting to actually get out in the backcountry, it seems to me that there's definitely been a push towards being out in nature more. I mean, every time we go to keep a Lulu in camp, it's full, and the majority is young people.

So, yeah, I mean, I think my dinner that may comes. I feel like most of my generation is moving to the city. You find like way more value and importance in getting out of the city. You know, there's not like this middle ground explored away from the busy yellow away. I actually was deep into freelance photography, trying to actually go on with all day in Los Angeles.

I was living in Venice Beach, working in fashion. It just started to ring hollow after a while, and I just hit the brakes. I think I was like, "Absolutely not, I'm going to Zion." I should say that we don't take it for granted. There's a lot of Millennials that are crippled by student debt, so a lot of times I think it is difficult for people to be their jobs.

You can always come back to the city. There's, you know, it's always there waiting for you. Think, what would John Mayer think about right now? What would he think about the paved roads and all the people out here seeing it and appreciating it? I honestly think that he would be excited that so many people are so excited about nature.

I'm so happy. I think that my kids are gonna be like, "Mom, you guys just took off in your bands." A different way that we're experiencing parks is that we're doing it in a more interactive way. So we'll tweet it, we'll Instagram it, we use Google Maps to find all sorts of parts to go camping in here, baby.

You can go look at trails and topo maps. You know, I use birding apps to identify birds. It's easier than ever. The question is, where's the line? There's always this debate, and people are like, how much you're actually looking at what you're seeing? Even though they're in nature, they're seeing it still through a screen.