[intrepidhero]

How are most people going to enjoy (and therefore care about) this natural land without at least some roads, hotels and restaurants?

Even in designated wilderness areas, somebody has to build roads and cut trail in order for anyone to enjoy it and scientists to study the effects of conservation. I think it's a tough balance and we need lands all across the spectrum of development.

[LeifCarrotson]

Roads? You walk, ride an MTB, or (especially for park service moving construction materials for trail maintenance) use horses.

Hotels? I hear they've developed this innovation known as a "tent". Thanks to space-age fabrics, you can be warm and dry with little more than a bag and some sticks.

Restaurants? Food is fuel, not a social activity. It's not that hard to carry your calories on your back. In many parks, if there aren't too many roads, hotels, and restaurants upstream, you can get drinkable water straight from the stream, or run it through a filter. If you don't have to carry water in, most parties can pack in enough calories in to go for a week or more.

You're not going to get octogenarians and the obese to the middle of Yellowstone or the peak of Denali, no, but that's OK.

[intrepidhero]

So the obese, elderly and disabled should have no access to the national park system whatsoever? Those people get a say in how tax dollars are spent too.

I wasn't suggesting a cable car to the summit of Denali. Just consider that maybe a hotel in Yellowstone could have a purpose besides profiteering.