10-20-10 – Travel Photography

BLM is the Bureau of Land Management, the federal agency in charge of much (all?) of the public’s land. And I’m actually kinda happy that they make it difficult to get to some places. When the general population is allowed in, then you have to “sissify” everything so that there’s minimal risk of someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing getting hurt. For example, if you look at my photo of Toroweap at Grand Canyon from the Waterscapes contest, you’ll notice there are no rails or warning signs anywhere. It’s a completely different experience than the normal tourist sites on one of the rims. They don’t restrict access to Toroweap, but they purposely don’t maintain the road beyond minimum accessibility to discourage crowds.

BLM is the Bureau of Land Management, the federal agency in charge of much (all?) of the public’s land. And I’m actually kinda happy that they make it difficult to get to some places. When the general population is allowed in, then you have to “sissify” everything so that there’s minimal risk of someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing getting hurt. For example, if you look at my photo of Toroweap at Grand Canyon from the Waterscapes contest, you’ll notice there are no rails or warning signs anywhere. It’s a completely different experience than the normal tourist sites on one of the rims. They don’t restrict access to Toroweap, but they purposely don’t maintain the road beyond minimum accessibility to discourage crowds.

Well that part doesn’t sound too bad, but the non-refundable up-front payment for a permit which you might not get sounds like something criminal.

Actually, if I recall, there was a $5 fee to apply for the permit, which was not refundable. If you were to win their permit lottery (about a one in ten chance, from what their website says), then you had to fork over an additional $7 for the actual permit.

(went to search for the actual rules and regs for the place…)

http://www.blm.gov/az/st/en/arolrsmain/paria/coyote_buttes/permits.html

BLM runs any public land not owned by the military, Park Service or other government agency. Some national monuments, like Grand Staircase-Escalante, are run by the BLM.