As St. George, Utah remains sunny and warm this fall, Zion National Park set a record high number in visitors during the month of September.
COVID-19 isn’t stopping people from getting outside and visiting one of the most popular national parks in the country.
Visitor Use Planner Susan McPartland said the increase of visitors at Zion National Park was exciting to see, especially since there was a significant drop in visitation during the COVID-19 shutdown in the spring.
“This September we had just over 520,000 visitors come to the park," McPartland said. "That’s about a 4.73 increase from what we saw in 2019, and it’s definitely the highest September that we’ve seen to date.”
McPartland said it looked like a typical, busy summer day with the amount of people visiting the park during September. Many are still renting bikes, going on hikes and taking the shuttle ride along the scenic route of the canyon.
“We really don’t know what this fall and winter is going to look like. So far it does look like it’s going to be fairly busy; maybe busier than we’ve seen before with those nice warm temperatures, as well as people are really utilizing the flexibility that many people have with schools or with work being able to be remote, so it’s definitely a different set of folks than we typically see in the fall,” McPartland said.
With the increase of visitors, Zion National Park has certain COVID-19 regulations and modifications in place; information available at NPS.Gov.
