Utah’s Zion National Park has received National Park Service funding from the Great American Outdoors Act Legacy Restoration Fund, disaster recovery appropriations, and visitor entrance fee dollars to completely rehabilitate the park’s historic South Campground. It is the most popular campground in the park.
The project is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to address deferred maintenance and repair needs related to the campground and deliver:
- New and rehabilitated bathrooms
- Modern drinking water systems
- Improved sewer infrastructure
- Enlarged and reinforced stormwater drainage
- Improved campsites
- New food storage boxes (too bad, bears!)
“We are just beginning the construction process,” said Jeff Bradybaugh, Zion National Park Superintendent. “Visitors to Zion will benefit for years from the hard work of the many expert park employees and skilled craftspeople who are rehabilitating one of our most popular and historic campgrounds.”
More project benefits
Besides the improvements to existing infrastructure, the National Park Service is also going to enhance service by:
- Building a new structure for visitors to speak with rangers and receive Wilderness Permits for activities like canyoneering and backpacking.
- Improving water drainage systems to reduce the likelihood of flooding and increase climate resiliency.
- Revegetating the campground using native plants.
- This work is supported by visitors’ fee dollars.
Background
Zion has taken a deliberate and responsible approach to maintaining South Campground and all assets in the park as visitation has more than doubled over the last 20 years. As use and the need for maintenance has grown, campground infrastructure was overwhelmed.
South Campground has hosted campers since it opened in the 1920s. Most of the infrastructure in the campground now dates from the 1960s. This rehabilitation project is addressing needs that resulted from aging infrastructure, simplifying future maintenance, and increasing accessibility.
SOURCE: National Park Service Press Release
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Good report, can’t wait to see the end results for the project !
Thank you, RV Travel! 🙂 This is good news! This park seems to have responsible leadership. 🙂 Thanks again, safe travels! 🙂
Zion has become such a zoo that I deliberately bypassed it on my last Utah trip. I was actually traveling Rt 89 just a few miles from it, but decided it wasn’t worth the hassle. It’s not the same magical place that it once was.
We were there last week for a 14 day stay, and it is a magical National Park!
Our key to success at finding parking and very enjoyable trails was arriving between 7-8 am. ZERO issues with parking and at most a 15 minute shuttle wait. Not so much fun for anyone arriving after 10 am.
FYI: 100% of the staff were pleasant, smiling and engaged with the mass of visitors. Hats off to the NPS!