In a Secret Meeting, Utah Officials Proposed Ending Reservations at National Parks

Utah state officials are taking aim at existing and proposed timed-entry reservation systems at Arches and Zion National Parks.

In a closed-door meeting held on Monday, December 1, in Salt Lake City, state officials proposed radical policy changes for the state’s 13 national park units. The most substantial changes included doing away with the reservation programs.

The Salt Lake Tribune and other local Utah newspapers interviewed attendees who said the use of timed entry at Arches National Park and the proposed system at Zion sparked a heated debate. Journalists and the public were barred from attending the meeting, which groups like the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance flagged as keeping National Park Service members “out of the loop.”

Timed entry means that, in addition to paying the standard entrance fee, visitors must book a date and time to enter a national park during its peak season. The practice is intended to help parks reduce congestion and minimize environmental impacts.

Arches piloted a timed entry system in 2023 to stem congestion and overcrowding amid its 1.5 million annual visitors. Under this system, park tickets are released on a first-come, first-served basis up to six months in advance. These tickets entail a $2 processing fee and are required in addition to the standard park pass or entrance fee.

Some local officials, like Grand County Commissioner Brian Martinez, say they are worried that the system is hurting the local economy by driving away potential tourists. Others, like Moab’s mayor, Joette Langianese, said timed entry has no impact on local business.

“We’re not seeing any kind of economic impact to the city of Moab from the timed entry,” she told The Salt Lake Tribune.

In August, Utah’s senators and representatives co-signed a letter strongly urging the Department of the Interior to avoid implementing a timed-entry system at Arches.

“After implementing a similar reservation system in 2022, visitor spending surrounding Arches National Park in Grand County dropped by 12.4 percent initially and an additional 6.5 percent the following year,” they wrote, arguing that a similar initiative at Zion would be devastating.

But timed-entry systems have been shown to reduce traffic in gateway communities near NPS sites. Barbara Bruno, the mayor of Springdale, Utah, the gateway to Zion National Park, told The Salt Lake Tribune that the park’s congestion poses a major headache to locals.

“When [visitors] arrive on Labor Day weekend at 9:00 A.M. and they’re in a line, they’re in a line that’s on the one road in and out of our town,” Bruno told the newspaper.  “Our folks don’t get home, and we don’t get mail delivery at our homes, and we don’t get to the post office.”

Roughly 300 miles west of Arches, Zion National Park sees approximately five times as many visitors each year, ranking it as the second-most-visited national park in 2024. Park officials have tossed around the idea of a timed entry system for the better part of a decade, and one of the park’s most popular hikes, Angels Landing, launched a permit system in 2022.

Commissioner Adam Snow told St. George News that he and his fellow Washington County commissioners don’t believe timed entry is a viable remedy for Zion National Park. They unanimously opposed such initiatives in September.

“We don’t necessarily disagree that they have some of the management and visitor management concerns that they have. We disagree on the solutions to it, and have proposed an abundance of possible solutions to help them address those concerns,” said Snow.

During the recent federal government shutdown, the state of Utah chipped in to help fund its national parks, keeping them open. This is something Snow said park officials should remember.

“Why would the state and the county invest even millions and millions of dollars to help you manage your problems if you’re going to just still shut the gate?” he told St. George News. “That would be a waste of dollars.”

No final decisions have been made following the meeting, however, Zion National Park spokesman Matthew Fink told St. George News.

“While we do not provide comment on official government correspondence via the media, the National Park Service values its ongoing engagement with state and local leaders,” he said. “The planning process aims to balance visitor access with the protection of park resources, and input from partners and the public will continue to help inform its development.”

As the state pushes for more access and the Park Service grapples with record crowds, the only thing sure is that without a consensus, the line of cars at the entrance station isn’t getting any shorter.

Other controversial proposals raised at the meeting included allowing off-highway vehicles inside Capitol Reef and Canyonlands National Parks, as well as increasing visitation caps across parks.