The mayor of Estes Park, Colorado, wants Interior Secretary Bernhardt to close Rocky Mountain National Park, which can be seen from downtown/Kurt Repanshek file
Editor's note: Rocky Mountain National Park closed to the public Friday night.
Hours after the mayor of the biggest gateway town to Rocky Mountain National Park on Friday wrote Interior Secretary David Bernhardt to ask him to close the park to prevent the coronavirus pandemic from sweeping over his town, the park closed to the public.
"Rocky Mountain National Park is closed to all park visitors until further notice. This closure will be in effect 24-hours a day/7-days a week and there will be no access permitted to Rocky Mountain National Park," stated a park release sent shortly before 8 p.m. local time.
Earlier Friday, Estes Park, Colorado, Mayor Todd A. Jirsa implored Bernhardt to close the park.
"I am requesting immediate closure of Rocky Mountain National Park to assist our community, our country, and our state in addressing the rapidly spreading COVID-19 pandemic," Jirsa wrote the secretary. "The Department of Interior's current promotions are driving visitors to parks and communities like Estes Park. This increase in visitation is compounded by spring-break travel and the recent closure of ski resorts elsewhere in our state."
Bernhardt earlier this week ordered a waiver of park entrance fees and encouraged visitors to head to the parks.
"This small step makes it a little easier for the American public to enjoy the outdoors in our incredible national parks,” the Interior secretary said. "Our vast public lands that are overseen by the department offer special outdoor experiences to recreate, embrace nature, and implement some social distancing."
But soon after he made that statement, health department officials in Utah, worried about the spread of coronavirus, shut down bars, restaurants, lodgings (to non-locals) and campgrounds around Moab, a popular spring break destination and the gateway to both Arches and Canyonlands national parks and the Slickrock mountain bike trail. The intended message was the state didn't want crowds of out-of-state visitors to descend on Moab, which has just a 17-room hospital.
Since park superintendents on Tuesday were handed back the authority to manage their parks as they see fit, numerous lodges, campgrounds, visitor centers, and other visitor attractions across the National Park System have been closed.
Though most Rocky Mountain National Park facilities and the Moraine Park Campground are closed, and winter continues to dump snow on the landscape, Mayor Jirsa nevertheless was adamant that the park's lure was a health threat to his bucolic mountain community.
"Estes Park's first confirmed COVID-19 case was announced today," he said in the letter (attached below) to Bernhardt. "The Larimer County Public Health director has formally advised us to encourage visitors to not travel through Larimer County to Estes Park.
"We have an older, high-risk population with many retirees, and limited critical resources," the mayor went on. "Some of our businesses are closing and others are on restrictions to comply with public health orders. Medical and emergency servides, as well as basic supplies like groceries, must be available to meet the needs of our community at this time.
"Estes Park is not in a position to support the potential needs of extra guests at this time."
The mayor ended by asking that if the entire park couldn't be closed, then at least fees and entrance gate staffing should be reinstated. He also asked Bernhardt to "modify your public messaging to exclude promotion of park visitation."
