A 35-acre tract of private land seen here inside Zion National Park, known as Firepit Knoll, has been purchased for donation to the national park/Trust for Public Land, Mike Schirf

In a park that covers nearly 150,000 acres, 35 acres almost seems like an afterthought. But the 35 acres that the Trust for Public Land was able to buy with help from the National Park Foundation and others represented only the latest effort to acquire privately owned land inside Zion National Park.

The land, known as Firepit Knoll, is located alongside the popular Hop Valley Trail that runs from the Kolob Terrace Road on the roof of Zion north to the Kolob Arch Trail.

The land was purchased by The Trust for Public Land from an Arizona rancher and real estate developer who bought the property over 20 years ago, and recently decided he would like to see it protected as part of the park.

“Partnership is vital to protecting America’s national treasures,” said Will Shafroth, president of the National Park Foundation that provided $304,100 towards the $354,000 purchase price.  “The National Park Foundation’s collaboration with The Trust for Public Land, National Park Trust and donors preserves an important piece of our shared inheritance so that all people can experience it.”

The Trust for Public Land, on announcing the acquisition, cited recent research from The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership stating that 9.52 million acres of public land are “landlocked,” including 264,000 acres in Utah. Across the National Park System, private inholdings cover some 1.6 million acres, according to the National Parks Conservation Association.

At NPCA's Southwest Region office in Salt Lake City, program manager Cory MacNulty said the land purchase had been in the works for some time. She said that since 2012, when the Trust for Public Land helped NPCA acquire 30 acres in the shadow of Tabernacle Dome inside the park, TPL staff has been contacting private inholders to see if they would be willing to sell their land with the end goal of having it donated to the park.

Acquisition of 35 acres on Kolob Terrace in Zion National Park has protected access to the Hop Valley Trail/NPS map

Yet even with this 35-acre acquisition, there remain 32 parcels encompassing more than 3,000 acres in private ownership inside Zion's borders.

"There's quite a bit of private land in Zion, and most of it is up on Kolob Terrace," said MacNulty on Monday. "Most of them are smaller parcels, but there is one landowner that owns a big chunk of that amount."

Of the 3,000 or so acres in private hands, some is used for cattle grazing, some have cabins on them, and some have never been developed, she said.

"It's a real mix. There are some challenges to developing up there. Mainly finding water, and then power," said MacNulty.