ok so i spent like two hours reading about this before my trip and i still managed to get it wrong apparently. went to what i thought was just a regular state forest area adjacent to a national park boundary, had my mavic air 2 with me, figured i was outside the park so it should be fine. a ranger came over and told me i couldnt fly there either. she mentioned something about a special use airspace designation that wasnt just about the park boundary itself

im not trying to argue with anyone about the rules, i get that they exist for good reasons, but the maps online dont always make this obvious. like where do people actually go to get reliable info on this before a trip? i felt like an idiot even though i genuinely tried to look it up beforehand

honestly this trips people up all the time and its not entirely your fault. national parks have a blanket NPS ban on drones regardless of FAA airspace class, but youre right that it gets weirder near boundaries. some parks have gotten special flight restrictions that extend beyond the actual park border, usually around sensitive wildlife areas or wilderness designations. the FAA sectional charts dont always show these clearly. B4UFLY app is decent but i've found cross referencing with the actual park's specific rules page on nps.gov is really the only way to be sure. some parks have very specific no drone orders that are separate from the general NPS policy

state forest adjacent to national park is like the greyest grey area there is, ive been in similar spots. the ranger may have also just been wrong tbh, it does happen, they're not all trained on the specifics of where exactly their jurisdiction ends and what the FAA rules actually say vs park rules. not saying ignore them obviously but i've had rangers tell me stuff that turned out to be incorrect when i looked it up properly later. doesnt make it worth the confrontation in the moment tho