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

Editor's note: This updates with comments from Zion officials, reaction from the National Parks Conservation Association, adds that Springdale, Utah, council opposed race.

National Park Service officials have agreed to temporarily close key access roads to Zion National Park in Utah to allow a stage of the Tour of Utah bike race to roll through the park in August, although the ceremonial ride will be largely out of public sight. 

The stage, the first of the tour, will be run on August 1 and require the temporary closing of roads that lead to Zion Canyon in the heart of the park.

“It’s definitely a concern," park spokeswoman Aly Baltrus replied Thursday when asked about staging such an event at the height of the park's summer season. "But again, this is our centennial year and the Tour of Utah is focusing on that centennial, so we decided to allow it just for that one time event so we will have to deal with the crowds. There will be some closures, but we’re just going to have to deal with it.”

Nearly 300 riders are entered in the professional race, which will open with the ceremonial ride through Zion National Park and end seven stages later, on Aug. 7, in the ski resort town of Park City.

At Zion on the first day of the race, the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway and Tunnel in the park will be closed in the morning "to accommodate the cyclists with the least amount of disruption to park visitors," a release from Zion said. "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."

Though being "promoted" to showcase exercise and outdoor recreation, the stage will be held in "early morning, when visitation is historically low and roadway closures would have the least effect on visitor access to the park," and race spectator and staging areas will not be allowed in the park. 

Ms. Baltrus said the promotion of Zion will be most obvious when the race is televised at a later date. She did not, however, know how large that television audience might be.

“To bring that audience that will be watching the Tour of Utah to see what Zion looks like, to get people to be thinking about bicycling in general ... again, with the National Park Service, for our centenial, we are looking for centennial events, things that are just once-in-a-lifetime. It will literally be here, the closures will be up and down in less than an hour," she said. "We feel like even though we are busy that we will be able to bounce back from that. It's not like it’s closed for multi-hours or huge distances. It won’t affect the shuttle for very long, it will be a very short rolling closure. We’re working with the tour to make everything as easy as possible."

National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis, who not too many years ago said professional bike racing was not appropriate or necessary in the park system, was unavailable Thursday to comment on the decision.

At the National Parks Conservation Association, Southwest Senior Regional Director David Nimkin was disappointed by the decision.

“I have to think that there’s some element of politics in this that prevails," he said. 

“They’re going to have a demonstration of how to ride bikes through the park. Well, no one is going to get to do that ever again," Mr. Nimkin continued. “And no one’s going to see it. The point that we made in our letter (to Park Service officials) was what is the precedent that is established here? I feel like on so many levels, the battles that we face, the big ones, the high-ticket items that people can relate to and see, like the big development on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, or the Escalade project, those are very tangible. But it’s these smaller elements that are cuts that just bleed you to death."

The NPCA official also noted that at Springdale, Utah, the gateway to Zion, the town council voted against the race. More than 50 residents in Springdale and nearby Rockville, Utah, also signed a letter asking the Park Service to deny the tour's request, he said.

"Certainly a lot of (Springdale's) key leaders are saying, ‘We don’t want it. We don’t want it in the middle of the summer with all these people here, we don’t want this distraction. It’s not adding to our quality of life, it’s not adding to our economy,'" said Mr. Nimkin.

While we appreciate the desire of the Tour of Utah organizers and supporters to start the race in Zion National Park to showcase Utah’s most popular national park during the NPS centennial year, this event is not the appropriate way to celebrate this milestone.  A professional sporting event that closes the park, even temporarily, is not uniquely suited and appropriate to the superlative natural and cultural resources found in Zion National Park.  There are many alternative and more appropriate routes for this event in Southwestern Utah and siting the start of the Tour of Utah bicycle race in Zion is not fundamental to its success. -- From Mr. Nimkin's letter to Park Service officials stating NPCA's opposition to the race starting in Zion.

Zion in recent years has struggled mightily with crowding.

Last year Zion recorded 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)