My thanks to Rich for inviting Cindy Purcell (Backcountry District Ranger) to the ACA Zion Rendezvous for some frank discussion and a pre-scoping-meeting scoping meeting. Some interesting things came out of this discussion, such as:
A. Express Permits: the system is up and running, as long as the BLM website works. I recommend it. To sign up, go to the backcountry desk, watch a 10 minute video, fill out a form and you are in. You can then go on-line to make reservations and/or print permits in the proper timeframe.
B. Backcountry Planning Process: the staff at Zion is in the process of trying to figure out how to figure out what they need to know for the planning process. Real public scoping meetings are at least six months away – if not further.
C. The current (overly-) strict quotas are, admittedly, arbitrary. They set them as tight as possible because they realized that after the Backcountry Planning Process, making limits tighter was going to be very difficult.
D. Cindy was under the impression that very few people were turned away for permits. I believe a great number of people were turned away from access to their preferred canyon. I encourage people to send Cindy a letter EVERY TIME you are denied access to your Park. Address below.
Cindy Purcell Zion National Park Springdale, Utah 84767
http://www.az.blm.gov/zionnppermits/backcountry.cfm?TripTypeID=3
This link give access to the bookings for various canyons. Interesting. Last time I checked, you could see that the applications for the Subway Lottery are running 150 people for many days in July, and up to 342 for Wed 7/14. WOW!
Thanks for listening.
Tom Jones Chairman, Zion Canyoneering Coalition