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Show By Jim Stiles I had R doing been so well... After , enduring the over- whelming tourist onslaught for years, I was determined end At to improve my if to these end of attitude. It was 5 dismal 5 i apocalyptic civilization as we know a time Pei ; ; predictions about it. I had found And then I was approach run over of Easter - flattened Weekend. the a level of - in mid-bliss I have never by seen anything like it in my life. It surpassed anything anyone in this town has ever seen. In spite of my pledge to the contrary, do you know what we all witnessed? Yes, that’s exactly right. It really was the end of civilization as we know it. i wrote those words exactly five years ago, Now, here I am hunkered down under a snow drift, listening to the wind howl off South Peak and watching a dark and foresky boding threaten even more snow. | love Monticello in the springtime. It may be miserable here but it sure is quiet, Up in Moab all hell is breaking loose. Estimates have varied on the number of pilgrims who will converge this year on Grand County. Here’s how I figure it: There are something like 2,000 jeeps registered (and unregistered) for the Jeep Safari. At four-per-vehicle, that’s 8,000 souls (I use the term loosely). While I'd rather not even think about the Slick Rock Bike Trail and the Sand Flats campers, I can hardly ignore them. Figure we may have 4,500 marauding bikers on the Sand Flats. Along the river corridor, both upstream and downstream from Moab, another 4,000 campers will fight for space and the right to enjoy the great out-of-doors, amidst blowing garbage and ever-increasing quantities of human excrement. Farther north, on access roads that intersect US 191, additional large groups party down. If only the rocks could speak. Knowing that I have certainly left a few good people out of the count, I believe that there are, right at this very moment, an additional 1.3 million people in Grand County. With all these temporary residents trampling the land as fast as they can find it, I find myself asking several questions: First, has this tourist pro- motion strategy been an unqualified the springtime. from inner peace and conteniment thai I knew would allow . ° a ° me to survive these difficult times. : : ’ the stabilize hoped for was that we could somehow to putan success, or what? Have our “solutions” to the impacts caused by our spring exodus worked? And, are we still having fun? The answer to the first question is Yes. And the answer to the third question, on a personal level at least, is - I'm sitting through a goddamn blizzard in Monticello just to avoid the Madness of Moab. As for solutions to the insanity am skeptical. The jeepers have been coming there for decades and although their numbers are frightening, most of them are reasonably conscientious. Of course, several thousand well-intentioned people, riding around in 4WD sport utility vehicles will still cause damage to the resource. Sheer numbers can make best intentions meaningless. On the Sand Flats, the thousands of people who occupy the area surrounding Slick Rock Trail have traditionally been the Spring Break crowd, high school and college students in search of relief from the academic grind. But they don’t make these pilgrimages to test their endurance on the trail, or listen to the sounds of nature. They do not come here to comtemplate the meaning of life and their role in the universe. They come here to consume massive quantities of beer and to be strange. A few years ago, we had a near-ricx on our hands and the local police were driven off the Flats in a spray of beer bottles when the cops went up there to “restore order.” Which, for the most part, I think is fine. I believe everyone should consume massive quantities of beer at one time or another, make utter fools of themselves, throw up all over their girl- ae. [he the getting next destruction any and keep it worse year, with toilets and a lot more BLM portable garbage cans, and and the High school and college recreationalists more with some very visible environmental education displays, tl ngs did prove ee ee e e In 1994, a collaborative effort by the county, school and college recreationalists’ in party and th they these were e free. areas unstructured By making the improvements, the Spring Beak cro simply going to f sO ai erp Pe ee re oe Pa to trash. It’s already happening is newly-created AmeriCorps was put into operation. A fee booth was installed and a reasonable fee system initiated, and the AmeriCorps workers set out to clean up the Sand Flats and educate campers about growing environmental impacts on the fragile desert landscape. And it worked. But leave it to the government to take a good idea and make it complicated - and expensive. Within a year, program's director the pushed for expanded facilities and a dramatic pay increase for himself. The BLM and the chose because Proponents of the improvemer proudly point to recent surveys that indicate more families are using th facilities instead of those wild and craz teenagers. So what has become of reck less youth? They’re out there some where in places that used to survive the What the Sand Flat spring madness Project ultimately did was disperse the crowd. Good planning, guys As for me, it’s snowing again. My feet are cold. And I think I’m coming down with the flu. If I die out here, it'll take God that weeks for them to find me makes me happy. @ River Running through Utah! IF We Hap A Boat |a Pye 4s -ABOAT Roy Webb Koes ar This delightful book narrates the events that have shaped the Green River’s history as well e st sae as the colorful personalities of the people who have shared the danger, the wonder, and the peace of the river and its canyons. Paper $14.95 River RUNNERS’ GUIDE To UTAH AND > ADJACENTGARY AREAS C, NICHOLS River Runners’ Guide to Utah and Adjacent Areas Gary C. Nichols Over 90 river trips described and mapped for all levels of river enthusiasts, from beginning to expert. Paper $14.95 THE bUUy UNIVERSITY Oba ec tia aerate OF UTAH PRESS SAWIL NIVLINNOW The End of Civilization as We Know It county, always ready to come in with a bulldozer and make things tidy, agreed to install a more permanent 21-site campground at the Sand Flats at a cost of $77,000 ($3,652 per site), paid for out of the money collected at the booth. They called it a showpiece This year, they raised the fees so they can build another “show piece.” And plans are under way to “improve” more sites along the Colorado River, both upstream and down from Moab And all this might seem like a good idea except for this: These campground projects were constructed in direct response to the impacts caused by high a beep bars Salt. Lake City, Utah 84112 local (801) 581-6771 / (800) 773-6672 fax (801) 581-3365/ info@upress.utah.edu Li 39Vd The View from Moab friends (or boyfriends), and have a terrific hangover the next day. Just so they can appreciate the sheer joy of recovering from such an ordeal. I’ve been doing it for years. But the authorities didn’t think too much of it. Nor did the Chamber of Commerce. And when I saw the environmental damage that had been incurred on the Sand Flats, I was dismayed as well. Whole trees had been burned, garbage and human excrement was everywhere. Obviously something had to be done But what? The area was hammered beyond belief and the most anyone |