No booze in national forests?
Every October several of my friends and I get together and head out to the woods for our annual fall camping trip. It’s easily one of my favorite fall events and I look forward to it every year.
Since I was a kid I’ve been going to Long Pool to camp. It’s just North of Russelville(Russahvul) and is located on the Big Piney. Long Pool is quite easily one of the best camping spots around. Great sites, good privacy, right on the river and has a pretty sweet little hiking trail that leads you to a killer waterfall. Long Pool has been our de facto camping spot for the last several years and would have remained so were it not for what happened last year…
You see, after several hours of driving and setting up camp we went to pay our site fees. As we’re stuffing our cash-filled envelope down the payment slot, the park ranger pulls up right next to us. He glances over and happens to notice that we were all carrying beers. No big deal, right? Drinking beer and camping go hand-in-hand. It’s just a part of the whole camping experience. So, he notices the beer and asks/tells us “You know it’s illegal to drink alcohol in federal parks, don’t you?,” to which we all reply “huh?” We’re then informed that “Congress passed a law making it illegal to drink in federal parks.”
Great.
So we dump our beers, cross our fingers and tell him we’ll put the booze away. That’s not good enough for him so he follows us up to the site and informs everyone, which was a pretty good-sized group. Anyway, he leaves and we proceed to crack open new beers (we’ve brought enough for a small army).
Long story short, we are continually harassed by the park ranger and one of us is eventually ticketed and threatened that if he comes back, he would be arrested. Fun!
Now, I understand that the park ranger was just doing his job. I get it. And yes, maybe we were pricks for not obeying the law, regardless of how stupid it is. However, we’re all well over 21, we weren’t causing a ruckus, had no neighbors nearby, were obviously not going to be driving anywhere and were on a freaking camping trip.
Here’s what I want to know: Who in the hell decided that it would be a good idea to ban beer on camping trips in federal parks? Seriously. That’s probably the most ridiculous law ever passed.
After our run-in with Johnny Law, our night was pretty much ruined. Pissed off but unable to do a damn thing about it, we call it a night and hit the sack. The following morning, we get up, cook breakfast and decide to move to a different campground. Sounds drastic, I know. But if you can’t drink a beer while you’re camping, you might as well have stayed at home. That’s how I see it. I mean, at least you can sit outside and drink a brew at your house.
So we pack up and drive a couple hours North to a private campground we know of. It’s not nearly as nice as Long Pool, but at least we can drink beer there.
Now, it’s a year later and we’ve been trying to find some quality camp sites where we can enjoy ourselves and not worry about anyone bothering us because we’ve got a beer in our hand. After much research, we came up empty handed and decide to return to the spot we moved to last year. It’ll be fine and we’ll undoubtedly have a great time, I just wish that it was as great a spot as Long Pool.
Because I have a hard time letting things go, I’ve been digging around to find this supposed piece of legislature that bans alcohol in federal/national parks. To my surprise, I can’t find a thing. The National Parks Service site doesn’t have anything nor does the poorly built US Forest Service site. You would think that if you’re going to ban booze in federal parks, you’d make it pretty obvious so that folks like me won’t drive a couple of hours to a camp site only to get harassed by park rangers for drinking a Bud Light. Guess not, though.
Anyway, If anyone knows more about this supposed “law” banning alcohol in federal parks, please enlighten us. We’re all ears.
Comments
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halfdeserted
October 16, 2008
I can’t go this time. I have to work. But can you guys keep an eye on my husband? We don’t need another ticket this year, yo. For cereal.
doubleK
October 16, 2008
There was a state park near my hometown in Kansas a friend and I went camping and fishing at quite often.
Because of vandalism concerns (not me, I swear), they outlawed drinking after dark.
Which meant, of course, that anyone was allowed to drink as much as they wanted to during the daytime hours.
I always thought that was strange.
Boggy Creek Creature
October 16, 2008
White Rock Mountain. Been there lots and never had a problem. One friend even painted the inside of one of the bathrooms with sangria. Not a word. Also, they have cabins for rent and I can’t imagine them giving you **** for having beer in one of them.
http://www.whiterockmountain.com/
Bluto
October 16, 2008
I’ve spent a lot of time paddling our local rivers and many a ranger has asked to look in my cooler, only to make sure our beers were in cans instead of glass. This has occurred in both National Forests and a National River (the Buffalo). I’ve even had rangers in the Buffalo come up to our campsite just to see how things were, obviously seeing our beers and saying nothing.
I think your ranger was bull****ting you.
Angel Lust
October 16, 2008
I want to hear more about the ticket. What exactly was the offense. Possession or public intoxication?
kt
October 16, 2008
Erbie is a sweet camping spot as well. It’s near Harrison. Lotsa privacy and no goober park rangers. Only checked on once by the nice guy who lives at the site in his camper. If you can handle a 20 minute dirt road to get there, it’s a good choice.
Bluto
October 16, 2008
I’ve been ticketed at Erbie, before. It’s in the Buffalo National River. It was not for drinking.
halfdeserted
October 16, 2008
Bluto: No BS. We had to pay $75 for the ticket.
Angel Lust: It was for something like “possession of alcohol on federal property”.
aquachong
October 16, 2008
I think that dude was full of ****/an ****. I’ve never once had a problem. You just got ****ed with by some yokel ranger.
Example: grocery stores in national parks sell alcohol.
Bluto
October 17, 2008
Good point AquachongCo.
Sardon
October 17, 2008
Sounds like bull****. The entire city of Hot Springs is a National Park. Anybody ever seen any alcohol consumed at Oaklawn? Bathhouse Row bars and restaurants? The Arlington Hotel Lobby Bar, hot tub, pool, rooms?
I don’t think the Rainbow People had any alcohol arrests when they met in the Upper Buffalo Wilderness Area a year or two ago, and they were ticketing those poor hippies for burned out tail lights and whatever petty **** they could think up.
What about military installations? Officers Clubs? Class VI stores?
I’ve been camping in state parks in Tennessee where they didn’t allow alcohol. Is Long Pool part of a federal park at all? Is it National Forest? Whatever, I’ve had many beers there and all up and down the Big Piney, but not in the last year.
snacks
October 18, 2008
power trip. There is no law on the books for the BLM, National Park Service, Dept of the Interior or the Forest Service banning alcohol across the boards. In most parks you can’t have open containers in public areas, but if you’re away from the trailhead sites, there shouldn’t be a problem. I ran into a friend of mine who works for the BLM (and he carries a gun and all) laughed when I made him read Jtrain’s story while he was waiting for his lunch. He said they’ll nail you for DUI, but if you’re not bugging other campers, you can do pretty much whatever you want.
You guys got played. Next time a shrub cop tried to pull that ****, make him give you the statute number or some other way to reference federal law. If he can’t, tell him to **** off until he can. As long as you get his badge number, you can nuke his ass.
SteezyDeezy
October 18, 2008
Just pour it into a cup or slap a koozie on. It’ll be pretty tough to determine if you are drinking alcohol or not that way.
halfdeserted
October 18, 2008
My husband had his beer poured into a cup when he got the ticket. Didn’t help much.
I have no doubt that the ranger was on a power trip, but I also know that lame ass power trip cost us $75. Suckage.
Adam Frankenberger
October 20, 2008
I just emailed someone with the national park service and he replied that this law does not exist…
JTrain
October 20, 2008
Thanks for all the replies, you guys! Sounds like we got duped. Perhaps we’ll head back to Long Pool next spring and if we’re harassed again, we’ll know what to do. Y’all rock!!!
zh
October 23, 2008
I dont understand why the entire country is obsessed with making everything “family friendly”. Suddenly, families are the only people with rights or who spend their hard earned money to have a good time. It sucks when you go out of your way to accomodate everybody around you by being as quiet as possible, and its not good enough for some d-bag ranger. How about enforcing a volume law for overly obnoxious kids, because they are worse than anybody at campsites.
We were at Steel Creek on the Buffalo camping near the end of the campsites. There were 8 of us and we were drinking. We were getting along well with the neighbors. Everybody was surprisingly tame that night, and we were very quiet, but still some ranger felt the need to come by around 10:00 and remind us that its time to wrap the party up and think about going to sleep. WTF!? Dont worry about it, d-bag. We havent had bed times in a long time. He didnt check for alcohol and he didnt come back, so maybe it was pre-emptive, but still. Next they will ban smoking, and then there will be a curfew and then armed guards to insure that only baptists and mormans with at least one child attend.
Hog-I
October 29, 2008
The Forest Service has the power to prohibit certain activities on their lands if they issue an Order to do so. Among these activities is possessing alcohol.
The cites are: 36 CFR 261.50 Orders.
36 CFR 261.58 Occupancy and use.
So, alcohol could be banned at one site but not banned at another. Also, alcohol could have been banned last year but not this year.
Hog-I
October 29, 2008
I should clarify that the above post relates to a National Forest. However, there is a similar provision for National Parks. 36 CFR 2.35 Alcoholic beverages and controlled substances.