Beware the Bucket List: Finding Meaning Beyond the Crowds

This blog is meant to inspire, not discourage. But sometimes the best way to help others have meaningful experiences is to share the less-than-magical ones too. Not to complain, but to offer a gentle caution: there are pitfalls out there that, with a little awareness, you might just avoid.

Let me start with a phrase I’ve never liked - bucket list. These days it’s usually shorthand for a checklist of overly familiar places that a million others have already Instagrammed to death. While I understand the appeal, I worry that the phrase has come to represent something more limiting than inspiring.

As a lifelong national park enthusiast, I’d never discourage someone from hiking the iconic trails. Many of them truly showcase the best of America’s wild places. But trails often become famous not for their beauty or uniqueness, but simply because they’re the longest, the tallest, or the toughest. Once enough people start bragging about their “accomplishments,” those hikes become must-do items - bucket list hikes - and soon it feels like the only “real” way to experience a park is to follow that same well-worn path.

Delicate Arch - A very long time ago. Nobody told me where to stand, and I was alone.

Take Delicate Arch, for example. Since it’s a short drive from my house, I’ve hiked there 50 or 60 times over the past 40 years. In the early days, I’d sometimes have the place to myself for hours, soaking in the silence and grandeur of a landscape shaped over millions of years. Even as visitation grew, it was still possible to find moments of connection - both with the landscape and with fellow hikers who were enjoying the experience as much as I was. It was beautiful.

But when Delicate Arch became a “bucket list” photo destination, things changed. One evening, I watched a crowd of photographers shouting profanities at anyone who walked near the arch, as if their perfect shot was more important than someone else’s experience. I love photography - but I was appalled by the entitlement.

Delicate Arch - NPS Photo

Another time, a group of loud young adults were shouting back and forth across the amphitheater the arch is located in, shattering any sense of peace. Then, just when I thought it couldn’t get worse, one of them decided to relieve himself in front of the arch - loudly announcing that he was “making a fountain,” as dozens of people looked on. It was surreal. And gross. And yes, unforgettable.

Do I wish I could forget it? Absolutely. But it’s also part of why I’m writing this - because there is another way.

You don’t have to follow the crowd. With just a bit of curiosity and planning, there are incredible alternatives. For example, the Primitive Loop in the Devil’s Garden section of Arches offers a much richer desert experience - with solitude, silence, and scenery that will stop you in your tracks. And if it’s sunset photography you’re after, it’s as easy as the Windows Section of the park, which provides a far better range of compositions and lighting than the tightly packed Delicate Arch viewpoint ever will.

Not Delicate Arch at sunset - recently.

I’m not trying to single out Delicate Arch - you might get lucky and catch it at just the right moment. But, like Vegas, the odds aren’t exactly in your favor. And it’s not just Arches; every national park has its own bucket list hotspots - just scroll through Instagram and you’ll see them.

Along the same lines - what’s with the obsession to climb to the top of everything? Admittedly I’ve done it myself on occasion, but nine times out of ten it’s a photographic letdown. Take Yosemite Falls in - yes - Yosemite National Park. From below, it’s jaw-dropping. From the top? You barely can see water flowing over the edge. Unless you’re after your hundredth selfie in the park, it’s hardly worth the sweat. I didn’t even take out my camera. Tip: Tunnel View is a far more impressive viewpoint.

The truth is, the park service doesn’t necessarily build those summit trails for the “view.” They build them because people will climb up there anyway, and a trail at least keeps them from tumbling to their deaths.

So maybe - just maybe - stop climbing on top of things just because you can. When you buy a new car or a house, do you scramble onto the roof to admire it? Exactly. 

Now, climbing up to a good viewpoint is another story...

Zion National Park - Angels Landing Trail - Another bucket list gem with as much solitude as Disney World. With that many people you just know it's got to be good... 🫤  Don't forget to sign up for the lottery to get a permit. While at the top be courteous and take your photos quickly - there are hundreds of others right behind you waiting to take the exact same photo, and they may yell at you to get moving. (NPS Photo)

Zion National Park - Not the Angels Landing trail, but equally challenging.

It's got chains and everything.

Alone with my thoughts - all the way up.

So beware the bucket list. Don’t let a popular itinerary rob you of the unexpected wonder that comes from wandering away from the well beaten paths. My most treasured journeys are rarely planned, have never gone as expected, and that’s the point. They’ve ended up somewhere far better than I ever imagined.