Zion National Park seeing a manic Monday with south entrance closed to vehicles

File photo of a long line of people trying to get on the shuttles inside Zion National Park, Springdale, Utah, June 3, 2021 | Photo by Chris Reed, St. George News

ST. GEORGE — Just because it is Monday doesn’t mean the closures for overcrowding at Zion National Park have ceased for the workweek. 

Image from video camera at south entrance to Zion National Park showing vehicles backed up from the closed south entrance. | Photo courtesy of National Park Service, St. George News

At 10:30 a.m. Monday, park officials announced that the park’s parking lots were full and the Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway from the park’s south entrance has been closed because of congestion. A camera at the south entrance showed a line of vehicles trying to get in the south entrance to no avail, while others made the turnaround to head back out.  

At this point, if visitors are coming up they may experience intermittent closures and long lines,” said Zion National Park spokesperson Jonathan Shafer. 

That doesn’t mean the park is closed to visitors. In fact, even though the south entrance is closed to vehicles, it is not closed to bikes, pedestrians or the free shuttle busses coming from Springdale. 

“We encourage folks to park in Springdale and take the pedestrian and bicycle entrance, or use the free Springdale shuttle,” Shafer said.

The park experienced the same closures over the weekend. Shafer said he didn’t have an exact reason why there was still overcrowding on Monday.

In past years, competitors and visitors for the St. George Marathon have been known to use the occasion for a brief stay in the park, and the marathon is five days away.  

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.

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