Sax was a law professor, and his argument is that parks aren’t a commodity to be delivered to consumers efficiently,and that the fight over what to allow in them — helicopters, tramways, snowmobiles, developed lodges — isn’t about elitism but about whether a place will still demand anything of you. He wants parks to be a school for a certain kind of attention, where you supply your own effort and your own meaning. It was written in the late seventies and, alas, the argument was lost long ago. I’m a believer, but the people in power want wi-fi in parks, so there ya go.
Mountains Without Handrails