I’m kicking off this blog with a little announcement. The knuckleheads at TheMountCo want to share a new type of content with you. You’ve told us you love seeing people from around the world wearing TBM (thats my lil acronym for The Bearded Man). But we want you guys to learn more about us, the guys behind the brand and the legend of The Bearded Man. Over the next weeks, you’ll begin to see Pres, Aus and I posting our takes on things happening in the great outdoors, our National Parks, music we love, and tons of other topics. We want to engage with you guys more than just through photos - hopefully making you laugh, informed and entertained in a new way. So here we go.
Gateway National Park.
Believe it or not, you are looking at the newest National Park in the NPS system. It is the 60th piece of land set aside as one of our national treasures. I'm sure you're thinking ‘wow, breaking news!’ Well, I hate to tell you, but this is no where near 'breaking'. The park was introduced on Feb 22nd, but it has taken until June for many of us to hear about it. I'm all for the expansion of our National Parks - even if this particular designation is a bit puzzling - but how can the National Park Service be so bad at marketing, that it takes months for people to learn about the introduction of an entirely new park? This flew completely under the radar for many fans, including me. Sadly, this is indicative of the National Park Service’s struggles to reach millennials and generation Zs.
With record numbers visiting the parks since the centennial in 2016, there is still a failure to act upon the fact that the demographic making up these crowds skews much older. In time, these folks will visit the parks less and less, leaving the parks vulnerable. I want my kids and grandkids to benefit from positive experiences in the parks like I did. And I know many of you do as well. It might be time to for the National Park Service to get together with us - millennial and Gen Zs - so we can begin to figure out how to more effectively spread the word and promote our parks to a new generation of visitors.
Let me know what you think below :)
- Bray
Also, I’m terrible at spelling. Don’t remind me.
Read more about our mission to promote the decline in visitors to our parks at travelswiththebeardedman.com