Went to the Grand Canyon last month and the trash cans were locked up weird

I stopped at Mather Point around 2pm and every single trash can had a padlock on it with a sign saying 'rangers only.' There were bags of garbage just sitting next to them getting picked at by crows. Anyone else see this at national parks or is it just a Grand Canyon thing?

3 comments

3 Comments

karen_roberts424d ago

It's probably just a seasonal thing to keep bears from learning to associate trash cans with food... the rangers probably lock them up when staffing is low. Leaving bags out sounds messy, but locking bins is actually pretty common in parks with active wildlife. Sure beats having to close a whole overlook for bear activity.

karen_roberts424d ago

Used to think the locked cans were just annoying red tape, but seeing the crow situation kind of changed my mind. Leaving trash out like that teaches wildlife to hang around parking lots, which is worse for everyone in the long run. Now I get that a locked bin is a small price to pay for keeping animals wild and people safe.

ward.jamie19d ago

Yeah @karen_roberts4 is right, we had the same issue at Yosemite last summer and just packed our trash out.