In 2025 Tatra National Park in Poland had 5 266 672 visitors which means it's more popular than any national park in the US other than Great Smoky Mountains despite being as small as Mesa Verde and 40 times smaller than Yellowstone
>>2872096That's because there is literally nothing else to do in Poland except for excessive drinking.
>To protect active wildlife like Tatra chamois and brown bears, night hiking is banned seasonally from March to NovemberWtf europe really is a prison
>>2872097There also lots of lakes, rivers and a sea so you can go canoeing, rafting or whatever
>>2872096>40 times smaller than Yellowstone>5 266 672 visitors which means it's more popularand you think this is a good thing?
>>2872096>which meansLolIt would've been a fun fact had you stopped here but the absolute storm of insecurity that followed really took the fun out of it
>>2872124Exactly. That many people crammed into a natural area isn’t a “fun fact”, it’s a “nightmare realization”.
>>2872096is there a liquor store just past the gate or something?
>>2872124No but it's interesting>>2872138I just needed a comparison to show how crowded this place is>>2872106The rules suck, the crowds suck, everything in the nearby town of Zakopane is expensive compared to Poland's average, some say Zakopane people were kicked out of Israel for being too greedy. But none of these problems matter when you're at any summit because the mountains themselves are absolutely magnificent.>>2872170No but there's beer in huts and huts are easily accessible, the most popular hut is even accessible by horse carriages.
>>2872178it does look nice. Im glad folks have a place to get outside.
>>2872096So you're nearly guaranteed to run into someone. Thanks I'll put it on my never visit list
>>2872096GSMNP only has more visitors because the east coast is literally devoid of any other national parks worth going to that are also easily accessible. >b-but Acadiait's boring as fuck, yes the ocean is cool but it's a one and done. Not a lot of worthwhile hiking and it's so far north in Maine that's its an inconvenience to go to . GSMNP is positioned in such a way that literally tens of millions of people can easily weekend trip to it from both the north, south, west, and east of it.As for the west coast, you have so many parks that are actually good that there's no reason to go t o them all really. Just find one you like that isn't overcrowded and stick with it. Not to mention once again there's huge distances between some of these park so realistically most people are getting to maybe one or two at best if they have a busy life.
I'm English, which means my shithole is even smaller and more overpopulated than that. The best strategy to cope with it (yes, cope) is to get started well before dawn. As soon as it's barely light, or even in the dark if you want, not only is the early morning the best time of day but you will be there and well away before even the earliest of normalfags have finished their latte let alone packed the "V-dub" camper-van and put the dog in its hi-vis body wrap (ready to be let off the leash as soon as they are in the countryside) and begun the drive in from town for a long day of taking 'nature selfies' for their abhorrent social media accounts. I get out and start walking by 0330 in the Summer and as soon as I get a bit of grey light in the Winter. You rarely meet anybody but when you do it's either a farmer or another autist; not hundreds of normalfags swarming like you see any time from 1000 onwards.
>>2872096>In 2025 Tatra National Park in Poland had 5 266 672 visitorsI uh... I wouldn't brag about that.
>>2872096So you're saying it's full of people. Sounds awful.
>>2873684>burgerbros will never experience real hiking
>>2874005at least theyre not indianswent to franconia notch during leaf season and it was exactly like that except with rancid BOdef my bad for going to an accessible forest during leaf season though, shoulda known
>>2872286well no that's not true the smokies are popular because it's the HIGHEST mountains int he east and it's pretty close to a bunch of very populated areas (the deep south, atlanta, nashville, knosville, chatt, spartanburg, asheville, greenville, charlotte, and all the suburbs) I mean there's a ton of cities within a 4-5 hour drive and it's a drive through park where you can get good views just from short walks up at 5000-6000 ft so you can see pretty far on a clear day. there's plenty of other mtns in the east but only mt washington and some other places near the smokies can almost match the elevation and on hot summer days, that's a popular diversion
>>2874019Plus you have a ton of Floridiots driving up to GSMNP for vacations since that's some of the closest mountains they'll find
>>2872096I went there 2 times a year in 90, beautiful place, but it was and is more and more exploited since then, to the point where Main cityhub is all turistrap (prices) and the national park itself is overcrowded to ridiculus levels.Its a shame how locals choose money over their land. Other thing is tatra mountains became popular with saudis and emirates to the point where theres arabic ads. Its cheaper switzerland for them.
>>2872096The population of Europe is more than twice the population of the USA and the average population density of USA states is similar to Sweden. The western USA has a lower average population density than anywhere in Europe, even lower than European Russia (Euro Russia has about 100 million people on 1.8 million sq miles/4.66 million sq km, or 55 ppl a sq mi which is 21 a sq km).The USA also has different classifications of public wildlands. National Parks are literally the smallest and most restrictive. National Wilderness Areas (usually inside of National Forests) are king.National Forests are the next best. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is next best. Then comes National Parks.USFWS corridors (usually aquatic habitats or special wildlife areas). The USA has 193,145,865 acres of national forest land = 301,790.41 sq miles or 781,633.57 sq kilometers.The USA also has 245 million acres of BLM land = 382,818 sq miles or 991,478.53 sq milometers. Those two categories alone make up 19% of the *land area* of the United States of America. The total USA public land is 28% of the entire USA's area. Europe has nothing that can even come close to comparing to this, not even Russia (only 11-14% of Russia's land is protected public land). Likewise, 90% of Canada is "public" crown land, but in actuality less than 15% of this is actually protected. USA multiple use national forest has a very high level of protection compared to elsewhere in the world, but still significantly less than USA wilderness designation. And in practice less than 1% of USA national forests are logged.
>>2872247If it's the road from the Eye of the Sea to the bottom, then I already warn that it's pretty awful or at best boring to go down. Said lake is the normiest part of the mountains, good luck getting to the toilet in peak hours.
>>2872096>my wife gets more traffic than anyone! that means I win!
