Reply #31: Common Sense Lacking- Not to Blame the Park Service!

[dalvay]

Just 3 weeks ago we visited Acadia and visited Thunder Hole. If you have never been there, thunder hole has a walkway with railings and steps going down to the hole, on calm days it is rather boring as very little splashes. I would have to say I would have been one of those 10,000 to view the large waves if I were there today. I saw on the park service website they had the entrance to thunder hole CLOSED and had a gate as a warning not to go down the steps, this would keep visitors on the pathways parallel to the ocean for safety and near the car roadway.
I would imagine the visitors went below the blocked entrance to thunder hole, as the barricade only blocks the steps not the miles of rocky coast surrounding it. It is up to the visitor to use common sense and stay back. I would bet the park rangers were urging all to use caution today. It is impossible for the rangers to be everywhere in the park and had the necessary barricades up for protection but they are not at fault for those who passed over the barricade.
On our visit at Thunder Hole this summer I watched as a teenage boy was walking on rocks above thunder hole and then went over the guard rail. My husband yelled at him asking where the parents were, and then say that they were on the other side of the guard rail as well, then they yelled at my husband to "mind his own business"! There are just some really STUPID people in this world.
So now the government will no doubt have many meetings, committees, about this and then determine that they maybe should have closed the park that day. Or maybe they should build a fence around the whole park ocean access, yeah right!
I saw at other websites people have been very close to the ocean, one closed beach I observed kids dangerously close the ocean, one large wave and they would have been in trouble.
I think this is just a case of people not using extreme caution and getting too close to the waves, not understanding the force of the ocean.
The park service does a great job in educating about the force of the ocean, and at the visitor center there is a film showing the force of the waves at Acadia.
I think closing the park during these times is not fair to the rest of the visitors who can observe at a safe distance.
This eerily reminds me of the bears at Yellow Stone and the people who have been killed and injured feeding them, although signs are posted NO feeding bears!
People will be curious and stupid!