Southern Yosemite Mountain Guides is one of countless park-related businesses that have taken an economic hit from the coronavirus pandemic. But they report keen interest in 2021 guided treks, such as their John Muir Trail trips/Southern Yosemite Mountain Guides, Chris Plewa

As a growing number of businesses relying on visitation to the national parks face the stark reality of an obliterated April and possibly much curtailed revenue in the subsequent summer and fall months, staying calm and being flexible seem to be the best, perhaps only, options.

“It’s an emotional time, and we don’t want to make it hard for people. So we’re trying to be as flexible as possible,” said Graham Ottley, general manager of Southern Yosemite Mountain Guides, regarding cancellations.

Located in Oakhurst, Calif., SYMG provides a wide range of guided hiking and climbing tours in Yosemite National Park.  The company’s offerings include day hikes, 23-day backcountry wilderness trips, and student educational programs.

Ottley said SYMG’s phones are typically “ringing off the hook” this time of year, and most of the 12-person day trips are typically sold out at this point in the season. The company still has reservations on the books, but only about one-third the volume of a normal year.  And cancellations for day hikes and backcountry trips are increasing for May and June. Re-bookings for 2021 provide a glimmer of hope, and many SYMG customers are taking that route. Ottley said the company’s two 23-day John Muir Trail backpacking trips, which navigate through three national parks, are almost sold out for 2021, and that typically doesn’t happen until December.

“The (coronavirus) situation can cause a real emotional response in people,” he said. “Sometimes people get frantic when normally they’d just be a little put-out. So we’re trying not to add to the plate of issues they’re dealing with. We’re kind of making it easier for them to book their travel experience in the future.”

SYMG is offering full credit without expiration dates for those who wish to push their trips further out in the season or next year but don’t yet know the dates. Additionally, SYMG is extending final payment due dates from 90 days to 60 days in advance.

“I’ve sort of thought of this in terms of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, where people are concerned for their health right now and not necessarily considering vacation or their summer plans as much. We are working with people and being as flexible as we can while still trying to keep doors open and lights on,” he explained.

Last year SYMG’s team of 30 seasonal guides led 200 day hikes, 24 backpacking trips, 100 days of rock climbing, a dozen stock-supported trips plus two excursions to Patagonia. These seasonal workers are taking a hit, Ottley said.  Additionally, three of SYMG’s five-person administrative team are on temporary unpaid furlough. Ottley said the situation is presenting an emotional as well as financial disconnect for staffers who thrive on the outdoors.

“It’s a passion for us. It’s something we love to do. So the idea of not serving people this year is really hard all the way round on a lot of different levels.”

Ottley acknowledged the shattering impact the shutdowns are having on ancillary local businesses that serve SYMG clients. He cited Fresno and Lone Pine area hotels, transportation companies, and most of the packer services in the Sierra that support hikers with mule train-conveyed gear and food.  

“It is a ripple effect and it’s not just about us.”

Some of Southern Yosemite Mountain Guides' programs are educational in teaching skills for navigating the outdoors/Southern Yosemite Mountain Guides, Elliot Ross

Take Discover Yosemite in Oakhurst, Calif., one of the local businesses that provides transportation services for SYMG clientele.  It, too, is already feeling the coronavirus pinch with its April books now stripped of reservations and many already cancelled for May.

With a fleet of eight vehicles, including 9-, 14-, and 27-seat touring vans and buses plus two Cadillac Escalades, Discover Yosemite offers a variety of group, public and private tours of the park, plus transportation to and from the airport, train station and hotels.

Founder and owner Dee Ann Smith, 62, said she was in a reasonable good financial position, thanks to a steadily growing business that she started in 2008. Having virtually eliminated all personal and business debt two years ago, she was just beginning to formulate a retirement plan.

But that was before the one-two punch of the Covid-19 crisis and the Ferguson wildfire during the summer of 2018, which decimated nearly 100,000 acres in and around Yosemite in both the Sierra and Stanislaus national forests. The wildfire disaster cut her business by half that year. Bookings recovered in 2019, but only slightly. And 2020 was the year she was hoping to spring back completely from the wildfire hit and return to the high numbers of previous years-- nearly 9,000 private and public tours in 2017. 

“I worked really, really hard,” she explained. “I never planned to have debt again, and this (coronavirus) put a damper on my plans. On the other hand, I feel if I weren’t in a good position to weather these storms, things would be a lot worse. I’m not sure I could have survived disaster number two under those circumstances.”

Smith laughed, “I sound like an advertisement for Dave Ramsey, right?”

Smith is looking for ways to adapt to a possible new business model. She had placed a deposit on and was scheduled to pick up a new 27-seat touring bus from a supplier in Colorado.  Now she is currently considering whether to swap out the bus for two smaller vehicles, anticipating a lasting decline in large tours going forward and being in a better position to serve an increase in smaller family groups.

“Our business is exactly what they don’t want people to do,” she said. “We take people from all over the world, put them together in a small space and drive them around for eight hours. I’m thinking that’s going to be frowned upon.”  

Smith said the company employs up to 20 people at peak season in driver/guide positions, office staff and maintenance.  Besides Smith, there’s only one other person in the office now, and that staffer is working part-time. She said most of her employees live in the area. Some hold jobs with the National Park Service, and others are retirees, content with seasonal work. She stays connected with her staff with weekly emails to address rampant uncertainty by sharing news and information she garners from her local congressman’s office and Visit California, a nonprofit marketing organization promoting travel to the state. 

The contagion of dwindling business is not just being experienced by her staff. Discover Yosemite’s two most important vendors include an Oakhurst grocery store that last year supplied $41,000 in picnic lunches served on the tours and an auto service shop that provided $40,000 in vehicle maintenance and repair. The shop has closed.

“The thing that makes it hard for our area is that, having lost a season, this one will be all that much harder because we’re still in recovery,” she said.

But if there is an encouraging sign for her; she said the company had been experiencing a greater than normal number of early bookings for summer, and reservations for May have not yet been cancelled. To her, the early bookings were a hopeful trend, considering that 50 percent of business is booked the day before by last-minute travelers who wait till they arrive in the park to assess their options. So from her perspective, there is still hope that the season can be salvaged.

“It’s hard to say how fast people will get back to making plans. And the unknown is the most difficult part,” she said. “I just know it’s going to be fine in the end. I just have to tell myself every day it’s going to be fine.” 

The coronavirus pandemic has led to a drop in bookings for the Annie Mae Lodge in Gustavus, Alaska/Annie Mae Lodge

Struggling businesses based in northern California are one thing, as other opportunities are more likely to be found in the dense urban areas of San Francisco and Sacramento. But imagine the sheltering-in-place impact on a 450-person community accessible only by air or boat and whose economy is heavily reliant on just three months of tourism. That’s the case with Gustavus, Alaska, a remote 38-square-mile town surrounded by Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve and the Icy Strait, the most northern body of water that connects the Pacific Ocean to the Inside Passage.

Though businesses in gateway communities serving the national parks are facing devastating issues, Gustavus seems to have some especially daunting challenges. For starters, Glacier Bay National Park is now closed at least until July 1, and the Alaska State Ferry, which makes twice-weekly passenger and freight runs from Juneau into Gustavus, has ceased operations into the town’s terminal while it makes infrastructure improvements. The ferry isn’t scheduled to reopen until May 31. That places the entire load of critical freight deliveries of food, household goods and all other necessary commodities on water landing craft and one daily flight into Gustavus by Alaska Seaplanes, at least until Alaska Airlines resumes its summer schedule.

Those are the realities weighing heavily on the minds of Gustavus residents like Rachel Parks of the Annie Mae Lodge. Located in a picturesque setting along the Good River with spectacular views that seem to be in no short supply in this part of the country, the lodge has been owned and operated by Parks’ family for some 30 years. It’s the only hotel in Gustavus open year-round. During peak season, it employees 10 staffers, mostly local folks, some who have worked at the Annie Mae for 10 or more years. None have been able to return to work.

“I’m used to not only hosting people but also providing for people, and knowing that my extended family is potentially going to be hurting because I can’t do that is pretty traumatic,” she said. “It’s pretty tough to think about.”

Since the onslaught of coronavirus social distancing and travel restrictions, business at the Annie May Lodge these past two months has understandably been in decline. Despite being the only hotel in Gustavus currently open, the inn is empty.  Parks said all April bookings were wiped out, and though some reservations for July, August, and September are still on the books, they are half of the normal numbers. 

She said revenue for the lodge, and the community in general, is packed into a three-and-a-half month tourism season which has already been reduced by two months. And with the ferry out of commission, the cost of goods and supplies is increasing, too, as they must be shipped in by air and landing craft. Those modes are normally pricier than ferry transport but are getting increasingly more expensive because at a time they’d normally be ramping up for the busy season, providers are experiencing their own loss of business plus the time and expense of making necessary safety modifications.

“There’s only one airline flying supplies and goods into our town and all the other towns in (Alaska's southeast region) so it’s super, super important that they continue to fly,” she said.

Glacier Bay National Park, with its glaciers, mountains, open waters, and wildlife, is the main attraction for Gustavus' summer visitors/Kurt Repanshek file

Gustavus’s largest employer is the National Park Service, whose employees provide somewhat of an economic foundation for the town. But Parks explained that Gustavus’s economy is based primarily on independent travelers -- fishing enthusiasts, kayakers, hikers -- and small tour providers, including passenger boat excursions for 10-12 people.  She explained that Gustavus’s specific type of tourism traffic results in much smaller commerce when compared to larger Southeast communities, such as Skagway, where immense cruise ships disembark thousands of visitors eager to take excursions, dine at local restaurants, and purchase souvenirs during their brief stays.

She said she is being realistic and trying not to panic, but the situation is already terrifying. 

“If we lose the summer completely, which we’re pretty much approaching within the next week or two, I don’t know how a lot of people are going to get through this next winter. Everybody’s kind of waiting and holding their breath to see what’s going to happen.”

Parks said her family – husband, two sons, and mother who live at the lodge --have “enough irons in the fire” to personally sustain a lost summer. But she worries about survival of the business. 

“I feel my job now is trying to put my business here in the Annie Mae in the best position to survive,” she explained.  She said she keeps apprised of what’s happening on the state and federally levels regarding loans, grants, and other programs to assist businesses like hers.

Parks said she remains positive and knows that “this too will pass.”  But a catastrophic season might force her to make some difficult decisions; specifically, the closing of the lodge.

“My family has been doing this for over 30 years now, and I consider it a legacy for my children,” she said.  “At the same time I don’t want to leave them with debt that they cannot pay off.” 

Natalie Vaz hopes the coronavirus pandemic ends in time to save her summer business in Alaska/Courtesy, Natalie Vaz

Gustavus business owner Natalie Vaz is experiencing the same level of uncertainty, but on a smaller and more manageable scale. Having spent summer vacations with her family fishing in and around the pristine waters of Glacier Bay National Park, Vaz grew to realize that a weeklong stay each year was too short a time in the stunning paradise. So at the age of 17, she started her own business, a savvy justification for an extended stay.

Salmon River Sportfishing in Gustavus is what resulted. Vaz personally guides clients on fishing and kayaking outings primarily to snag cut-throat trout and salmon.  She operates and manages the business by herself, offering walk-up river fishing plus trips via kayak to reach fishing spots not accessible from the surrounding privately owned lands. Additionally, she offers river and sea kayaking with her fleet of four double inflatable crafts.

Now 22 and five years into the business, the Austin, Texas, native has seen business double every season. Last year she guided 160 guests on 80 trips, and she fully realizes her business can’t grow much further unless she adds personnel and equipment.  To date, Vaz has seven groups booked, all paid in advance, but no new bookings since the coronavirus containment measures arrived. 

“I haven’t had anybody cancel yet because of the virus, and I think it might be partially because I have kind of a relaxed policy on cancelling,” Vaz said, allowing full refunds, less a 20 percent cancellation fee, within 14 days of the booking.

Like many business owners in gateway communities around the national parks, Vaz is facing an uncertain summer but is keeping her options open.

“It’s kind of a waiting game,” she said. “The big blow is that Glacier Bay National Park is now closed until July 1, and it looks like they probably don’t plan on opening Glacier Bay Lodge at all, which is the only place to stay in the park unless you’re going to camp out.” 

Indeed, an advisory from the National Park Service cites “the shortened season, cancellations and new bookings” for shuttering the lodge. The advisory also states that the park and its concessionaire, Aramark Sports and Entertainment Services, LLC, will take the opportunity of the closure to make repairs and improvements to the facility. “It’s kind of weird because it seems they would at least want to stay open and get a little income rather than zero,” Vaz observed. 

Most of Vaz’s clients stay in the Glacier Bay Lodge and other facilities outside the gates, including the Annie May Lodge where she gets many of her referrals. “I’m pinning my hopes to the Annie Mae Lodge. If they stay open, I’ll probably still go up to Gustavus this summer. But even that is still up in the air.”

For now, though, she’s sheltering-in-place at her parents’ home in Austin. She’s weeks away from graduating with a degree in environmental science from Western Washington University in Bellingham, a Covid-19 hotspot. Her plan was to hit the road immediately after classes concluded, skipping formal graduation ceremonies to resume her fishing and kayaking business as quickly as possible. 

If the season doesn’t materialize, she hopes she can find guiding opportunities in Costa Rica and Colombia or possibly enroll in flight school when normalcy returns.  But her preference is a speedy return to the icy waters around Glacier Bay National Park.