Every year, visitor questionnaires from more than 300 parks are scrutinized.
Most folks give their experience pretty high marks.
Now, lest you imagine a phalanx of big, black helicopters bearing down on Old Faithful, be advised that the Moscow in question is Moscow, Idaho. With the help of graduate students and local volunteers, Machlis crunches thousands of numbers each year to try to quantify how we feel about our national parks and the rangers who run them. The surveys were designed to help managers measure satisfaction levels. Park service veterans say this is true in almost any park. Nationwide, park officials counted 286.7 million visitors in 1998.