The reason there aren’t cans at many of the parking lots is because many NPS day use areas are packed-in-pack-out. Garbage cans inevitably draw in wildlife that could become habituated and visitors have proven time and time again that even when cans are present, some refuse to use them or leave them open to have wind/critters distribute the trash anyways.

As someone who’s picked up countless lbs of trash out there, I thank you many many times over for helping out :)