yeah this was annoying. drove like 2 hours to get to the trailhead and the ranger at the entrance just flatout said no drones allowed anywhere in the park, not even in the parking lot. i knew flying inside was a no but i thought i could at least launch from just outside the boundary. apparently not how it works there.

thing is i checked the FAA app before leaving and nothing flagged as restricted. but national parks have their own rules that are separate from airspace rules and i completely forgot about that. wasted trip basically, just did the hike without any footage which was whatever but still frustrating

oof yeah national parks are their own thing entirely, the NPS ban has nothing to do with FAA airspace its a land use rule. so you can technically have legal airspace clearance and still be banned from flying because of who owns the land underneath. always worth calling the specific park ahead of time because some do have designated launch zones or will grant permits for legit reasons.

same thing happned to me at zion a couple years back. ranger was actually pretty cool about it, explained the rule without being a jerk. but yeah that drive home empty handed is a special kind of sad lol. i just use it as an excuse to go back i guess