Limited parking will be available at the Delicate Arch/Wolfe Ranch parking area in Arches National Park from March through April/Kurt Repanshek
There will be limited parking at Delicate Arch in Arches National Park beginning in March and running through April as work begins to expand the parking lot.
The decision to enlarge the parking area was made in response to overcrowding and parking on the shoulders of the road leading to the Delicate Arch/Wolfe Ranch parking area. Phase two of the project will take place in June or July over approximately one week and focus on paving and striping of the expanded parking area.
The trailhead will remain open with limited parking Monday through Thursday and be fully open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Expansion of this parking lot is the first step in implementation of planned congestion-management strategies outlined in the Delicate Arch/Wolfe Ranch Site Plan.
Under the expansion plan, nearly 2,000 visitors a day will be able to access Delicate Arch and the Wolfe Ranch via the parking area, according to planners. But since the expansion plan is envisioned only to accommodate traffic that currently parks along the road, park officials don't expect an overall increase in the foot traffic to Delicate Arch.
Implementation of a reservation system will only occur as a separate future planning effort, one in which the NPS will engage with partners, agencies, and the public in determining the best way to design and implement such a system.
While parks such as Acadia, Zion, Bryce Canyon and Rocky Mountain have turned to shuttle bus systems to help manage traffic and congestion, the staff at Arches concluded that that was not a reasonable solution for their park.
The cabin at Wolfe Ranch shows how hardy early homesteaders in the area were/Kurt Repanshek
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Comments
I certainly wish there was some other affordable way to solve this problem.
Lee, the problem would be easily resolved if the NPS really wished to resolve it. Think Glacier's red buses, for example, averaging 17 passengers per bus. A fleet of ten buses, shuttling visitors throughout the day, could easily accommodate 2,000 people. But that would mean (horrors!) hiring people to drive the buses. And building new buses according to those earlier, wonderful plans from the 1920s and 1930s. No more of that, thank you. Industrial Tourism must prevail. So, bring in the asphalt and keep making excuses. Edward Abbey has to be rolling in his grave.
In Zion, the problem was resolved because it had to be. Arches will get there, too, but not before the NPS takes the easy way out. It's the American Way, after all. What did Winston Churchill say? Americans will try everything they know to be wrong before finally settling on what they know to be right. Of course, the Japanese Navy did motivate us a bit.
Yes, but there is a difference between a 7 mile dead-end at Zion and one that is something like 20 miles. Also, is there a difference in the number of visitors per day? I don't really know, just asking.
Yes, there are solutions, but first we have to be willing to pay for them.
I've been advocating for a tram at Arches for a long time. Probably will be for a long time, too.
UPDATE : Salt Lake Channel 5 just reported that Zion's gates were closed for a time today because of "traffic congestion." The shuttle is still shut down for the winter. But we haven't had winter.
Alfred - I agree that shuttle systems are definitely preferable to paving more parking lots, but as Lee points out, those systems require money. Could entrance and user fees, which some complain about, raise enough to cover that cost? I don't know, but I'd have to be convinced the park has the money for such a system from other sources.
I haven't been to Arches so I am not all that familiar with the layout. But..... it seems to me even with a shuttle, the cars have to park somewhere. Is the current lot at the trailhead of the Delicate Arch trail a more sensitive area than the Visitor center - where I presume your shuttle would originate?
EC, the only paved enterance into Arches is right next to Moab. There could easily be a shuttle system that combines moab, and the park. It seems like a no-brainer at this point, especially since the layout of the park is stringingly similar to Zion (only one real paved loop road through the main corridor of the park). The fact that this sort of thing hasn't been considered or implemented, or a cap on the amount of people that can hike to delicate arch in a single day leaves me cold. Instead, they just pave a bigger parking lot. Seems like a better answer would have been to start a shuttle system. It can and should be done. Arches is a very popular park.
A shuttle system from Moab to the park and then what? Another shuttle system to get to your destination. You could spend half the day just "shuttling" to and fro. That doesn't sound very practical nor economic to me.
I ask again, is the area around the Delicate Arch particularly sensitive?
A shuttle system that ran a continuous loop from Moab to several key stops in the park would make the most sense. Could it be funded? Don't know.
Is the area around Delicate Arch is "particularly sensitive"? I suppose you mean from an ecological standpoint; from a visual standpoint, pavement rates a zero (or below) on most people's scale. Some recognize that land in parks is a finite resource, and therefore all of it could be considered "sensitive." That's clearly a question of perspective and values, and opinions will vary.