National Park Service officials have approved a stage of the Tour of Utah bike race to roll up this road in Zion National Park on August 1/Kurt Repanshek file photo

Zion National Park, one of the most crowded and congested units of the National Park System in summer, one where visitors can spend an hour or more simply waiting to get into iconic Zion Canyon, will temporarily close public access on August 1 to allow for a professional bike race.

That's right. Amid the never-ending #FindYourPark drumbeat this centennial year, the National Park Service has added a tiny asterisk for Zion: don't find this park on August 1.

What is the National Park Service thinking?

In billing this commercial bike race with its nearly 300-rider peloton as a "demonstration" event, a "one-time only event" to promote the National Park Service Centennial, the agency is overreaching and turning Zion into a pretty backdrop for a professional bike race that not only will further snarl visitation to the already overcrowded park but be conducted largely out of public view and provide no tangible benefit in return.

"The Zion-Mount Carmel Highway and Tunnel in the park will be closed for a short period of time early in the morning to accommodate the cyclists with the least amount of disruption to park visitors," reads a release from Zion. "This will be a one-time only event that will promote the NPS Centennial goal of connecting with and creating the next generation of park visitors, supporters and advocates. The Tour of Utah ride through the park is a unique opportunity for the NPS to connect with a large multi-national audience that follows this and other cycling events."

Connect with a large multi-national audience? Isn't that connection already solidly in place? Out of 411 units in the National Park System, Zion ranked 24th last year in visitors.

Zion long has been world-renowned for its soaring sandstone cliffs that attract both climbers and condors, the incredible Zion Narrows, the redrock landscape that shimmers under the sun. Will a bike race really entice "the next generation of park visitors"? Is that next generation a generation of bike racers?

Perhaps, considering the growing proliferation of drone pilots, the Park Service should have a "demonstration event" in Zion or Yellowstone to showcase how you can #FindYourPark through the beautiful photography made possible by drones. At least that wouldn't require shutting the public out of a park, no matter how temporarily.

Professional bike racing and national parks long have been controversial -- years ago, Yosemite National Park officials declined a request to run a race through Yosemite Valley, and more recently the Park Service declined a request for a pro bike race to weave through Colorado National Monument -- but the appeal of pelotons streaming through the grandeur of a national park keeps race organizers coming back again and again to seek permission.

What prompted Park Service Director Jon Jarvis, who not too many years ago stated that professional bike racing is "neither necessary nor appropriate" for a unit of the park system, to pull a 180-degree about-face? According to a report in the Salt Lake Tribune, the director decided back in March to OK this race. His staff did not respond Thursday to an interview request.

Interestingly, while this stage of the Tour of Utah is being "promoted" to showcase exercise and outdoor recreation, it will be a promotion without a live audience. There will be no helicopter or drone flights allowed to film the race, it is scheduled "for early morning, when visitation is historically low and roadway closures would have the least effect on visitor access to the park," and race spectators and staging areas will not be allowed in the park.

In other words, it will be a promotion largely out of sight. Except, of course, for generating the backed-up crowds of park visitors waiting to get into Zion, where officials have been urging visitors to arrive before 9 a.m. to avoid the worst of crowding. That likely won't please officials in Springdale, Utah, the gateway to Zion, who are on record as opposing the race.

In acquiescing to this race, and Utah's congressional delegation, the Park Service is turning its back on visitors who made vacation plans many months ago -- no doubt some once-in-a-lifetime plans -- and never anticipated that a professional bike race would impact their visit.

The agency also seems to be turning a blind eye to the crowding issues the park is struggling with. And while it searches for the "next generation" of park visitors, what message is the Park Service sending to the current one?

Last year, Zion struggled with a record 3.6 million visits. Through May of this year, the park counted 1.4 million visitors, a tally up more than 9 percent over last year. Early this year, in their "State of the Park" report, Zion managers said natural resources are being strained by development of inholdings and properties surrounding the park, its air quality is impaired by pollutants, and overcrowding is impacting the visitor experience.

So crowded has Zion become that just last month the park staff held public meetings to solicit input on how to improve the visitor experience. The strain of visitation on Zion is visible and has been voiced by Superintendent Jeff Bradybaugh.

"We have 15 miles of paved trail in Zion Canyon itself, and we're tracking 30 miles of social trails that we're trying to rehab," the superintendent told the Traveler last fall. "But people keep tromping on them."

"Anywhere where people may park ... they make beelines to things they want to see, as opposed to taking a developed trail," he continued while discussing both crowding in his park and the behavior of some visitors. "And, of course, we have the usual things, switchbacks; just the sheer volume of people. It's outstripping our ability to cope with it. Graffiti, and lots more graffiti than we’ve ever seen before, and just a different behavior in our visitors." (emphasis added)

At the National Parks Conservation Association, David Nimkin, senior regional director for the park advocacy group's Southwest Region, worries about the crowding the #FindYourPark campaign is generating and its potential long-term effect.

"With all the #FindYourPark messaging, it’s like a tipping point where the ability of our parks to sustain visitation just sort of reinforces the Yogi Berra message: ‘This place is getting to be so popular nobody goes there anymore,'" Mr. Nimkin said Thursday.

A decade ago, the Park Service adopted policies, after national public involvement and 45,000 public comments, stating that a special event may be permitted "when there is a meaningful association between the park area and the event" and "when the event will contribute to visitor understanding of the park area."

This race fails on both accounts and should have been turned down when it first was proposed.