Why should the people on the street in the OP have to move because other people are a-holes? Far easier and cheaper to just close the road for a few weeks and tell the selfie brigade to feed the monkey somewhere else.
I wasn’t aware of this effect, but there can sometimes be a springtime effect that makes it look like a border of wildflowers has been planted by the road, because the dark pavement gets warmer. I’ve noticed this the desert, where any offsetting harm from salting the road would be absent.
Also, especially in VT, you’ll notice the picturesque stone walls along the roads. Mostly the area behind them is now wooded, but those walls mean the land was once cleared and cultivated, so the trees along the wall are likely the oldest, all the ones inside the walls being second or third growth…
Once, I tried to cut across some private fields and was turned back at shotgun-point. On the other hand, don’t think it is kosher to barricade off a public road.
Admission to actual parks is often not free (and they keep track of and control how many people they are letting in).
It’s a case of not being able to see the forest for the trees. Much of the Northeast is too flat and densely forested to have spectacular viewing conditions. You need hills or mountains or open areas (lakes, fields) to see more than the few trees that are right around you.
I’ve seen nursery catalogs where they advertise the fall foliage potential of certain trees, but I don’t think highway departments purposely plant trees to improve viewing. There are any number of reasons roadside trees might be more colorful, some of which have already been pointed out above. Perhaps you’re referring to sycamore trees, which like wet areas such as along roadside drainage ditches and which produce some of the most brilliant reds.
You may be comparing trees in two different microclimates that turn at different times, so the roadside trees are at peak when the trees deeper in the woods are either pre-peak or post-peak. Deep in the woods, it tends to stay warmer because trees intercept a lot of the infrared radiative cooling and because the woods are more humid). Valleys tend to have colder nights (cold air sinks producing a temperature inversion), hilltops tend to be colder during the day (see Wikipedia on the lapse rate).
Is there a certain species of sycamore or location that demonstrates brilliant red fall color?
The one I’m most familiar with, American sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) has certain virtues, but spectacular fall color isn’t usually among them. If its leaves haven’t dropped prematurely due to anthracnose infection, they’re likely to turn brown before falling, in some cases a decent yellow first.
We learned to avoid the Oregon coast on weekends (and during the summer) early in our residency there. The highway becomes jammed, as do the pullouts and beaches, and illegally parked cars along the highway create a real driving hazard. We went out there in the fall every year and enjoyed having places nearly to ourselves for a couple of weeks.
Yeah, it seems to be that rather than make a trip somewhere to experience/soak in the local attraction for an afternoon or a few days, now the point for many is to go get a selfie taken at that spot, without much regard for the actual attraction or about anything local.
I mean, I’m sure the gas station owners along the way don’t care, but I would imagine that if you were a local, it would be irritating as hell to have an inordinate number of people show up and snap a few selfies while being their special brand of Millennial/Gen-Z social-media obnoxious, and then leave, all the while clogging up restaurants, roads, stores, etc…
Look at it this way- if this was a somewhat sacrosanct place- like say… Arlington Natl. Cemetery or maybe the Africatown Heritage House in Mobile, it would be extraordinarily disrespectful for people to show up and just snap selfies/do social media BS without regard for what the cemetery or exhibition is about. I’m not seeing why it’s any different if it’s just someone’s town- it’s still dismissive and superficial to show up with the intent of taking selfies, and not actually learning or doing anything local.
That’s why the locals are pissed and shutting off access. I get it, but I’m not sure it would stand up to a court challenge. They’d probably have better luck if they could arrange themselves as a “wireless-free town” for a few months of the year, and get the local wireless providers to shut off access for a couple of months during certain times. Or something like that- just cut the smartphone out of the equation temporarily- they can take photos, but they’ll have to go back to wherever they’re from to connect and upload. I suspect that would suck a lot of wind out of the selfie/social media crowd’s sails.
I’m not sure why you think it would difficult to support this in court. Local governments have lots of control over traffic and local access. Parking, blocking access, private property trespass, trash, and a host of other concerns would be easy to document.
Kenosha Pass Colorado does have beautiful fall colors (Aspen trees) There are electric signs saying to be cautious of foot traffic. People park on the side of the road and just wander about. Typical tourist.
Um… This is a state highway. 65mph. You really should NOT walk down the middle of it.
It is aggravating to those of us that use the highway as a way to get from one point to another.
This seems rather short-sighted. They should find a way to make income from tourists.
In my area in Wisconsin, we love tourists, since they bring money. Lots of it. They spend at restaurants, hotels, resorts, parks, marinas, ski lodges, clothing stores, art galleries, gift shops, concerts, marine harbors and marine suppliers, just to name a few. They buy houses and use local services. Influencers help by making the area even more attractive, bringing even more money. Bring 'em on!
And best of all – they pay taxes (room taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, etc.) but they can’t vote to eliminate or reduce them, since most don’t live here. We financed our new town hall entirely with room tax dollars from tourists.
It could be the people living on that street in Vermont just want to live in peace and not turn their neighborhood into Disneyland?
Yeah, It’s a two edged sword @Musicat. Our county population quadruples during tourist seasons. We did used to have a breather during mud season, but that’s gone away.
COVID hit us in another way. Nobody wanted to get on an airplane, many vacations canceled. But they could just drive to the mountains for the day/weekend. And, many people that used to rent out their condos can now just work from them. So rentals for seasonal workers really got hit.
You might find this article interesting:
I don’t see how being old enough to visit these places in the '70s or '80s before they became overrun makes me part of the problem. I went with a sense of adventure and to experience beautiful, peaceful places–not to influence anyone else. And I don’t think “it sucks to be you”, I’m just a little sad that it’s come to this–that these places are being “loved to death”.
Yep…sometimes getting a peaceful moment is as easy as just pulling off at a turnout and walking a hundred yards to get away from the susurrus of cars going by. One of my favorite spots in Yosemite is Turtleback Dome, which I’ve always had to myself. It will never be crowded because the turnout is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it spot and there’s only room for maybe 2 cars at the most. (and no, I don’t think this post will cause a rush of people to go there)
Hmm. Well, many museums have a no-photography rule. And guards.
When we went to the British Museum in 2019, the wall of people taking selfies and pictures of the Rosetta Stone (including someone directly in front of it doing a slow top-to-bottom video) was so dense that we gave up on seeing it. People are just so fucking weird about needing to document things for their friends rather than seeing them.
Ha! Telling VT that they need to figure out a way to make money from tourists! Tourism supports 10% of VT’s workforce. But that doesn’t mean specific places, especially places where people live, can’t be overrun or off limits.
If one car uses your driveway to turn around it’s not a big deal. If 10 cars an hour do, sometimes driving over your lawn, and leaving trash behind, you put up a gate.
As dutiful members of the Dope it is paramount that we find racism and misogyny in each and every social encounter, no matter how ridiculous those findings are. It keeps our woke badges nice and shiny.
Reminds me I was at a local air show and literally four generations of the same family were all standing in front of me taking videos with their phones over their heads blocking my view.
I mean, can’t you agree to have one of you take the video and the rest just watch? We don’t need 6 people all taking the same video.