Zion's announcement that there would be no shuttle service in January was not warmly received/NPS
Zion National Park in Utah long has had a problem with too many people in too little space, and that likely will continue into the new year for some time.
"May as well go to Disneyland, crowds are less," wrote one person who follows Zion's Instagram feed after the park announced there would be no shuttle service from Springdale, Utah, into Zion Canyon in January.
"We expect that shuttles will return for President's Day Weekend and weekends after that until they start everyday service in March," the park's post said. "When we are not using shuttles, we expect the Canyon parking to fill up every day, especially early on weekends and holidays. If the parking is full, access may be difficult or impossible."
Zion is one of a number of parks -- Acadia, Arches, Yosemite, Yellowstone, Glacier, Grand Canyon, Rocky Mountain and others -- that get clogged with vehicles and visitors at times during the year. While the park staff has been working on a strategic plan to solve the overcrowding issue, when the plan might surface for public review hasn't been announced.
Acadia staff last year gained approval to work on a reservation system to control congestion in the park, while Arches staff is searching for a solution after Interior Department staff told them not to look to a reservation approach.
When Zion staff announced on New Year's Eve via Instagram that shuttles would not be running in January, the news was not warmly embraced.
"Permit lottery with priority for Americans," read one reply.
"But why no shuttles if parking is filling up?" wrote another follower.
"I’m curious why the shuttles are discontinued for one month if they are needed. Why not weekend and holiday shuttle service? Do the drivers just get laid off for the month?" wrote another.
Park staff did not immediately respond to the questions.
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Comments
Greed. That is the reason for the overcrowding. When I first moved to Springdale, there was an open pasture in town with a small herd of elk. It had that small town feel.
But that disappeared to be replaced by a huge hotel. Then more hotels.
"Build it and they will come " was the mantra.
Simple greed and bad planning!
Yellowstone's park superintendent doesn't even believe there is any real overcrowding problem there. He thinks that, compared to rush hour traffic in places like NYC or LA, the visitors that he considers important, who are apparently the ones from places like NYC or LA, don't even notice. As far as he's concerned, the vehicular traffic congestion on the roads or the pedestrians lining up trying to get into the grossly undermaintained outhouses in Yellowstone is just fine and it's really just the older workers who can't cope with modern times who are fomenting trouble and are the real problem. After all, packed crowds are good for concessionaires' sales and shuttles depress car rental profits.
If the busses ran all year the park service would have to give drivers benifits .
Sounds like another super who buys into what's destroying the nation Trumpism! Yellowstone is the crown jewel of our National Parks!
Why do liberals/lefties feel a need to blame our President for every problem in our country? This shows how shallow, uninformed and naive they are. This was a problem before he took office
Go into the Yellowstone backcountry. You'll have it all to yourself. It's hard to call it overcrowded when the parking lots at old faithful are overflowing but there's millions of empty acres.
I visit the National Parks frequently but mostly out of the peak seasons because of the crowds. I think that people from countries not USA should be limited to specific numbers,what I see are very large numbers of foreign visitors that take over many sections of the parks, have you ever been in a turnout taking a photo when a group of two or three busses pull in and all of a sudden 60 or 70 people are running in front of you. Hotels are filled up by bus companies that buy up rooms a year or two ahead of time so American families pay high prices for a room if they can get one. Bus companies are a major reason that the parks that were set aside for Americans are now to crowded and unaffordable for Americans. My suggestion is to limit the number of busses that are causing most of the problems. Let Americans enjoy the parks that they pay for and were set aside for.
USA citizens should be given priority to visit OUR national parks. Quadruple the admission fees to non-citizens. The experience of visiting Zion or many of our other famous national parks has been diminished by the crowds. It seem as if half the visitors to our national parks are from Asia. BTW, many national parks in Africa do the same.