"Big Sur hates you" (Offsite camping, walking around flowers)

[Creeping Incrementalism]

I saw an article in the paper today about Big Sur residents trying to publicly shame people who take pictures in the area and post them on Instagram. I took a look and was quite annoyed to see that some of these supposedly shameful activities are legal and things I do myself. I know that residents always complain about tourists no matter where on earth they live (but of course these same complainers take vacations and become tourists themselves)... basic Nimbyism... but I don't get the hate.

The site is: https://www.instagram.com/bigsurhatesyou/.

There are 5 types of pictures on the site, 1-3 are totally baffling to me, it's like the Big Sur residents don't think anyone else should enjoy public lands:

1 -- posing in fields with wildflowers. Yet no mass trampling down of flowers is shown. Probably all or mostly legal pictures posted, even if you do accidentally step on one or two or pick a couple of the thousands. Picking flowers is only illegal on state highway rights-of-way based on the sections of the California Penal Code that I am aware of [CPC Title 10 384a. (a) (1) ]-- I can't find anything saying it is illegal in general to pick a flower in a national forest or state park if it is not a designated endangered species. These are not restricted, impacted areas like down SoCal this year.

2 -- Dispersed /off-site camping with campfires. Legal on national forest lands as long as you follow California campfire laws. 80-90% of the campfires I saw looked legal, exceptions were some with no fire ring and flammable material not cleared away.

3 -- pictures taken on the median. There are many spots on Highway 1 where you park on one side of the road, and then must cross the street to get to the other, and it's not like there are crosswalks out there. Pausing for a few seconds in the middle of the road with no traffic is fine, as long as any driver rounding the bend will see you in time. Most/all pictures looked legal.

4 -- animals. Generally not legal. Pulling up a starfish, looking at it, then putting it back... but I don't think this is a big deal, my Mom used to have me and my brother do this as kids, and even once a ranger yelled at us but then apologized when he saw we were just looking and putting them back. How can you explore nature without touching it? Every legitimate researcher does the same exact thing or worse. Jacques Cousteau used dynamite on coral reefs. This is the kind of thing that is a problem if everyone does it and becomes impacted, but otherwise my opinion is blanket bans on just picking up a starfish in a tide pool go too far.

5 -- cliffs, going past the "stay back" sign. Generally not legal, but victimless considering the people who fall put themselves in the situation. But then the taxpayers have to pay for government personnel to retrieve the bodies.

[vintagearms]

If people do stupid *****, I have no issue with them being called out. I can't believe you are trying to justify #3 and #5.

[Jeepergeo]

The people that live in Big Sur have destroyed it and continue to abuse it daily. The tourists come in season, then the place gets a break except for the full timers who's chimneys creat smoke and roads create erosion and more. On top of that, the local economy can't survive without the tourists.

So the haters on line are just a bunch if hippie hypocrits and need to get jobs and get off public assistance.

[local_nobody]

the amount of shaming people "so others don't get the wrong message" seemed pretty hypocritical. especially the ones where they were assuming things about the photo (one of the road photos comes to mind; the person could have easily been out of the road, but perspective made them look very close to being in the road..., or many of the campfire photos obviously in a ring, or people that just happened to have the remains of a fire in the shot)

[Brush Guard]

A few weeks ago I spoke with one of the rangers in Big Sur about picking wildflowers.

He reminded me that picking ANY flowers in the state parks is illegal.

[God Bless America]

On top of that, the local economy can't survive without the tourists.

So the haters on line are just a bunch if hippie hypocrits and need to get jobs and get off public assistance.

I agree, what a bunch of whiners.

[Madmox]

I saw an article in the paper today about Big Sur residents trying to publicly shame people who take pictures in the area and post them on Instagram. I took a look and was quite annoyed to see that some of these supposedly shameful activities are legal and things I do myself. I know that residents always complain about tourists no matter where on earth they live (but of course these same complainers take vacations and become tourists themselves)... basic Nimbyism... but I don't get the hate.

The site is: https://www.instagram.com/bigsurhatesyou/.

There are 5 types of pictures on the site, 1-3 are totally baffling to me, it's like the Big Sur residents don't think anyone else should enjoy public lands:

1 -- posing in fields with wildflowers. Yet no mass trampling down of flowers is shown. Probably all or mostly legal pictures posted, even if you do accidentally step on one or two or pick a couple of the thousands. Picking flowers is only illegal on state highway rights-of-way based on the sections of the California Penal Code that I am aware of [CPC Title 10 384a. (a) (1) ]-- I can't find anything saying it is illegal in general to pick a flower in a national forest or state park if it is not a designated endangered species. These are not restricted, impacted areas like down SoCal this year.

2 -- Dispersed /off-site camping with campfires. Legal on national forest lands as long as you follow California campfire laws. 80-90% of the campfires I saw looked legal, exceptions were some with no fire ring and flammable material not cleared away.

3 -- pictures taken on the median. There are many spots on Highway 1 where you park on one side of the road, and then must cross the street to get to the other, and it's not like there are crosswalks out there. Pausing for a few seconds in the middle of the road with no traffic is fine, as long as any driver rounding the bend will see you in time. Most/all pictures looked legal.

4 -- animals. Generally not legal. Pulling up a starfish, looking at it, then putting it back... but I don't think this is a big deal, my Mom used to have me and my brother do this as kids, and even once a ranger yelled at us but then apologized when he saw we were just looking and putting them back. How can you explore nature without touching it? Every legitimate researcher does the same exact thing or worse. Jacques Cousteau used dynamite on coral reefs. This is the kind of thing that is a problem if everyone does it and becomes impacted, but otherwise my opinion is blanket bans on just picking up a starfish in a tide pool go too far.

5 -- cliffs, going past the "stay back" sign. Generally not legal, but victimless considering the people who fall put themselves in the situation. But then the taxpayers have to pay for government personnel to retrieve the bodies.

[HUTCH 7.62]

They hate Bike Nazi’s..... I see no problem in that

[deckhandmike]

No, those people really are idiots.

Get the **** out of the road. You could cause a fatal crash.

Stop building fires everywhere. The wind can whip up embers and the farther you are from civilization the slower the fire response. The winds up their come up suddenly and are very strong. A 6” stack of rocks doesn’t prevent embers from blowing hundreds of yards. Plus even the fire ring is litter. It spoils the natural beauty when there is a permanent ash pit every ten feet. It’s hard to imagine how many fire pits are left over. Every time you round a bend and think “damn, that’s a nice view” there is another fire ring. It gets old. The areas you can disperse camp these days look worse than an actual campground. Every few yards is a newly trampled/cleared area with a fire pit surrounded by trash and tp. At least at a actual campsite people get paid to pick up the trash.

Don’t get close to the wildlife, it majorly disturbs things. I hate seals with a passion but tourists disturbing wildlife for photos is even worse. Get some binoculars if you want to see stuff up close. As far as trampling tide pools goes if every idiot that visited big Sur ripped up critters it would be devastating. You have to remember every bad action is repeated hundreds of thousands of times over and it has a cumulative effect.

First responders risk injury or death when involved in cliff rescues. As a former FF who worked Highway 1 I ask please stay back from marked closed areas or other sketchy spots. Plus it cost the general public a ton of tax money to save those fools. Not just on the rescue itself but on training and equipment.

I don’t care if you pick a wild flower but why do it? Some stuff is actually quite rare. Take a photo instead. Try to stay on trail and don’t trample areas. While Big Sur seems large the amount of area the average hiker can access is actually small. Once again the cumulative effect of hundreds of thousands of people add up.

All this being said, yes I hike off trail. Yes, I harvest fish and game. Sometimes I even disperse camp. But use common sense. Use an old campsite instead of building a new one. Follow fish and game laws. Try to walk through areas without leaving a visible impact. You don’t need a fire.

[SamIAm]

Those were the bad old days. We look at that now, kinda like Cousteau looked at "hunters" who shot passing buffalo from railway trains and let most, if not all, of the carcasses to rot.

[Madmox]

Those were the bad old days. We look at that now, kinda like Cousteau looked at "hunters" who shot passing buffalo from railway trains and let most, if not all, of the carcasses to rot.

Exactly


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[BillyGoatCrawler]

once again, I agree with you, Mike.

It's crazy how few people think "What if every person that came here did what I am doing."