Mt. Rainier heavy-handed policing

I want to share an incident that occurred to me (and I assume others) yesterday (Saturday 2/21). Got to the gate at 8:45a,, it was opened at or right after 9:00am. When we all started parking up top a ranger was walking around individually reminding everyone that the gate will close at 5:00 and that we need to be back at the parking lot by 4:30 so that we can make it to the gate. A bit forward but fine I thought.

Fast forward to my return to the parking lot around 4:20. At 4:30 a loud PA system from somewhere turns on and basically tells folks to start packing up their shit and head home, the pool's closed! I kid you not it sounded like an amusement park scolding and a loud PA system definitely does not fit with the wilderness experience they advertise. Whatever, I and everyone else didn't let it bother us and continued chatting, packing up, and taking parting shots of the alpenglow; typical stuff. When about 3/4 of the main lot was cleared I hopped in my car and drove down.

After a few turns I run into the Nordic Patrol pickup truck. They're driving like they're not in a hurry, but I can't blame 'em because they have no reason to hustle and they're volunteers driving federal property (nice folk btw). Anyways, a bunch of cars start to pile up behind me.

Fast forward to the gate. We get there and it's oddly closed. I look at my dash and it says 17:00. I look at my atomic-synced phone and it says, I shit you not, 17:02. A ranger gets out of her truck and opens up the gate, waving the Patrol truck through. But then she motions for me to stop. Uhh.... ???

I kid you not after letting the obvious answer through, first thing she asked me was why I didn't make it down on time :
THEN, I'm asked for my driver's license.
THEN, I'm harassed about an minor (state) vehicular violation that I don't think a federal officer even has jurisdiction over.
THEN, she writes down my license number, issues me a warning to make better plans and get to the gate earlier.

There are at least 6 cars behind me that all showed up at once in my "pack", and at least another 20 were still in the lot when I left. I can only assume many warnings were issued, and many licenses handed over.

I'd like to take a moment to remind everyone that the official reason that the gate closes at night in winter, stated in a big sign right on the gate, is that there is "PLOWING IN PROGRESS". On one of the busiest days of the winter, at the last easy place in the state to get snow, in a place that is supposed to be a retreat for wilderness and peace, I got pulled over and upbraided like a kid in a corvette doing 20 over for showing up 2 minutes late to a gate that closes for "plowing" on a night with no snow forecast.

Forgive me for being irate and vulgar, but how the fuck did we come to this?!

I had a very similar experience last year, arriving at the gate at 5:07pm.

What really fires me up is the arbitrary nature of the enforcement. On any given holiday you can see hundreds of cars still parked at Paradise well after 5pm. I bet the gate is open. No rangers in site. No reprimands. I can't vouch for this year, but this was definitely the case on MLK last year.

On the face of it, the action seems absurd and heavy handed.  One would think the LEO would let the gov't vehicle with the volunteers and the cars immediately behind it thru w/o hesitation.

But upon reflection and considering blackdog's post: "What really fires me up is the arbitrary nature of the enforcement.  On any given holiday you can see hundreds of cars still parked at Paradise well after 5pm.  I bet the gate is open.  No rangers in site.  No reprimands."  One can guess that after repeated and gross disregard of the rules signed, posted, and adverstised repeatedly over years a decision has been made to maybe try and enforce the rules.

Besides plowing, one practical reason for the closure is to not have to fully staff the LEO contingent after 5 p.m.; having two shifts is double the expense, obviously.  Even the LEO at the gate might well have been earning overtime (plus on Sundays a Sunday differential and on holidays, Holiday Pay--adds up to 2x the hourly wage).

So, it appears to me, the LEOs decided to change visitor behavior: they had signs up, they went person to person to give each person a personal invitation to leave on time, and then they broadcast over very loud loudspeakers that it was time to leave, then, perhaps, they had a gov't vehicle leave at the last minute they calculated such that if it followed the speed limit strictly it would arrive at the gate at 5 p.m.  Those arriving later would be subject to delay--questioned, asked for licenses, cursory inspection of vehicles, and the later the person left the lot, the more time they would then have to spend at the gate.

I doubt they issued tickets, the Federal prosecutors and judges probably don't have a lot of time on their hands to deal with minor violations of park regs (they even refuse to prosecute someone who blew up a FS ranger station because it would have too costly LOL).  So, what tools do the LEOs have to use: harass the errant drivers to the point that malingering incures more disomfort than pleasure. LOL

After a few turns I run into the Nordic Patrol pickup truck. They're driving like they're not in a hurry, but I can't blame 'em because they have no reason to hustle and they're volunteers driving federal property (nice folk btw). Anyways, a bunch of cars start to pile up behind me.

Fast forward to the gate. We get there and it's oddly closed. I look at my dash and it says 17:00. I look at my atomic-synced phone and it says, I shit you not, 17:02. A ranger gets out of her truck and opens up the gate, waving the Patrol truck through.  But then she motions for me to stop.  Uhh....  ???

I kid you not after letting the obvious answer through, first thing she asked me was why I didn't make it down on time  :
THEN, I'm asked for my driver's license.
THEN, I'm harassed about an minor (state) vehicular violation that I don't think a federal officer even has jurisdiction over.
THEN, she writes down my license number, issues me a warning to make better plans and get to the gate earlier.

A few questions: Did you get her name? I'm guessing it was one of the new LEs hired this past year, who in several encounters since last summer, has been an absolute nightmare of by-the-book enforcement of summer overnight parking, gate, chains, etc, etc. Easily the most overbearing LE that I have met yet in 20 years of going to Rainier. She and other recently hired LEs (basically since Ranger Margaret Anderson's tragic shooting death on New Year's Day 3 years ago) are the only ones likely to behave this way. And sadly, their attitude is very counter to the spirit of what a park ranger should embody (the LEs are park rangers whose training and duties include law enforcement, they are NOT policemen, much as they may act like police now). But they are under severe pressure from the higher-ups in the park's management too, to enforce the rules more strictly than in the past.

Did you explain that your 2-minute delay was 100% the fault of the slow driver in front of you? And what did she say to that?

So, it appears to me, the LEOs decided to change visitor behavior: they had signs up, they went person to person to give each person a personal invitation to leave on time, and then they broadcast over very loud loudspeakers that it was time to leave, then, perhaps, they had a gov't vehicle leave at the last minute they calculated such that if it followed the speed limit strictly it would arrive at the gate at 5 p.m.  Those arriving later would be subject to delay--questioned, asked for licenses, cursory inspection of vehicles, and the later the person left the lot, the more time they would then have to spend at the gate.

That's quite a conspiracy theory, Andy. Excellent!

Andrew,
trust me the Nordic Patrol had nothing to do with any timing plot, they were just part of the scene but doing their own thing. They are good people volunteering their ski days, and they do us all a favor by keeping the SARs down by preventing them from happening in the first place.

Many rangers there actually lament the same point you brought up: not enough resources to keep it open after 5:00pm. When I show up at 11:00pm in April though there aren't any LEOs then either, but the gate is open. What's different...?

It's a great park from April to October that feels and works like a NP should but during the other months it feels like I'm buying a 7 hour ticket to Wild Waves, complete with bouncers/security.

Did you explain that your 2-minute delay was 100% the fault of the slow driver in front of you? And what did she say to that?

Didn't catch her name Amar, I was too dumbstruck and busy rifling for my wallet. Unfortunately I offered no explanation, as I have been trained by legal counsel to act a very specific way when being questioned by police, and I very much fell into that behavior pattern yesterday.