With the year winding down, so is the shuttle service at Zion National Park in Utah.
The mandatory park shuttles will run on weekends only October 24 through November 22, and also on November 26, 27, and 28, 2015 for the Thanksgiving holiday traffic. All shuttle bus operations will end for the 2015 season on the evening of Saturday, November 28.
The buses start running from the Zion Canyon Visitor Center at 7 a.m. The last bus leaves the Temple of Sinawava at 6:44 p.m. Shuttle service frequency should be less than 10 minutes. Round-trips from the Zion Canyon Visitor Center to the Temple of Sinawava take about 70 minutes due to stops. There is no charge for riding the shuttle buses. There are eight stops along the route and visitors may get on and off as many times as they want.
Buses are fully accessible, pets are not allowed. Visitors with Thankgiving dinner reservations at Zion Lodge will need to ride the shuttle. Additional shuttle service will be available for diners until 10:30 p.m.
On the days the shuttle buses are not running, private vehicles will be allowed on the Zion Canyon Scenic Drive until parking is full. There are approximately 400 parking spaces in Zion Canyon. Visitors should be prepared for the road to be closed once all designated parking spaces are occupied. Visitors with overnight reservations for Zion Lodge will not be affected.
Comments
GOOD! Am I correct in thinking that this is the first time this has been done?
Not good! Yesterday, the first day without the shuttle they closed access to Zion Canyon at 9:30 am because the parking lots were all full. Unless you were fit enough to walk or bike in you were turned away. The shuttles are still needed.
The past 2 days the parking lots were full in the morning. People trying to park all over. Rangers posted at the lots essentially turning people away. Some tried parking along the road wherever they could. A real mess. Alot of idling cars...."wonderful" for increased exhaust levels. At the same time, how is the absence of the shi=uttles a cost savings when, as we saw, there were as many as 2-3 Park employees posted at every parking lot to, presumably, try and deal with the parking issues cropping up? An ineffective management decision to eliminate daily shuttle service in advance of the end of this month. The Park was crowded the past 2 days; clealry there would have been plenty of people using the shuttles if they were still there.