National Park Service urges certain visitors to encase their cars with tarps
In a southern section of the Sequoia National Park in California, the National Park Service urges visitors to follow an unusual vehicle protocol. Here, rangers insist folks cocoon their parked vehicles with tarps before exploring the area. Here’s the scoop.
Science and nature YouTuber Jonny Lim posted a reel this week about what the park service asked him to do to his car before entering a trailhead. Lim visited Sequoia and Kings Canyon, where Mineral King offers tranquil meadows, subalpine forests, and several lakes. The Mineral King trailhead is the highest elevation in the whole park, which makes hiking quite strenuous. The altitude also happens to be the ideal ecosystem for the park’s marmot population.
In fact, the National Park Service website already has a whole page dedicated to protecting your car from marmots living in Mineral King. The NPS says that from spring to mid-summer, or about the end of July, marmots extrovertly invade visitor vehicles. Once under a car, they belligerently chew plastic, wiring, and hoses and even consume antifreeze.
To avoid stranded visitors and poisoned marmots, the park service offers a particular strategy:
“Physically block marmots by driving over a tarp and then wrapping it around your entire vehicle. Cover the wheel wells. Wrapping chicken wire around the vehicle is no longer advised, as marmots have learned to get around the wire.”
Park rangers also encourage folks to check for signs of marmot invasion before driving away. This includes scanning for obvious physical damage. Visitors should also start their cars and wait a beat before driving away. This will encourage any marmot “guests” to flee.
Of course, wild animals all across the country find cars quite hospitable. Squirrels and mice commonly hunker down to munch on engine components and build a cozy nest. In Mineral King, however, the marmots are known to confidently swoop in and damage cars much faster than other critters.
