Where are all the park rangers?

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You would get a ticket for this but🤷‍♂️if you say someone is shooting at you there would be way more response than say if someone in your group was having a heart attack😳 very sad nothing against law enforcement but they could do better!
 
Cookie said:
If you don't make a call, most likely they will do nothing. Not just Powel but in every City now.
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Sad statement, but also more accurate than I would like it to be. I spoke with someone who left the police force of my hometown. He mentioned that the amount of "interactions" with citizens decreased dramatically because now there is so much more administrative work required when a stop is made. He also said that if you stopped someone in a protected class, significantly more desk work was required. I never thought about it, but that certainly could carry over to NPS.

jimmybame said:
You would get a ticket for this but🤷‍♂️if you say someone is shooting at you there would be way more response than say if someone in your group was having a heart attack😳 very sad nothing against law enforcement but they could do better!
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I used to always think one would REALLY be in a bad spot if they really NEEDED medical assistance at Powell. But a few years back some of our friends took a hard hit from the wake of a large cruiser. It was certainly a quirk, but one person in their party ended up with what could have been a life threatening injury.

They were in Escalante, and motored out to the mouth where there is cell service. They called 911, and had multiple NPS boats in something like 15 minutes, and a life flight within around an hour. That gave me a LOT more faith in NPS in case of an emergency.
 
Ryan said:
Sad statement, but also more accurate than I would like it to be. I spoke with someone who left the police force of my hometown. He mentioned that the amount of "interactions" with citizens decreased dramatically because now there is so much more administrative work required when a stop is made. He also said that if you stopped someone in a protected class, significantly more desk work was required. I never thought about it, but that certainly could carry over to NPS.


I used to always think one would REALLY be in a bad spot if they really NEEDED medical assistance at Powell. But a few years back some of our friends took a hard hit from the wake of a large cruiser. It was certainly a quirk, but one person in their party ended up with what could have been a life threatening injury.

They were in Escalante, and motored out to the mouth where there is cell service. They called 911, and had multiple NPS boats in something like 15 minutes, and a life flight within around an hour. That gave me a LOT more faith in NPS in case of an emergency.
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We heard a call out for emergency assistance last year when we were in Last Chance. Dispatch indicated the helicopter could be there in an hour, just as you mentioned. One of our neighbors had her dad pass away at Lake Powell due to a heart attack back in the days before you could raise the alarm over the satellite. I wonder if things would have turned out better for him if he could have received more prompt assistance.
 
A few years ago in mid June we had just put the houseboat in at Friendship and were the only boat there. About the time we finished tieing it up a Utah Parks boat came into Friendship and cruised the shoreline. It stopped about 100 yds from our boat for a few minutes then landed near us. Several of us were still on the beach. When 4 of them spread out approaching us, they were in body armor and all armed. One officer was angling away from the group as if to set up a cross fire position so I angled that way too and he moved even wider. I was spokesman for our group and the leader asked if we needed any help as there was a storm approaching. I know that was BS because I had just looked at the radar and the storm he referred to was up by Bullfrog going north. I told him no we were already tied and needed no help then cited his storm was no worries. They hung around for a bit then left. Oh, they left one guy in their boat as the driver (5 total). I think it was a training exercise and we were the simulated target of their raid. They did not ask for ID or registrations or anything, the whole deal was a power play...maybe practice. Lost lots of respect for them when they did not close out their visit with an expanation. Chuck
 
After reading the entire thread I have a some comments:
1. Never rely on the government-be prepared.
2. Careful what you wish for.
3. Be kind and always help each other.
4. Be empathetic.
I could go on and on and expand on these points but will leave it at that and we can all ponder on what they mean to us and how it impacts our experience at our lake. I go there to relax and when some jackwagon tries to ruin it I have a choice to let them ruin it or not. So far I’m batting 1,000!
2,000 miles of shoreline and over 200 sq miles of surface area, plenty of room for all of us to spread out and do our thing.
 
I've never had an encounter with the Rangers but those dam bored Power Squadron people ( I think that's what they call themself) prester me all the time wanting to do a safety inspection etc..... My boat is safe and I don't need them to prove it to me.
 
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I was down at Lees Ferry 20 years ago, on the beach with my dog running back and forth. Rangers in a jet boat pulled up. I was sure I was in for it. Turned out they were doing beaching practice for a new ranger, showing her how to walk the thing loose with the throttle. Apologized and went on their way. On the one hand it was nice that they apologized for the 5 minutes of 300hp noise. On the other, I could see an empty beach on the other side of the river…
 
Brent said:
We've been enjoying Lake Powell since 2004. Back in the day we saw at least one or two rangers a week. Then when our son actually worked at DR we knew the rangers by their names and saw them all the time at DR. Heck, two of them actually came to our houseboat one night and enjoyed smoked ribs with us. One year a ranger boat was actually looking at us fish through binoculars for a good 10 minutes then came over and inspected our fishing licenses. I asked why he was looking at us for so long. He replied he was counting how many poles we had in the water to make sure we had enough licenses.

But this year, we didn't see one! And it was the wild wild west in Padre Canyon all last week. Wake surf boats going right past our neighbors houseboat throwing huge waves up on the shore, heck they even made the waves so huge that our entire inlet was brown one day from all the beach erosion due to their waves. I love how they never motored close to their campsites but had to come in front of ours and others all day long.

Then there was this other group that had two wave runners, both driven by underage children, with no life vests on. One day they were buzzing a houseboat so bad that the houseboat was blowing its horn and I could hear some one aboard yelling at them to get out of the way. I heard some one else yelling at them to go and get their life vest on. Absolutely crazy last week.

The final crazy thing was when we were loading our boat back on the trailer. A surf boat had just docked at the Wahweap ramp and was unloading all their houseboat luggage. They had a lot of young children on board. As I was backing up my trailer two of the children around 6 and 8 started to play in the water at the ramp just below where I was backing up. I luckily saw them, stopped, honked. They didn't move. So I had to stop once again, get out of my truck and yell at them to stop playing in the water at the ramp. When I backed up my trailer the whole way and went to walk to my boat to load it up the parents all gave me stink eye. I couldn't believe it, they didn't have a clue that this is not the place to play in the water.
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Yeah this is why I refuse to go from Memorial Day through Labor Day. I just won't period. Too hot anyhow and the worst months for fishing imo...
 
Was in Warm Creek yesterday afternoon and it was crazy busy. Was having a hard time keeping spot lock on because of the surf wakes. Suddenly the red and blues flashed and a couple of jet skiers with no jackets on got pulled over. Cleared every one out real fast!! Was really glad to see the LE out and patrolling!!
 
jimmybame said:
You would get a ticket for this but🤷‍♂️if you say someone is shooting at you there would be way more response than say if someone in your group was having a heart attack😳 very sad nothing against law enforcement but they could do better!
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A prison stay is more appropriate than a ticket. Claiming you are being shot at escalates the encounter to a level that peoples lives could be in danger. Why anyone would do that is beyond me.

Providing false information is a crime.
 
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