Opt Outside with REI and get out in state parks, for free
November 25, 2016 8:02 AM Subscribe
Last year, the outdoor equipment retailer REI announced its stores will remain closed on Black Friday. It's doing it again this year, and they're paying their employees for the day and encouraging them to spend it outside. For everyone else, 13 states are waiving admission fees at some or all of their state parks, joining 9 states that have free basic admission every day.
Of course Wisconsin isn't one of them. Fuck Scott Walker. (Although it's overcast and chilly anyway.)
posted by AFABulous at 8:14 AM on November 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by AFABulous at 8:14 AM on November 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
[Patagonia] announced this week that it will donate 100 percent of its global Black Friday sales, both in its brick-and-mortar stores and e-commerce website, to grassroots organizations based in local communities that work to keep nature clean and beautiful.
That's total sales, not just profits, which is a bit impressive.
posted by bonehead at 8:21 AM on November 25, 2016 [27 favorites]
That's total sales, not just profits, which is a bit impressive.
posted by bonehead at 8:21 AM on November 25, 2016 [27 favorites]
I was going to spend my Black Friday at work, until my glasses decided to pop a screw as soon as I parked on campus. I have therefore spent the last three hours hunched over tiny screwdrivers and even tinier screws, squinting feebly as I try to restore my vision to something more workable than "one eye functional, one eye with a wicked case of astigmatism and a hair off legal blindness."
Clearly this is an unimpressed sign from the universe that I should have given up on running experiments and spent the day taking the dog up to the local creek for a hike.
posted by sciatrix at 9:24 AM on November 25, 2016 [3 favorites]
Clearly this is an unimpressed sign from the universe that I should have given up on running experiments and spent the day taking the dog up to the local creek for a hike.
posted by sciatrix at 9:24 AM on November 25, 2016 [3 favorites]
I'd planned on doing this myself except the weather here is a little gloomy (no rain, but gray clouds and general bleh). So I'm instead catching up on some house chores and will try to do this tomorrow.
But no shopping. Especially after completing the chore of balancing my checkbook ("I spent HOW much on cabs last week? ugh.")
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:27 AM on November 25, 2016
But no shopping. Especially after completing the chore of balancing my checkbook ("I spent HOW much on cabs last week? ugh.")
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:27 AM on November 25, 2016
I'm pretty happy with REI this year. They sponsored some really great trail revision projects in my favorite little bit of mountains this year.
posted by wotsac at 9:29 AM on November 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by wotsac at 9:29 AM on November 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
The best deal ever!
posted by BlueHorse at 9:58 AM on November 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by BlueHorse at 9:58 AM on November 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
We just got back from Shenandoah National Park. Did a 7.5 mile hike, all of it above the cloud deck so the 5-star views we were going for were zero star views. I could barely see my son when he got 50 feet in from of me. Still beat the alternatives though.
posted by COD at 2:29 PM on November 25, 2016
posted by COD at 2:29 PM on November 25, 2016
My trainer closed his studio for the weekend and asked us to go play outside and send him pictures this weekend for chances to win an REI gift card, which seemed appropriate. The doggie and I sent him this one this morning after biking on the frozen mudflats by our house (thank heaven for studded tires).
posted by charmedimsure at 5:53 PM on November 25, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by charmedimsure at 5:53 PM on November 25, 2016 [3 favorites]
Colorado is all about this, and it was gorgeous today but we just bought a state park pass to try to motivate us to get out of our house and our heads in the wake of the election, so we decided to go somewhere different today. Tired dogs are happy dogs, and 8 miles up and around the mesa that is North Table Mountain in Golden, CO made for some very tired dogs. Sleep barks are happening as I type this.
posted by deludingmyself at 6:27 PM on November 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by deludingmyself at 6:27 PM on November 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
Several trail systems here benefit from REI cash, and having a few REI logos spray painted on trail bridges here and there is a very easy trade.
Really? I wouldn't mind, but I only knew because someone had mentioned it. In any case, the trails constructed should outlive any spray paint that happens to go up. Frankly, the existence of trails is all the advertisement that REI needs here in the PNW. Start using the trails, you need gear. Need gear, go to REI.
posted by wotsac at 7:56 PM on November 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
Really? I wouldn't mind, but I only knew because someone had mentioned it. In any case, the trails constructed should outlive any spray paint that happens to go up. Frankly, the existence of trails is all the advertisement that REI needs here in the PNW. Start using the trails, you need gear. Need gear, go to REI.
posted by wotsac at 7:56 PM on November 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
The "admission" is something you find more at the bigger parks, and is more like a parking permit; I went to Yosemite in September, and it was something like $20 for a week. There was indeed a ranger at a booth at each entrance to the park, and the first time I drove up I paid the money, and every time after that I simply had to show them my reciept and they let me in. At smaller locations, you can just go in.
The National Parks in the US aren't funded quite so flushly as one might hope, and the admission at some of the popular parks help with the maintenance and upkeep - with the number of people who visit Yosemite, there's a lot of damage to the place every summer.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:18 AM on November 26, 2016
The National Parks in the US aren't funded quite so flushly as one might hope, and the admission at some of the popular parks help with the maintenance and upkeep - with the number of people who visit Yosemite, there's a lot of damage to the place every summer.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:18 AM on November 26, 2016
I spent my Black Friday having a lovely walk around Ilkley Moor in Yorkshire.
With or without a hat?
Is it normal in the US to charge admission to places like national parks?
I was surprised when I went to Britain how the "National Parks" are large areas where people live and work. Snowdonia N.P. is a huge chunk of northwest Wales with 26,000 residents, for instance. In the US, national parks are much more off-the-grid, carefully managed by the scientists & rangers of the N.P.S., with their former residents moved out of the park boundaries when it was established. They're typically located in less-populated areas without many roads. (Remember also that America doesn't have the right-of-way laws that Britain does, so while you could get into Yellowstone without coming in the "front door," you'd have to cross ranchers' fields illegally.)
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 10:03 PM on November 26, 2016
With or without a hat?
Is it normal in the US to charge admission to places like national parks?
I was surprised when I went to Britain how the "National Parks" are large areas where people live and work. Snowdonia N.P. is a huge chunk of northwest Wales with 26,000 residents, for instance. In the US, national parks are much more off-the-grid, carefully managed by the scientists & rangers of the N.P.S., with their former residents moved out of the park boundaries when it was established. They're typically located in less-populated areas without many roads. (Remember also that America doesn't have the right-of-way laws that Britain does, so while you could get into Yellowstone without coming in the "front door," you'd have to cross ranchers' fields illegally.)
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 10:03 PM on November 26, 2016
[Patagonia] announced this week that it will donate 100 percent of its global Black Friday sales, both in its brick-and-mortar stores and e-commerce website, to grassroots organizations based in local communities that work to keep nature clean and beautiful.
what if they donated it all instead to local labor orgs that are trying to raise the depressingly low minimum wage instead of giving it all to a vaguely defined brand-enhancing orgs that sound kind of environmentalist but probably aren't?
ha ha, I kid, I kid
posted by runt at 10:29 PM on November 26, 2016
what if they donated it all instead to local labor orgs that are trying to raise the depressingly low minimum wage instead of giving it all to a vaguely defined brand-enhancing orgs that sound kind of environmentalist but probably aren't?
ha ha, I kid, I kid
posted by runt at 10:29 PM on November 26, 2016
what if they donated it all instead to local labor orgs that are trying to raise the depressingly low minimum wage instead of giving it all to a vaguely defined brand-enhancing orgs that sound kind of environmentalist but probably aren't?
Why, it's almost as if you think that there was only one problem with the world....
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:43 AM on November 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
Why, it's almost as if you think that there was only one problem with the world....
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:43 AM on November 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
I climbed a frikking mountain in Cape Town! ( Capetonians, you have an awesome city with beautiful mountain parks and stuff ) I climbed Table Mountain via the Kasteelspoort hiking trail. As has been my habit while I'm here, I got up and made coffee for myself and Jen. When she got up she suggested a hike. When a beautiful woman suggests spending time alone with you and nature, I suggest you do it. Ok, I lie, that was for not nearly as dark Saturday. Honestly, Friday, I went on a slightly different hike to Woody Ravine, somewhere below the 12 apostles. It was pretty good too. Llandudno Beach was visited as well.
posted by evilDoug at 10:09 PM on November 27, 2016
posted by evilDoug at 10:09 PM on November 27, 2016
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posted by chavenet at 8:10 AM on November 25, 2016 [1 favorite]