backcountry

More than 11 years after the Zaca cut a 240,000-acre swath across Santa Barbara’s jagged backcountry, the landscape still bears scars.

Park officials also reminded visitors that pets are prohibited on boardwalks, hiking trails, in the backcountry and in thermal areas.

The efforts may be working: The number of national park search and rescue operations — which can entail anything from a child who becomes separated from their parents to a hiker who disappears in the backcountry — have ticked downward nationwide, from 5,395 in 2016 to 3,308 last year, even as visitation has continued to rise.

In fairness, many of the best experiences you can have at Kings Canyon are in the backcountry and require some level of backpacking knowledge.

“This kind of event happens probably once or twice a year in Yellowstone,” said Michael Poland, the scientist-in-charge at USGS’s Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, “often in the backcountry where it will go unnoticed.”