Grab your bear can or camp chair, kick your feet up and chew the fat about anything Sierra Nevada related that doesn't quite fit in any of the other forums. Within reason, (and the HST rules and guidelines) this is also an anything goes forum. Tell stories, discuss wilderness issues, music, or whatever else the High Sierra stirs up in your mind.
Rosabella, I did say I was of two minds on the topic. All those grand old lodges are beautiful structures, and they have histories of their own that will last well into the future. We need to remember that all of these places were built at a time when America's view of the environment (and it's wild places that really weren't even considered wild at the time) is considerably different than it is today. Would Glacier's lodge be built today, money aside? I don't think there would be a chance in heck, and I think that is a good thing. In the over-commercialization of things these days, I'm confident that it's only a matter of a few scant years before we start seeing the Pepsi Lodge in Little Yosemite Valley, or the Cingular Ski Lift in Vale.
Yosemite Valley is another beast altogether. The ONLY time I visit Yosemite Valley is either in the dead of winter or in the middle of the night in late spring. Other than that I stay away specifically because it's a mess. Dirt parking lots, signs out directing traffic to this lot or the other, tour busses, vehicles spewing exhaust... I think everyone in the area knows what the air looks (and smells) like in Yosemite Valley during the summer. So yes, I do avoid the Valley at all costs when I'm on a Yosemite trip. I think (not too seriously) that Yosemite Valley is already a lost cause.
I was in Yosemite a couple years ago and one of the cashiers was saying that the concession contract (I guess that's what it's called) that had previously been held by Curry Company was up for bid.... and McDonalds and Disneyland were both competing for the bid.
Fortunately, neither one was the succesful bidder. Pretty scary thoughts - what it would have started to look like!
I was living nearby during the 2006 season when it was being finished up. From what I saw, they absolutley destroyed a small little patch of some of the only private land left in the monument. You won't see it walking up through the trail they take you in through, but if you drive in to the Marvin Pass trailhead and walk up their private drive you will see all the damage from their construction. it looked like a mud pit. Hopefully they cleaned it up.
It is in a beautiful area. I don't think anyone can contest that. Even the lowly Mitchell Peak offers a nearly unrivaled view into Kings Canyon, the monument, the Kaweahs, the Great Western Divide, and (I believe) the Palisades.
I guess I am biased because I generally hate high Sierra camps for no good reason, which probably makes me an elitist. I do like meeting people and I do like the fact that is helps people get outdoors. I'm sure most of the visitors to the camps wouldn't be out there otherwise. Most of the people I met that were staying there had nothing but good things to say about the place. I know the food is the one thing people rave about. I have never tasted it, but I have dined with other locals to the area and I enjoyed what I would consider the best meals of my life.
In the end, the people staying there can go back to LA and remember their wilderness experience. I went back to Tennessee with only the best memories of being surrounded by the wilderness there for a season. Different people doing different things in the same land and taking away the same good feelings I guess. I just hope they don't make too many more of them.
I do laugh when they call it a wilderness experience though. Probably just as someone from northern Canada would laugh at what I consider wilderness.
All those grand old lodges are beautiful structures, and they have histories of their own that will last well into the future. We need to remember that all of these places were built at a time when America's view of the environment (and it's wild places that really weren't even considered wild at the time) is considerably different than it is today. Would Glacier's lodge be built today, money aside? I don't think there would be a chance in heck, and I think that is a good thing. In the over-commercialization of things these days, I'm confident that it's only a matter of a few scant years before we start seeing the Pepsi Lodge in Little Yosemite Valley, or the Cingular Ski Lift in Vale.
I was in Yosemite a couple years ago and one of the cashiers was saying that the concession contract (I guess that's what it's called) that had previously been held by Curry Company was up for bid.... and McDonalds and Disneyland were both competing for the bid. 
