ST. GEORGE — As Zion National Park staggers under the weight of ongoing record visitation, park officials say they are closer to a visitor use management plan.
The National Park Service began working on this plan in 2016 due to rapidly changing visitation patterns and a jump in visitation numbers at Zion National Park. This winter, the draft visitor use management plan and environmental assessment will be available for public comment. Both the draft plan and assessment propose actions to provide sustainable visitor access, protect park resources, improve visitor experiences and promote visitor and staff safety.
Susan McPartland, visitor use manager for Zion National Park, told St. George News her staff wants to encourage people to consider how they would like to see the park handle its visitation challenges. Some of these options may include park reservations or a daily cap on visitation at times.
Visitor capacity is an essential part of this planning effort, she said.
“Visitor capacity is identifying that maximum amount and timing of visitors that you can have in an area while you’re still achieving your desired conditions; that could be a desired condition for public safety, for resources or for the visitor experience itself,” McPartland said. “So we will identify additional visitor capacities as part of this planning effort. And then things like reservation systems are the tools that help us manage to that visitor capacity.”
McPartland added that the park already has a fair amount of experience with visitor capacity. For example, she said the wilderness stewardship plan has guided the park’s wilderness permits program, which many people are familiar with. Drafting the visitor use management plan is the next iteration of that planning process.
“We’re evaluating that as one of the strategies looking at potential reservation systems and different types of reservation systems,” McPartland said.
Some national parks have implemented pilot timed entry or reservation systems and use them within their plans.
McPartland said Zion National Park already has some information from the temporary systems and pilots implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, the shuttle system had a specific rider system during the pandemic. From day one to day two, she said the shuttle system operation looked very different. Differences also were noted between 2023 and 2024. The park has also gathered data from its Angel’s Landing Pilot Permit Program.
“At this point, our aim is to develop a visitor use management plan that has built-in flexibility so that we can adapt that set of strategies to be the best system possible over time,” McPartland said. “So we know that we need to have flexibility in whatever suite of tools we come up with. But we aim to come up with that within this plan, release that to the public and then any adjustments that need to be made would be made within the planning document itself.”
Zion National Park smoked visitation records in 2021 by exceeding 5 million annual visitors for the first time. This was nearly double the visitation in 2010, which saw 2.7 million visitors.
Percentage-wise, since 2010, she said Zion has experienced a nearly 90% increase in annual visitation, leading to higher visitation over long periods.
“With that increase in visitation, there are a lot of positives,” McPartland said. “It’s given our park the opportunity to connect with even more of our public and folks who are visiting our park and share the stories and amazing vistas of this place.”
Yet she noted that the increase in tourism has raised some concerns, specifically about the quality of visitor experience and the park’s resources. There have also been concerns about the impact on adjacent communities. McPartland added that the park has seen impacts on some of its cultural and natural resources. An article previously reported by St. George News outlines some of those concerns.
McPartland said she wanted to ensure the public that data collection on visitor use levels and patterns has been ongoing, and citizens will soon be able to engage.
“Our aim is to give folks time to consider the key strategies that we are currently evaluating as well as a lot of background material that’s informing our planning development right now so that they have that larger context,” McPartland said, “so that when the draft plan is released, they’ll have that information already in their pockets.”
Jeff Bradybaugh, superintendent of Zion National Park, said in a news release that the park service’s mandate is “to conserve the park’s resources in perpetuity and provide safe and meaningful experiences for park visitors.”
“This planning effort builds on past successes and will help ensure we continue to fulfill our mission in the future,” he added.
Visit the Zion National Park website to learn more about the information used to analyze strategies to address congestion, crowding and sustainable park operations. A copy of the Draft Visitor Use Management Plan is also available online. According to the website, the timeline includes plan development, draft plan, public input, plan refinement, final plan public notification and preparation for plan implementation.
To view the history of Zion National Park’s visitation, click here.
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