We were fined $1000 for filming in National Parks (then everything changed)

We need to address the elephant in the room. Last year we were fined over $1,000 for filming in national parks. But now we're spending the next three days filming this video inside of Yellowstone. No way. There is a small herd of bison just 10ft away from where we slept last night. We stopped and rented these cross country skis.

We're Karen Nate. After spending four years traveling the world full time and documenting our journey to 1002020 brought us back to the US where we bought a converted spinner van to explore all 50 states. After a slightly traumatic journey to our 25th state of Wyoming.

I'm sorry. That was so scary.

We spent our first full day in Yellowstone National Park.

What a morning.

Where we were greeted by world famous geysers and countless bison.

So we are currently in West Yellowstone because that's where the snow coach picked us up to take us to Old Faithful. Now that we're on our own, we're heading to the north entrance of the park because that's the only place where visit can access the park by themselves in the winter. But the majority of the roads in the park get closed down in the winter so we have to take the very roundabout way to get there. Also look what happened last night. Our sink busted for a second time. It's kind of hard to tell because it's still frozen.

Our water purifier actually froze and broke a few weeks ago. So we've been buying jugs of water to drink and.

Hard as a rock. Also somehow our veggies and hummus froze in the refrigerator so defrosting them on the dash.

We are on our way to Mammoth Campground because it's the only one that stays open year round in the park. But it is first come first serve and it's a weekend and it's one of the most popular parks in the country. So I'm thinking it's going to be a miracle if we can snag a spot tonight. But I'm feeling hopeful.

I have knock.

So many cows. We're almost there.

Feeling less and less good about this.

On a more positive note, the drive here was absolutely stunning.

Thank you so much.

Alright, we are officially in Yellowstone National Park. I see a lot of cars parked up here.

They're all looking at the elk.

We don't need to see the elk. Keep going. Let's beat him. Mammoth Campground. It doesn't say full.

Be bear aware.

I kind of want to see bear from the van.

We get to camp in Yellowstone.

I cannot believe how few people there are here.

Just look at the view from our campsite. It is us. And like three other campers in the only campground in Yellowstone.

All right, before we continue exploring Yellowstone, we need to address the elephant in the room. Last year, we published a video called why We Don't Visit National Parks. To date, that video has almost a million views, and it evokes some pretty strong emotions. In that video, we explain how we had been fined over $1,000 for filming two videos in national parks. At the time of filming those videos, we didn't realize that we needed a commercial permit to film videos for our YouTube channel inside of national parks. We make our living off of filming videos for this channel, so it made sense to me that the videos would be considered commercial. But when it really became frustrating was the first time I ever tried to fill out an application to obtain a commercial filming permit. As YouTubers who carry around the same type of camera equipment as any tourist would, we were being asked to fill out a permit just like we were filming a major motion picture. They wanted to know how many animals we were bringing on set, if we had any weapons. Plus, you would have to give them an exact itinerary of your trip, what you would be filming, then wait weeks for approval, and if you were lucky, and you received a permit, the fees weren't cheap. So while it was still hypothetically possible that we could film in national parks, we felt like with all of the restrictions, we wouldn't be able to film the type of content that we wanted to. Plus, without a big production team, we just didn't have the bandwidth to go through a major permitting process every time we wanted to make a video. Our intention with filming this video wasn't to complain or even to change the status quo. We just felt like we needed to explain why we were traveling around the US In a van, yet avoiding some of the most beautiful places in the country. And honestly, after filming that video, we just assumed we'd avoid national parks as we finished our journey to all 50 states. What we didn't know at the time was that there was already a case pending in court that had started back in December of 2019. There was an independent filmmaker who was in a similar situation to us, but instead of just giving up and paying the fine, he actually took it to court, and he was arguing that it was unconstitutional to require a permit for commercial filming because it violated his right of free speech. Fast forward to January of this year, and my inbox was flooded with emails letting me know that a D.C. federal judge had ruled that it was unconstitutional for the National Park Service to require permits or charge fees for commercial filming on its land. The judge said, And I quote, Mr. Pierce, the guy who was taking the case to court, his filmmaking at these parks constitutes a form of expressive speech protected by the first amendment. The threat posed by a man with a tripod making a commercial film is no different than the same person and equipment that is used for a non commercial project. So basically the issue was with making a distinction between commercial and non commercial and charging for one, but not the other. I don't fully understand why this is unconstitutional, but that's what the judge said. But the judge wasn't saying that there should be no rules, just that the rules needed to change. She specifically said in issuing this injunction, the court observed that a more targeted permitting regimen for commercial filming, which is more closely connected to the threat posed by larger groups and heavy filmmaking equipment, may pass institutional muster in the future. And in late February, to our excitement, new guidelines were released.

It's pretty exciting stuff. They said low impact filming activities will not require a special use permit. That's us. Low impact filming is defined as outdoor filming activities in areas open to the public, except areas manages wilderness involving five or less people and equipment that will be carried at all times, except for small tripods used to hold camera. So this is a huge win for small filmmakers like us. And this is what's been unfolding in the background over the last few months. It's led to us being able to film this video. Okay, I don't want to drag this out any longer than necessary, but I do want to encourage our fellow filmmakers to please be respectful when filming. Just because you legally can film somewhere doesn't necessarily mean that you should. The reason I bring this up is because just the other day when we were filming at the geysers, there was a crew of four guys. One of them must have been a self help guru. And I think he was talking about how to get girls. Instead of hearing geysers bubbling, we were listening to a lecture on confidence and personality types. Just don't be that guy.

They were so annoying.

Okay, I'm gonna wrap this up, but just remember, you still can't use groans.

You still can't use drones, you still can't film in wilderness areas, you still can't film with equipment larger than a tripod, and you still have to follow the same rules as everybody else in the park. Okay, that's my lecture. It truly is a privilege to be able to film in national parks. So let's all be on the same team and not get that privilege taken away. Also, it's about 15 degrees out here, and.

I think I pulled something in my neck.

So yesterday, before we came into the park, we stopped and rented these cross country skis. Neither one of us have ever tried this before, but seemed like the most fun way to explore the park. So today we're going to try something new.

No way. Look at this. In our campsite.

What a way to start the morning. Look at the baby.

Yeah. Come say hi to us.

Sharing the road with these guys.

Awesome.

Legitimately, the only thing I know about cross country skiing is from the one YouTube video that I watched yesterday.

The great thing about cross country is that you can just head out and give it a go.

All right, here. There goes nothing.

Can't even get him to come apart. Off to a good start.

Whoops.

So you push this down and you just step in. That's what he said. That looked good. I think you're in.

I'm in.

That was the longest fall I've ever seen.

That's the most uncoordinated I've ever felt.

Hey, you're in. You're in. Your ski.

I'm crying.

Your ski. Your ski came out so hot.

All right, I'll see if I can help you out.

Don't let go. Don't let go.

Okay, let's see if I can do this any more gracefully than you A luck.

I'm in. Aha.

Congratulations.

You don't seem happy for me. All right, you ready? Show us how you push glide.

Oh, you look like a pro.

It hasn't even been five minutes yet. We're shedding layers. One body temp is up.

Do this. Push glide. Push glide.

So it's more of a kick glide. Kick glide, kick glide.

I think I'm doing a lot more pushing than gliding. If there are any predators out here and they see us skiing, they're gonna identify us as the weak link and come eat us.

We definitely look like wanted animals.

Ah, don't eat us. You're flying.

Making me sweat trying to keep up with you. He gave me a fist bump.

Good work.

I go blame it on my backpack. All right, we're coming up on our first downhill.

Oh, wow. Whoa.

Yeah. Oh, I think I pulled a rib. Oh, that really hurt. Good work.

I'm so tired. We are cross mountain skiing, not cross country skiing.

Look at this view, though.

This is awesome.

And to make it even better, we have this entire place all to ourselves.

Proud of us. We just met some locals and they said it was Pretty tricky today with the ice, so my wife out number two left.

The Marcos. Kind of hard to see, but that's a frozen waterfall. Worth it for this. Yeah.

Just hearing the water with birds chirping. This is magical.

All right, back on the skis.

Let's try this again.

No problem. I got back up.

Let's get the hang of this.

Now. Can we get out of the sky? All right.

You ran over my ski. Woo.

We are at the halfway point. It is lunchtime.

For lunch, we packed sausage, cheese, and a loaf of bread.

Everything just tastes better in the wilderness. And all parts of sausage kolaches.

All right, see if we can make it back without hurting ourselves.

Things we do for this video. I think the rest of the trail is pretty much downhill from here. Let's see how it goes. There's a lot of people watching us do this.

We only have one suggestion for this young fellow right here. I hope it's not your first date.

We've been married for seven years. She stuck with me. Where'd all these people come from? When we start trying to go downhill, this is embarrassing.

Going down is hard. You can can do it. You can do it. Okay, here we go.

All right. Just you in the wide open trail now.

All right.

I'm wearing the GoPro now. Going to get Nate going down.

In case you're wondering who the random person was wearing the GoPro behind me.

Good luck. I want to look up and look at all the scenery, but I also can't look away from my skis or I fall.

This is sweet.

Look at this go y.

Oh, no. Did you try to look up? How does this just happen to me?

We made it back in one piece.

Man, it is hot. I could go lay in the snow on my underwear right now.

This is crazy. I wore wool pants underneath my boob. You see how wet these are? This is sweat.

Are you serious?

This isn't sweat.

Gross. I touched more water.

It's soaking wet.

Gross.

In addition to it being an awesome day, it was an epic workout. I gotta take these pants off.

I don't know how good a job I did of capturing it because I'm not good enough to cross country ski and film at the same time. But I loved today. I think the reason that we're still traveling five years after leaving home is because we're both kind of addicted to new experiences. And so to get to do something new for the first time and be pushed out of our comfort zone today was awesome and special because you can only have your first experience with Something once. And that was cross country skiing today for us.

It was really special.

We must have some workout endorphins going.

It is Kara versus the bison. Never a dull moment in Yellowstone.

This is so beautiful. How tired do I look? Yeah, Billy. My face is just like my eyes.

Can't.

Can't stay open.

Juicy. L.

So good.

That is well deserved. It's like a mix between chili and macaroni.

Super good.

It is our last morning here in Yellowstone, and I convinced Kara to get up with me before the sunrise to go searching for wildlife. It's our last chance to see a bear or a wolf.

Our definition of cold has drastically changed over the last couple weeks. Nate just said, oh, it's only 30 degrees outside. So warm. Because we woke up and it was negative 4 not too long ago.

Good morning, ladies. Look at this little baby. Can you point us in the direction depiction of the wolves, please? Do y' all communicate? What about bears? Are you listening to me?

Well, we didn't see any predators this morning, but we did see hundreds more elk and bison. It's funny how normal that's become. On our first day here, we saw, like, five bison, and we were like, oh, my gosh, this is the best day ever. And I'm still really glad that we got up early because now we have mammoth hot springs all to ourselves.

Mammoth. And that's. That's all snow.

So the calcium carbonate that's flowing up out of the hot springs over thousands of years has created these beautiful travertine terraces. And having those in the foreground with the mountains in the background and the sound of rushing water just running over it all, this place is pretty spectacular. The only other place that we've seen anywhere in the world that compares to this is Pamukkale in Turkey. Its nickname is the Cotton Castle. And just from looking at these terraces here and the formations, you can kind of see how a place like this would get that nickname.

Okay, before we leave Yellowstone, I have a one more fun fact that I want to share with you. I didn't realize it before, but the 45th parallel actually runs directly through the park. And according to the sign, we are currently standing halfway between the equator and the North Pole.

So at Yellowstone.

We decided. Gosh, it's so slick. We decided we're gonna start a new sleep app. And all the sounds are gonna be hot hot springs and geysers from Yellowstone. And we'll get Cara to tell soothing bedtime stories. We just need a name for it.

My legs are gonna whip around behind you and you gotta catch up like this.

Feeling confident about this?

The guy at the shop said it was no big deal, that we had no idea what we were doing.

Either that or he did not realize the lack of experience that we truly.

It.