You are here

Move To Change Access To Fiery Furnace In Arches National Park Draws Ire

Share
Skull Arch, Arches National Park/NPS, Neal Herbert

Beginning in 2017, you'll have to join a ranger or a friend experienced with hiking the Fiery Furnace to see Skull Arch/NPS, Neal Herbert

A move Superintendent Kate Cannon believes will lead to better management of visitation to the Fiery Furnace in Arches National Park has drawn the ire of guiding businesses and a member of Congress, who see the changes as unnecessary and economically crippling to the guides and damaging to the unique geologic niche of the park.

A red rock maze of fins, arches, and canyons in the heart of the park, the Fiery Furnace long has been a highlight for many visitors to Arches in southeastern Utah. Up until 2008 or 2009, according to the superintendent, 125 people were able to enter the Fiery Furnace each day: 50 went with ranger-guided tours, and the remaining 75 were individual parties that succeeded in landing a permit (currently $6 per person 13 and older, $3 for those aged 5-12). But then, 25 permits were taken away from the general public and distributed to commercial guiding services, explained Superintendent Cannon.

Since that option was added, the number of guiding businesses holding Commercial Use Authorizations (CUAs) for leading hikes in the park rose dramatically, to nearly 90 today, she said.

"When you get that many people with the potential (to seek permits), there gets to be competition between the different companies. And it gets pretty hard to manage. There’s not really a good way to manage it," she said. "We’ve just manufactured an untenable management scheme. I don’t think when the decision was made to start with CUAs we ever thought that it would get so large that there’s no reasonable way to fairly distribute those few spaces.”

Rising, too, was the cost of a trip through the Fiery Furnace for those who were inexperienced with the labyrinthian passages and felt they needed a professional guide.

“After a while, you start a black market in permits. And you really do," Superintendent Cannon said, "because I think they can charge whatever they want. I think it's about $100 per person." 

For a while, the CUA permits were issued on a first-come, first-served basis, a practice that led to the guides lining up early in the morning at the park's permit office. At one point, guides figured they could leave a clipboard in line to hold their spot, said Superintendent Cannon. Park officials replaced that arrangement with a kind of lottery in which they would draw numbers out of a hat to determine which CUA holders received permits, she said. That drew protests from some companies, which complained that there no longer was any value to being first in line for permits, said the superintendent.

Finally, on September 12, the superintendent announced to all CUA holders that the Fiery Furnace would be off-limits to commercial guides beginning in 2017; their ticket allotment would be made available for the general public. The commercial guides would, however, still have access to 24 other trail systems in the park to lead tours, she said.

But that decision isn't sitting well with guiding companies.

"They’re going to ruin it, basically. They’re not just wrecking my business, they’re going to ruin the Fiery Furnace," charged Mike Coronella, owner of Deep Desert Expeditions. "They’re going to trample it and the experience will be gone.”

Coronella, whose company charges $90 per person for tours of the Fiery Furnace, maintains that park staff arbitrarily reached the decision to block professional guides from the area.

“That was their solution to finding a better way of distributing the permits. Certainly a solution that nobody was looking for," said the guide, who added that he was unable to reach park officials to discuss their decision. “It’s been really disappointing. ... I’m at the point now where I don’t think talking to the Southeast Utah Group (which is comprised of Arches and Canyonlands national parks and Hovenweep and Natural Bridges national monuments) has any value.

"To me it just speaks of terrible management. I don’t know if this is going to change until management changes.”

Also weighing in on the matter was U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah, who wrote Superintendent Cannon to say the move "needs to be reversed immediately."

"These commercial guides are true stewards of the land, as their entire businesses (sic) model depends on the preservation and protection of these public lands," he wrote. "Further, the guides provide recreation opportunities to those who otherwise may not have the means or knowhow (sic) to experience the natural beauty of the Furnace. We should be expanding these programs, not restricting them."

The Fiery Furnace is an easy place to get lost if you haven't traveled through it. It's a beautifully sculpted area of the park that's heavily concentrated with red rock wonders that reflect the erosional processes that carved the national park's landscape out of the Colorado Plateau.

"There are no trails, signs, or cairns in the Fiery Furnace," the park's website states. "GPS units do not work well due to the towering sandstone walls. Navigating its complex passages requires physical agility and careful observation."

But along with banning commercial guides from the Fiery Furnace next year, park officials will install some sort of marked trail system, said Superintendent Cannon.

"We do plan to delineate the trail, which is a way to keep people on the trail so that they aren’t wandering off, making social trails and getting lost," she said. "All of those tie in together. We also intend to add NPS foot patrols in there more often and carefully maintain the delineation of the trail.”

Superintendent Cannon said the plan also calls for reducing the number of spots on the ranger-led tours from 25 to 15 to reduce the impact those groups have on the experience and resource. Private groups also will be downsized, she said, from 15 to 10 individuals. Overall, however, the 125-visitors-per-day limit will remain; 75 permits for the general public, and 50 via ranger-guided hikes.

Comments

My family had the opportunity to participate in a commercial guided hike through the Fiery Furnace this summer and could have not asked for a better experience. The ranger led hikes were reserved like a year in advance, not something that is always obtainable for the average American worker's schedule. Even a smaller group size of 25 seems far from ideal. We were blessed to be able to hire a company that was willing to stand in line (the night before) to obtain the permits. The small group size of our 5, no marked trail system, and the care, concern, and teaching of environmental stewardship by our guide Micah, of Hike Moab, was beyond any expereince we had hoped for. 14 National Parks over the period of 7 weeks, and the Fiery Furnace commercially guided hike was the highlight of our family's adventures. I would support keeping this option for the public!


I definitely side with the Superintendent.  These commercial guiding busnesses are just irritated they won't make as much money.  They could care less about the park.  That being said more permits need to be available.


Commercial guides are the real stewards of the land--we watch what happens in places like the Fiery Furnace and keep people within the scope of the regulations.
I call the Fiery Furnace "my office"...to say it's simply about money is simply ignorant...to say we don't care about the land is simply dishonest.


Such is the paradox of "government owned" land. Since it's owned and paid-for by "everyone," no-one has a right to use it and no-one really cares to clean it up or keep it as-is or develop it or whatever. Basic economics shows that scarce resources should cost a lot in a free market, but when something is scarce yet "free" then there is over-demand for that resource, and then politicans choose who gets special access.

Things should cost whatever people are willing to pay--the park service could really fund itself by offering special access for a market price and keeping other areas "free" (as in park entrance fee "free").


Emily Walker, what you described was exactly what my experience in the fiery furnace also. 

Additionally, our guide (Mac Loyd),took our small group of 4 family members, at a very reasonable price and accomodated our schedule so it fit into our impromptu visit to the park.

Like your experience Emily, this was a highlight of our whole trip to Utah, and I'd do it again with our next visit, were it available. 

Frankly, the news that these bureaucrats decided that guides are no longer allowed to guide in the Fiery Furnace is unbelievable to me.

I'm ready to make it hotter than the Fiery Furnace at noon for whomever was behind this decision.


Add comment

CAPTCHA

This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.

The Essential RVing Guide

The Essential RVing Guide to the National Parks

The National Parks RVing Guide, aka the Essential RVing Guide To The National Parks, is the definitive guide for RVers seeking information on campgrounds in the National Park System where they can park their rigs. It's available for free for both iPhones and Android models.

This app is packed with RVing specific details on more than 250 campgrounds in more than 70 parks.

You'll also find stories about RVing in the parks, some tips if you've just recently turned into an RVer, and some planning suggestions. A bonus that wasn't in the previous eBook or PDF versions of this guide are feeds of Traveler content: you'll find our latest stories as well as our most recent podcasts just a click away.

So whether you have an iPhone or an Android, download this app and start exploring the campgrounds in the National Park System where you can park your rig.