What next for Yosemite? Camp Chicken Curry, Badger Balm Ski Park, Cascade Clean Creek?

Our National Park Service never fails to come up with new ways to demonstrate how incapable it is of properly running our 411 national parks within the system.

Let’s start with the thoroughly inept legal department, which was totally asleep on the job leading to the loss of control over many of the treasured names within our parks. Need more evidence? Now the NPS proposes to commercialize much of the “wilderness experience” that they have been tasked to protect.

Simply stated, the NPS wants to sell naming rights and offer advertising opportunities to all manner of locations throughout the nationwide park system.

Let’s take our beloved Yosemite National Park as an example. After losing control over the name Ahwahnee Hotel, park officials can now call it the Coca Cola Inn. Or how about simply Motel 6 of the Valley?

El Capitan can now be called “Prudential Rock.” How does “Chevrolet Dome” sound. Better yet, “Chevron Point.”

How about projecting sponsor ads and infomercials on the face of Half Dome after dark?

A Pepsi stand at the Tunnel parking lot would be a real hit. In fact, all of the parking lots could have promotional names and tie-ins. This would bring in lots of revenue and hardly change the “wilderness experience” since the lots are already full of cars, SUVs and giant motorhomes.

You get the message: The list is endless and ridiculous. Yet that is what is being proposed.

They will tell you that the natural points will not be named, only the ones that are man-made. If you believe that, you will also believe that Camp Curry is still the proper name of the place below Glacier Point.

This is the same NPS that many years ago declared the nightly “fire fall” was no longer appropriate activity in a national park. And the same gang that blocked off the most popular campgrounds along the Merced River to “return them to their natural state.”

This is the same park service that tells you where you can and cannot park, hike, walk, camp, picnic ... the list goes on and on. Yet, they propose to plaster bus benches, shuttle buses buildings and road signs with commercialized advertising. Are you getting an incredibly mixed message here?

I certainly am.

To be fair, the National Park Service didn’t come up with this idea all on their own. Who else would think selling naming rights in a park is a good idea? Congress, of course. The 2015 National Defense Authorization Act – exactly where I’d look for ideas concerning places of peace and tranquility – included all kinds of ideas to cut the red tape that keeps people from using federal lands for profit. It was authored by the House Committee on Natural Resources, and included ideas for “enhancing private funding (through donor recognition).”

This kind of business-first thinking led to another brilliant concept – encouraging park superintendents to go out on fundraising expeditions in search of major donors, foundations and potential advertisers.

I have a much better idea on how the Yosemite chief might spend some idle hours. Drive up to the entrance gate on a Saturday morning and figure out how to more efficiently pass visitors through these entry portals. Sitting in line in an idling car for an hour is hardly a way to get into the mood for wilderness.

As I have mentioned frequently, there is no rhyme nor reason to the way they run the gates. Having a dedicated lane for pre-paid passes, a cash lane and a credit card lane would bring mile-long lines down to just a few minutes of waiting for most visitors. I have made this suggestion in person, in writing and by email, and it always falls on deaf ears. The same ears that apparently heard that advertising and promotional revenue would be a great addition of enjoyment to our times in the park.

Better yet, put some of this energy and creativity into getting back the long-established and traditional names that were so hopelessly lost when the previous franchise operator stole them from us. Bring back Ahwahnee, Camp Curry, Wawona. Bring those back and we might even forgive you for putting a McDonald’s in the middle of the meadow.

This story was originally published May 20, 2016 at 3:02 PM with the headline "What next for Yosemite? Camp Chicken Curry, Badger Balm Ski Park, Cascade Clean Creek?."