In a move that could signal the future of your national park vacation, Zion National Park officials are thinking of moving to a reservation system for entry into the iconic red rock cathedral to protect resources and ensure the enjoyment of visitors.
It's an idea being considered more and more in recent years by superintendents as record-breaking crowds strain places like Yellowstone, Yosemite, Glacier, Grand Canyon, Zion, and many other parks. There likely will be pushback to Zion's proposals. But park staff, budgets, the tight confines of 6-mile-long Zion Canyon, and today's growing crowds cast a reservation system as perhaps the best way to help superintendents meet the National Park Service Organic Act's overriding directive:
... to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations."
"On Memorial Day Sunday, we had 30,300 people in the park that day," John Marciano, the park's public affairs spokesman, said Saturday. "That's nuts. No one has a good time."
To provide visitors with a better experience in the park, and to better protect natural resources, Zion officials are seeking public comment through August 14 on three proposals:
- Alternative A: Make no changes from the current visitor management system.
- Alternative B: Require all visitors to obtain a reservation for their stay. With this reservation, they would be allowed to go to any of the park's frontcountry areas, places such as Zion Narrows, Angels Landing, and Observation Point.
- Alternative C: In addition to needing a reservation to enter the park, you'd need specific reservations if you wanted to enter Zion Narrows or hike to the top of Angels Landing. Day hikers heading into wilderness areas also would need to obtain permits.
A reservation system, if implemented, would apply to all areas of the park, from Zion Canyon and Checkerboard Mesa to the Kolob Canyon corner of the park.
Driving the process is overcrowding to the point where it can jeopordize safety and damage the park's natural resources. While there are roughly 13 miles of official trails in Zion Canyon, officials say there are more than 30 miles of visitor-created unofficial trails there.
"The longer we wait, the worse the condition of the resource gets," said Mr. Marciano.
Visitation to Zion has gone up 60 percent over the past decade, to more than 4.3 million a year. While the park years ago moved to requiring visitors to ride shuttle buses into the famous canyon unless they had lodging reservations, the shuttle system has bogged down with increasing demand.
"Visitors are experiencing long lines for basic services," said the park's newsletter that announced the reservation proposals. "The shuttles are routinely over capacity, with buses that have a capacity of 68 seated riders commonly being filled with between 95 and 100 people.
"Vehicular traffic is often backing up along roadways into Springdale, causing traffic congestion problems there," the newsletter went on. "Trails, campgrounds, and other infrastructure are seeing wear and tear more quickly and faster than funding allows for repairs."
Visitor safety also is at risk, as the number of emergency response calls for rangers "has increased exponentially, and emergency response can be delayed because of traffic congestion," said park officials.
Alternative C would also improve traffic flow from the South Entrance along the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway to the East Entrance by prohibiting oversized vehicles -- large RVs, tour buses, motor homes, and travel trailers -- from traveling that route. Alternative B would restrict those oversized vehicles to specific time windows in mornings and evenings.
Alternative B and C also would move the South Campground to a reservation system; it currently operates on a first-come, first-served basis.
Discarded from consideration in the effort to better manage crowds and protect resources was congestion pricing, also known as surge pricing.
"National park units are a public resource, and to the extent possible, should remain affordable to visitors across a range of financial status," the park newsletter said. "Congestion pricing could place unfair financial burdens on some visitors, as price points during peak vacation times would likely need to be very high to maintain visitor capacity by dissuading park visitors from entering during crowded times through paying a high rate."
In developing the proposals open for public consideration, park officials reviewed available data -- "We know how many people come into the canyon every day. We have a breakdown of big vehicles, small vehicles, people who walk in, drive through. We have that breakdown," said Mr. Marciano. "We also have (hiker) numbers for trails, Angels Landing, etc." -- and discussed the issue and possible solutions with Park Service staff in both the Intermountain Region Office in Denver and the agency headquarters in Washington, D.C.
If a final decision is made to go with a reservation system of some sort -- either Alternative B, Alternative C, or some sort of hybrid -- then Zion staff will have to settle on a daily visitor capacity.
Details of the proposal, and a page to comment, can be found at this site.
Comments
charge $15 like they do at Pike's Peak and regulate the numbers, issue solved! Was up at Zion at end of Feb, beautiful, uncrowded but cold. You make do. No one has the right to vist X park on Y date and not expect a crowd if they insist on visiting on the 4th of July
I am supportive of a reservation system. It is imperative so all can enjoy the park and protect resources. I think there needs to be a balance btw tour company and individuals. While you are at it, I think non US visitors shld be charged more than citizens.
In Zion National Park's Visitor Use Management Concepts, WE SUPPORT:
* The park using a concessionaire to upgrade and operate the shuttle system which includes extending the shuttle to the east side of the park.
* We support limited online reservations for visitation to some busy front-country hikes during certain months only.
* We support online reservations for back-country hikes. Hikers should not have to drive into the park to obtain their back-country permits, thereby creating more traffic in the park.
* We support Zion NP developing more trail heads, parking pull-outs, and a bathroom facility on the east side of the park. This will spread out the crowds and help people have a better experience.
* We support limiting the use of the tunnel to oversize vehicles to night time and early morning times, and during the slow months of the year.
* We would support the total elimination of oversize vehicles in the tunnel during busy months if there was an east side shuttle so that these vehicles could park on the east side and still visit the park.
We DO NOT SUPPORT:
* Year-round requirement for reservations to visit ANY or ALL front-country hikes at this time.
* There is no need for this except for certain hikes that are very busy, during certain very busy months of the year.
* Keeping the shuttle the way it is with no access to the east side.
* Keeping the reservation and permit system the way it is, requiring back-country hikers to go into the park, creating more congestion, to obtain permits they should be able to get online.
Hey Collette----
Who is 'we'?
Zions National Park is so small it just can't handle more people and still provide a good experience. However, there are a lot more areas in Utah, and I'm sure in other states as well, that would also make great parks.
Instead of just limiting visitation at the existing parks let's expand the park system. Create more parks and let the crowds thin themselves.