What can be done to better manage crowds at Zion National Park and other park units?/NPS
We're getting into the height of the travel season for the National Park System, and parks are reporting monthly visitation records. That's having a strain on park resources and park staff, leading some park managers to consider implementing a reservation system for visitors. But not everyone is on board with that idea.
At Yellowstone National Park, 446,875 people passed through the entrance gates. That's more than a 6 percent increase over last year (419,635 visits) and surpasses May 2016 (444,630 visits) as the busiest May ever in Yellowstone.
At Zion National Park, where park staff have been trying to come up with a workable solution to their chronic overcrowding, public response has not exactly embraced the idea of having to make a reservation to visit this red rock wonder in southwestern Utah.
Many visitors expressed opposition or apprehension over the idea of a reservation system. Commenters often stated they did not know the answer to issues but did not believe a reservation system is the solution. Some commenters suggested if Zion National Park moves forward with a reservation system that this would set a precedent for other national parks. Other commenters stated that requiring a reservation is fundamentally against the mission and values of the National Park Service. -- ZION NATIONAL PARK VISITOR USE MANAGEMENT PLAN PRELIMINARY ALTERNATIVE CONCEPTS PUBLIC COMMENT SUMMARY REPORT
Business owners near Zion National Park are wary about any system that might put a lid on visitation.
“Yes, there’s more to be done to provide a better park experience, a better Southern Utah experience, but we don’t think now is the time to implement a hugely restrictive plan,” Jake Millard, assistant general manager at the Zion Ponderosa Ranch Resort, told the St. George News.
Breck Dockstader, owner of Cliffrose Lodge and Gardens and a member of the Utah Tourism Industry Association and the Zion Canyon Visitors Bureau, told the newspaper that more thought and options are needed before the park resorts to a reservation system.
“Zion is my home, I want to make sure it’s protected so my kids, and all future generations, have a chance to experience what I experienced," he said. "But we can’t just go backwards. We have to look forward and come up with a really innovative way to help protect the incredible resource that Zion is, while also allowing people to come and experience it.”
If you're one who thinks reservations are a bad idea for national parks, what would you suggest? What can park staff do to protect resources -- plants, animals, scenery, facilities -- when confronted with crowding throngs of visitors and when they don't have enough personnel to manage the crowds?
Comments
More shuttle busses and a large parkingplace for all visitors.
During the summer months the majority of visitors to the most popular parks are foreign visitors. These visitors do not understand the enlish language, have never experienced wild animals up close and do not understand the dangers lurking at our national parks. I would propose a 3X increase in admission for all foreign visitors. In addition NPS fees for tour guides should be increased 3X the current fees. Tour guides should be held directly responsible for the actions of all tourists under their control. Guests violating park regulations should be prosecuted and the tour guide should have NPS credentials revoked for all future visits until completing some form of remedial training in park regulations. A second offense should result in a permanent revoke of tour credentials.
Simply pave the entire park and provide social media experiences so visitors may see what used to be there.
But, to be serious about it, overcrowding is a challenge that will require an enormous amount of careful thought and cooperation if it is ever to be solved. There are so many factors feeding into this that there simply cannot be a one size fits all solution.
I just came home from Yellowstone and Grand Teton and noticed that GRTE, although much much smaller than YELL, with visitation that doesn't lag too far behind its bigger cousin, doesn't have anywhere near the feeling of crowding. Yes, parking lots are full and often overflowed, but just a short distance away I often found myself nearly alone.
I began to realize that it may well be a matter of geography. In Yellowstone, there really are relatively few places where visitors may spread out. The park -- although vast in size -- is really primarily a concentration of only a few dozen places and things most visitors want to see. Geyser basins; Yellowstone canyon; the lake. In those places, visitors are confined to boardwalks without many other options unless they are willing and prepared to head off into the backcountry with backpacks. They are drawn by things they've heard of all their lives and now are striving to see for themselves.
But in GRTE, there are many, many more miles of trails. Trails that, for whatever reason, seem to be more inviting than those up north. The park has long had a reputation as a place where people are invited to get out of their cars and go exploring. The park provides excellent trail maps and visitors are not penned into boardwalks because there's little danger of being boiled alive.
The same kind of thing is true of Yosemite where visitation is primarily centered in just three primary areas -- Yosemite Valley, Glacier Point, and Wawaona Grove. The Tioga Road, Tuolome Meadows and high Sierra are more isolated and certainly less well known to many visitors. And there's more room up there for people to spread out.
Because of those geographic differences, and perhaps because visitor expectations are very different, GRTE at least appears to be less crowded than either of the other two.
Another factor that certainly must be playing a very large role in visitation is the fact that an entire relatively brand new industry has been exploding around us. RVs and travel trailers are inviting more and more of us -- and our international friends from around the world -- to hook up and haul our lodging with us to the parks. Not far from where I'm sitting right now there are two huge RV dealerships. One advertises that they have 500 (yes, five hundred) units on their lot. The other is at least half that. All those things are going to wind up somewhere, and our parks will certainly host many of them. On top of that, I've noticed another recent phenomenon. MANY European and Asian visitors are now renting RVs and joining the Americans who use them. Just finding room for them will be nearly overwhelming. (But one maybe hopeful note is that there seem to be more and more of what I call "sensible" campers who are eschewing huge camperosauri, purchasing or renting smaller units instead. Yet that's not really a solution. It will just make it easier for them to find sites capable of holding them. Competition for campsites may well become even more intense.
Any attempt to try to solve visitation problems with regulations, fees, reservations, or other "simple" solutions will probably fail. Each park in our list of 415 or so, is so uniquely different that it will be impossible to find a single answer for all of them.
I don't know the answer -- and obiously no one else does, either. But it doesn't mean there are no answers. We just have to be smart enough to try to work together to put aside the enormous political and monetary threats and seek the best ways we can to meet the conflicting mandates of conservation and enjoyment.
Those are bizarre suggestions. How do you propose that guides "train" their clients?
And now it's going to require proof of citizenship in order to avoid paying the higher fee? So I'm going to need the same documents I would need to return from Canada?
The most obvious would be to stop marketing them for a period of time at least.
Eliminate some of the creature comforts. I have a long list but the train has left the station so to speak so I don't see us going back to days of no cell phone towers, wifi, hotels, restaurants, etc.
I would move the visitor centers either outside the park or to the borders. Those always seem to be some of the more crowded / congested areas.
I am opposed to charging foreign visitors more.
It's not just our parks:
https://www.deseretnews.com/user/comments/900023453/going-camping-or-hik...
"It's not just our parks:"
Well maybe in deference to one of Al's favorite soap boxes we should pass out birth control at the park entrances. The world is getting smaller all the time. I'm just grateful I'm old enough that I was able to see so many wonderful places without the crowds and sad that our youth never will.
Promote the less visited parks. Reservation systems turn into scalping opportunities and the park experience ends up getting sold on Stubhub and Craigslist just like a concert ticket or a ball game.