okay so this happened last weekend and im still a little annoyed about it but also i get it i guess. was out near one of the thermal pools early in the morning, like 6am, nobody around, pulled out the air 2s just to get some shots before the crowds showed up. got maybe 10 minutes of footage and then a ranger literally materialized out of nowhere and asked me to land immediately

she was actually pretty cool about it and didnt take the drone or anything, just told me drones are prohibited in all national parks without a special use permit which apparentely almost nobody gets. she said if shed seen me earlier id have gotten a fine. i genuinely did not know this, i thought it was just certain areas. so yeah. lesson learned the embarrassing way

yeah NPS ban is total, has been since like 2014. no drones anywhere in any national park full stop. its one of those things you kinda have to know before you go because theres not always signage or anything. glad she let you off, some rangers will absolutely write you up on the spot

this is why i always look up the rules ahead of time but honestly even then its confusing because state parks vs national parks vs federal land all have diffrent rules and sometimes they overlap. i almost flew in a wilderness area once thinking it was fine because it wasnt a national park. did some digging and turns out wilderness areas are also a no go. its a lot to keep track of