Zion National Park is an incredibly beautiful place to tour, and as a result it is also one of the most popular tours that Bindlestiff Tours does. It is also incredibly popular with those who tour Zion on their own, which is leading to overcrowding and pollution issues. The problems are getting so bad that park officials are beginning to solicit ideas through social media websites like Facebook about ways that the traffic might be alleviated. Most of these solutions that are being proposed involve reserved times for park visits, limitations on the amount of cars, and potentially restrictions on the number of visitors per day (essentially turning people away at the gates.) The overcrowding at Zion and other National Parks is a combined issue resulting from the successes of the National Park Service's "Find Your Park" campaign and the lifestyle push over the last few years to embrace more outdoor activities like hiking. The result has been record numbers of visitors to parks like Zion, which last year saw more than 4 million people visiting the 6 mile canyon, mostly between March and November. At one point, lines for shuttles between the visitors area and the park (which was implemented to alleviate traffic concerns) was an astonishing 300 people long. The over crowding is especially bad at "pinch points" like "Temple of Sinawava" where visitor flow is difficult. While it is certainly good that more people are embracing nature and enjoying the parks, it is becoming obvious that measures are going to be necessary in order to allow visitors to continue enjoying the protected spaces. While they are designed to be enjoyed, they were not designed to be enjoyed by this many people at once. Some of the suggestions that are being entertained are the advertising of "off season"
Zion National Park is an incredibly beautiful place to tour, and as a result it is also one of the most popular tours that Bindlestiff