There are only so many vehicles you can squeeze into Zion National Park, and even fewer parking spots. And with spring weather in the offing, park rangers just might start ticketing folks who park in the wrong spot.
So no matter how tempting that shoulder section along the Zion Canyon Scenic Drive might look, resist the urge to pull off and park or you might find yourself looking at a fine.
Zion officials are expecting heavy traffic during the rest of March's weekends as a result of spring break, beautiful weather, and Zion Half Marathon. As a result, this weekend, next weekend, and the weekend of March 29 and 30 might see rangers doing traffic control along Zion Canyon Scenic Drive to ensure visitor safety and mitigate resource damage.
"Park visitors should expect long lines at Entrance Stations and are encouraged to carpool," a park release said. "Zion National Park’s shuttle bus system does not begin operation until April 1. Currently, Zion Canyon is open to vehicular traffic and the high number of visitors is quickly filling the canyon’s parking lots."
Visitors in the park on these weekends should expect designated parking lots and pullouts along the Scenic Drive to fill up quickly. For the protection of park visitors and park resources, parking outside of designated areas is not permitted.
"If it becomes apparent that visitation exceeds parking availability on the Scenic Drive, rangers will proactively manage traffic on the Scenic Drive," the release said.
Traffic control measures could include 1-2 hour periodic closures at the turn off onto the Scenic Drive from Highway 9. Vehicles parked outside of designated areas pose potential safety hazards to other vehicles, impede emergency response, and can cause resource damage to roads, drainage systems, and vegetation. Vehicles parked outside designated areas, on vegetation, or blocking or restricting the movement of vehicle traffic may be cited.
The carrying capacity of Zion Main Canyon poses an ever increasing challenge to park management. While the shuttle system, implemented in 2000, addressed much of the challenge, annual visitation continues to increase and the busy season to grow longer. Park management is currently involved in a transportation study and is considering the possibility of expanding shuttle services in 2015.
Comments
I have to agree with rmackie -- the national parks need to have systems in place that allow "maximum capacity" cutoff points. As a park visitor, I would rather have to plan a trip months in advance in order to secure parking and hiking permits (even for day-use) than get to the park and spend most of my day stuck in traffic, circling a parking lot, and seeing more people on the trail than I do on my morning commute in downtown Chicago.
Yosemite is probably the best example of how this overcrowding makes what should be an awesome natural experience into an exercise in utter frustration. But all of the popular parks suffer from some version of it.
Baxter State Park in Maine has a model that I believe could be a good starting point for instituting maximum visitation controls in the parks, and Glacier National Park and Denali National Park both already have reasonable systems in place for managing the numbers of hikers in any one area of the park using combinations of permits and parking restrictions. No one wants to tell people that they can't come, but I also believe that as park visitors, we'd all be much happier if we could come to the parks knowing that we'd have a relaxing and peaceful experience, even if it means some added inconvenience in the planning stage of the trip.
In some heavily-visited parks, I might favor a reservation system. Before you throw your hands up in disgust at this suggestion, think about other things that are part of our lives. If I want to go to a concert and call for tickets and it is sold out, I make other plans. If the campground is full, I go someplace else. If I want to get my hair cut at 2:00 pm tomorrow and the stylist is busy, I make other arrangements. We are used to limits that constrain when we do things. I think twocee and Mackie are absolutely correct that strategies to reduce crowding are going to have to be implemented by the NPS if it is to preserve these areas in perpetuity and provide peak experiences for visitors who, after all, are often looking for a contrast to the frantic pace that many of them maintain in their everyday lives. In one sense, that is one of the most important values of parks. They give us a chance to take off our watches, turn off the cell phones and live according to the rhythms of nature or the march of history. Such experiences are priceless and must be preserved.
Rick
This is why I'm a big fan of seeing glamour parks at the crack of dawn. My wife and I visited Rocky Mountain last August during peak season but managed to almost completely avoid traffic and crowds. We got going up the Kawuneeche Valley from Grand Lake at first light, and there were virtually no other people. We were able to stop in the middle of the road to watch moose, elk, bighorn sheep, etc. without having to pull off the road onto sensitive vegetation or cause a traffic problem. It was a very intimate and rewarding experience, in spite of being in the middle of one of the most-visited parks during peak season.
As we were leaving eastward around 11 AM we passed a bumper-to-bumper convoy of cars coming in from Estes Park. All I could think was "sucks to be you...enjoy the traffic backups and hordes of annoying people."
Off-season is also awesome. Yosemite Valley October-March is a world away from Yosemite Valley June-August.
I just had an experience with "one out, one in" parking. Our largest local hospital/medical center has lost a big chunk of parking to construction of a new wing. They are using a manned control gate for entrance to parking. It worked well except for the fact that there was another entrance that didn't have a control. As a result, a few drivers coming from that direction cut off some of us who were in line beyond the control gate.
It worked reasonably well, and if that other entry point were controlled, it would be pretty darned good.