Quote:
Originally Posted by kelpie
It may be the beginning of the end of offroad backcountry solitude as we knew it.
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It might be, but I doubt it. It's just the currently trendy hobby. My personal experience is that there was a huge surge in interest during the lockdown because backcountry camping became one of the few forms of recreational travel allowed. I'm already seeing availability at National Forest campgrounds improving.
Another source of off-road vehicle buyers is the prepper/survivalist community. How long that lasts will probably depend on how long people stay interested in QAnon and what theories bubble to the top next. But a lot of those people don't really take their vans out much. They just want to know they have them. So they contribute to driving up prices but not so much to backcountry crowding.
Related story: My dad is a fly fisherman and when the movie "A River Runs Through It" came out there was a huge fly fishing trend, with a lot of good fly fishing rivers ending up overcrowded. But as one guy put it, "don't worry, eventually they'll make a movie about something else." Some of those people found a new, lasting hobby (and good for them!) but most tried it and then moved on.