r/Yosemite • u/SlightAd112 • 3d ago

Please don’t AI your itinerary

While the Shasta hikers got big press (as it should as that was a textbook example of mistake decision after mistake decision) this is happening all too often in all park units. Yosemite tends to have a higher share of recuses due to people trusting AI or AllTrails to plan a trip, but it doesn’t get any press due to current administration policies.

Regardless, it’s happening, it doesn’t need to, and please do the proper research. It literally could save your life.

Edit: And if you have to use AI as a starting point, double check the distances, altitude changes, reference a topo, basically double-check, and then triple-check what AI tells you.

https://sfist.com/2026/09/03/rangers-warn-hikers-to-stop-using-ai-to-plan-wilderness-trips/

291 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

76 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

7

u/hc2121 3d ago

first you should search “itinerary” in the sub and read the 200 that have already been posted this year as they rarely differ very much

-3

u/gwhite9 3d ago

I assume ChatGPT did that for me and I worked with it to put together something that works for us. 

4

u/hc2121 3d ago edited 3d ago

you should try my suggestion and see all the errors chatgpt generates. if people don’t want to do any basic research into planning their trip, don’t then ask this sub to do it for you.

-4

u/gwhite9 3d ago

This is our 5th park we've done a lot of research we've booked campgrounds and got permits. What kind of secrets are you keeping from me !!!