Yellowstone, Tetons Without Snowmobiles

* The National Park Service deserves credit for its gutsy decision to ban snowmobiles in Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons (“Park Service Ruling Calls for Ban on Snowmobiles,” Nov. 23).

Snowmobiles should never have been allowed in national parks in the first place. Our national parks are not Disneyland; they are a refuge from the hectic, noisy and polluted lives that many of us lead. They give us the opportunity to rediscover nature in all her grandeur, to work up an honest sweat along the many trails, or to just spend some quiet moments contemplating the beauty that surrounds us.

Snowmobiles and all other off-road vehicles, with their screaming engines and their foul exhaust fumes, ruin this kind of enjoyment.

Regarding the frequently heard argument that snowmobiles provide access to the wilderness for people who for physical reasons otherwise could not reach the back country: Snowmobilers are not aging grandmothers. They are for the most part young people who have a warped notion of what a wilderness experience is about.

As for the aging grandmothers, there are other, far more benign solutions to providing transportation for them. Yellowstone’s snow coaches provide one; horse-drawn sleighs would be even better. The latter might even provide an opportunity for local businesses that currently depend on snowmobiles.

PAUL W. ROSENBERGER

Manhattan Beach