Seasonal travel comes with a certain set of general understandings for the places you’re a temporary guest in. However, with social media culture emphasizing a constant need for validation, tourist locations are finding themselves begging millennial/generation z-ers to remain respectful over their homes while trying to get the perfect picture for their daily Instagram story.
With fall and Halloween upon us, there’s a specific set of Do’s and Don’ts that are necessary to remember as you take your extended weekends for some fall foliage exposure. Autumn can be the best time of year to travel, depending on where you go. The tourist market for places like upstate New York, Portland, the south, etc. all thrive during this season as an influx of city bound citizens begin to crave the beauties of the natural world as they magnificently transition from summer into winter. The colors and temperatures of fall evoke a general sense of wanting to be outdoors, and it’s important to respect outdoor spaces we are guests in, as we would our own home.
First, don’t approach, pose with, or disturb any wild life you may come into contact with. Since it’s autumn, travelers tend to want to go to more secluded forest like areas to really embrace the annual color changing process trees endure. With that, comes the possibility of running into a multitude of wild life such as deer, bears, moose, beavers, etc. These woodsy places are these animals permanent homes, and with climate change already doing enough damage to the world as it is, the last thing these animals need to go through is a tourist shoving their phone in their face.
Rick Hoeninghausen, director of sales and marketing for Yellowstone National Park Lodges who’s also lived in the area for more than 28 years, recently consulted on an article for The Washington Post and gave his expertise based on his many years of dealing with overly invasive tourists.
“I can tell you, because I live here, people have always gotten a little too close to animals, the difference today may be selfie-related. Travelers always get too close to wildlife with their cameras and now I see them approach the great beasts at even riskier angles. Visitors will spot animals, get too close, turn their backs to the animals and hold their phones up to take selfies.”
Hoeninghausen says the last thing you should ever do is turn your back on an animal, especially if it’s something like a bear. If you see an animal, the best thing you can do for both yourself and it would be to ignore each other, and leave it be.
When it comes to staying in areas that really capture the beauty of autumn, more times than not tourists find themselves staying in a cottage, bed and breakfast, rustic inn, AirBnb, etc., and when doing so it’s important to remember the etiquette that comes with staying in a more residential accommodation. Respect the space as if it were your own home, because the reality is it most likely is someone else’s actual home and even though they made the decision to open it up for guests, that doesn’t mean they opened it up to be destroyed. In general be a mindful guest; don’t handle any delicate decor, be mindful of food and drink placements, and overall just remain organized. If all else fails, pretend like you’re staying at a grandparents house, and everything in it is a special antique from their childhood that they would be devastated over if anything were to happen to.
Fall is also known for the holiday Halloween, where things all around are just much spookier. With this holiday, comes an increase in tourism to historically haunted buildings/houses/graveyards. Graveyards in general, historic or modern, gain a ton of foot traffic during this spooky season, and every year individuals seem to forget what an actual graveyard’s purpose is. Instead it just becomes the perfect setting for a Halloween themed Instagram photo-shoot. Graveyards are sacred grounds, the tombstones you walk over with your designer boots are someones loved ones eternal place of rest, so be respectful. Salem, Massachusetts brings in up to one million tourists every October, the population is only 40,000 mind you. Salem also holds some of the countries most historical and oldest graveyards, where they have now banned grave etching (the process in which you put a piece of paper over a tombstone and scratch over it with a pencil to reveal the name) due to excessive damage to the artifact tombstones. An individuals sacred place of rest isn’t meant to be a prop in a photo shoot or fun Halloween activities, so again, just be respectful of the space you’re in.
In addition, if you decide to tour any historically haunted locations, follow all the rules and regulations the specific location puts into place. It seems like a simple enough tip, but especially around Halloween individuals think it’s a cool idea to take things from these places. If you’ve ever seen any horror movie ever, you most likely won’t be taking anything from a location deemed as “haunted”, but in case you haven’t, don’t do that.
Another popular activity during fall months, especially in spooky places like Salem, is taking nightly candle stick walks. Which literally is just a walk you take at night where you carry around a burning candle as your source of light. However, this is extremely environmentally unconscious, since it’s nighttime most people don’t realize the excessive amount of wax that drips onto public property and historical sights, which can actually cause a lot of damage.
Returning back to the point about historically haunted locations, I’m sure wherever you decide to visit during the fall months, or maybe even in your hometown, there are plenty of abandoned spaces that have a ton of ghost stories attached to them. Whenever this is the case, there’s always going to be a group of people who want to see for themselves, again, not a great idea. Trespassing rates seem to skyrocket this time of year, and local authorities normally know to stay on top of specific locations that get hit a lot. So do yourself a favor and avoid the large fine you get for trespassing on private property/town owned property, and go somewhere that’s accessible and legal for you to be in.
Lastly, when experiencing the natural beauty that is autumn, nature seems to become the real star of the show. Which tends to tempt a lot of individuals to mess with the natural order of the spaces they’re in.
“If you’re not familiar with these sorts of things, you’re apt to want to walk on it [natural spaces], get too close to it, pick a flower, grab a sample and take it with you, throw coins in a hot spring or any of that…You may not realize it, but pretty quickly, you’re diminishing the resources,” Hoeninghausen says. “When you have high visitation starts, taking this stuff pretty quickly diminishes something that’s pretty critical.”
As previously stated, these natural spaces are already having enough trouble sustaining themselves with climate change, but when even more man made forces come in and take precious pieces of these spaces, their ecosystems are damaged even further.
The best tip you can say to yourself this fall season as you travel around is to “take only photos [not with bears], leave only footprints.”
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.
