Large crowds have convinced Zion National Park officials to resume daily operations of shuttle buses through Nov. 8/Kurt Repanshek
As crowds continue to descend on Zion National Park in southwestern Utah, park officials have decided to resume daily shuttle operations to alleviate parking problems.
The shuttles were returning to service today, and would continue daily operations through November 8, a park release said. The shuttles will also run on weekends through November 22, and on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of Thanksgiving week.
Shuttle service routinely ends the last Sunday of October. However, on Monday there was far more traffic than the Zion Canyon Scenic Drive, with its 400 or so parking spaces, could accommodate safely. At 10 a.m., once all the authorized parking spaces were filled, entry to Zion Canyon Scenic Drive was regulated to allow visitors to enter the Scenic Drive only as others departed. A number of people who were planning on visiting Zion Canyon were unable to due to the traffic safety, congestion and parking difficulties.
For Tuesday, park managers decided to open up some limited roadside parking in areas that did not create traffic or pedestrian safety issues, impede ambulance or fire vehicles, or cause resource damage. However, even those spots were not enough to alleviate the situation.
The park has arranged with the shuttle company, Parks Transportation Incorporated (PTI), to resume daily service today through November 8. Shuttle service in the park will operate between 7 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. This will be mandatory for access to the Zion Canyon Scenic Drive, as is usual during shuttle season. Visitors can board the shuttle in the usual locations within the park and on the Springdale Town route. A single shuttle bus will run through Springdale starting at the Majestic Lodge at 9 a.m. The last town shuttle will leave the park’s pedestrian entrance at approximately 6:45 p.m.
Zion's visitation has increased by almost a million people over the past two years. The park has tried to adapt to the increase by starting the shuttle three weeks early in 2015, adding shuttles to the daily schedule, and providing weekend service in November and for the Thanksgiving holiday.
However, Zion National Park is faced with a capacity issue at more than a few frontcountry and backcountry locations. Visitors are having difficulty finding parking in the park and Springdale even when the shuttles are running. Overtaxed parking, traffic congestion and intermingled pedestrians has raised safety concerns along roadways, the park release said.
Overcrowding is occurring on some trails at peak times diminishing the extraordinary “Zion experience.” Park infrastructure, including roads, trails and facilities are seeing additional wear and tear accelerating their lifecycle maintenance replacement needs. Damage to the park resources, such as social trailing and human waste have increased dramatically.
“For years we have heard the expression ‘Zion is being loved to death,’” said park Superintendent Jeff Bradybaugh. “Together with our partners and nearby communities, we must address these problems.”
In 2016, Zion will begin a Visitor Use Management Plan. That process will help define the park’s capacity in key areas. Over the next two to three years, the park will test a number of adaptive management strategies to determine the most effective way to promote safe, enjoyable experiences, protect park resources, ease visitor crowding, and manage traffic and parking congestion as part of the planning process.
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Comments
Two observations:
1. This, unfortunately, may well be the future of our parks. Zion is not the only one where carrying capacity is regularly overtaxed. Many others are also experiencing the same kinds of problems. Arches and Muir Woods to name but two. The answer is NOT more or larger parking lots inside the parks. In Zion, however, a possible answer may lie just about nine miles outside the park. There is a lot of BLM land just south of Rockville. Could some of that land be turned into parking lots for Zion with extended shuttle service?
2. Although I shudder to think about it, might it be time to seriously consider following the lead of Muir Woods (as reported the other day in Traveler) and starting to require reservations just to enter the park?
At least some of our parks are at a crossroad. Do we conserve these wonderful places for future generations? Or do we sacrifice them for the enjoyment of the present generation? Time to be thinking about that is not some time in the future. It's NOW!
I have to wonder about the thought process that led to the decision to shut down the shuttles early. You are running 10-15% ahead of last year's visitation. Wouldn't it make more sense to extend the shuttle schedule rather than shortenit?
They were not shut down early. It was the date that has been used for several years. Normally, use in Zion drops off very sharply in mid-October. This has been a very unusual year in many of our parks. Zion was absolutely jammed when I was there both on New Years and the middle of May. Yellowstone and Grand Teton were crawling with visitors at the first of this month. There appears to be an almost entirely new dynamic of visitation at work right now and no one seems to really know why it's happening.
It would be useful for the Parks to have some basic demographic information on the visitors at this time of year: my own sense, and common sense, prompts me to think that the Baby Boom retirees are swelling the numbers of shoulder-season visitors, as they have resources and in 2015 the first part of the big wave of the 50's is hitting age 65. Visiting national parks is on most people's list of things to do when they have time, and even if the percentage who do so of this large cohort is small, the cohort is so big that the number of visitors will be large.
Also, it's a mild autumn; travel is still good.
And gas is under $2.50 a gallon. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to predict that visitation would be higher.
Anon, you're largely correct. But based just on my personal observations these last several months, there's still a good mix of American visitors of all ages. I was surprised when in YELL and GRTE earlier how many families with children were camping and traveling. I was wondering why all those kids were not in school.
Then there are the ENORMOUS numbers of buses filled with mainly Chinese visitors. And many Taiwanese, Japanese and Koreans who seem more likely to travel on their own -- many camping with brand new tents or in RV rentals.
Here in Utah, our tourism people seem unable to really account for the increases. Numbers have shot up astronomically. News reports all have contained words of bewilderment by the department of tourism -- but happy that all that extra money is flowing into the state.
As stated in the article and other responses, they shut down at the normal time. These shuttle services are contracted out, they are not free to the park, and are likely fairly expensive. The balance of cost vs. need comes into play and weather does too. You get a nice weekend forecast and boom, you get a huge inflow of people. Bad weather, and you could probably park a grayhound bus pretty much wherever you want.
It's a tough balancing act, and often these contracts are set well in advance. This extension is likely very expensive since it's in addition to the normal negotiated deal.
Some readers may find this article interesting. It's from the Kane County newspaper in Kanab, one of the gateway towns to Zion and a hotbed of anti-federal lands folks.
http://www.sunews.net/article.cfm?articleID=1854
But it sounds as if this meeting was quite amicable.