Despite dip, Grand Canyon officials expect to see 6M visitors in 2017
Dec 21, 2017, 4:43 AM
(Facebook/Grand Canyon National Park)
(Facebook/Grand Canyon National Park)
PHOENIX — The number of people visiting the Grand Canyon this year may be down slightly compared to last year, but officials still expect visitation numbers to top the six million mark.
Vanessa Ceja, a spokesman for the park, said as of October, the park had logged 5,493,768 visitors. By this time last year, however, the park had more than 6 million visitors, an 8 percent increase from 2015.
“Last year, we had a good amount of snow on the ground,” she said. “It was fairly cold – and it’s not as encouraging for visitors to come up to the park during snowy conditions.”
But Ceja said she is confident that the park’s visitor logs will reach that 6 million number this year as well.
The Grand Canyon is already gearing up for large visitor crowds next year by doing its best to improve visitors’ experiences.
“For example, we extended the operating season for the Tusayan shuttle bus service,” she said. “This helped with our parking issue.”
Related: National Park Service to cut down amount of fee-free days in 2018
More improvements are coming to park roads next year as well.
Starting in January, construction will begin at the Hermit Road interchange to resurface and improve the Hermit Road and Village Loop intersection.
This is the first part of a 2018 Federal Highway Administration project to improve several intersections and about 15 miles of roads in the park.
During this first phase of construction, Village Loop Road between the west end of Bright Angel Lodge parking lot and the south end of the Maswik Lodge complex will be closed and detours will be in place.
Traffic from the El Tovar Hotel to the west end of the Bright Angel Lodge parking lot will become two-way traffic.
To accommodate this, there will be no street-side parking for visitors or residents near the El Tovar, Kachina, Thunderbird, and Bright Angel lodges, Colter Hall or the Train Depot. Buses and oversize vehicles will be able to turn around using the Bright Angel Lodge parking lot.
Hermit Road will remain open via a detour from Maswik Lodge. To access Hermit Road and viewpoints, Hermits Rest, and the Hermit Trail, traffic will be rerouted from Maswik Lodge Road to Rowe Well Road. Detour signs will be in place.
The Village Route shuttle will continue to operate and the timetable and stops may be adjusted. Informational signs will be posted at the bus stops.
The road improvements will help preserve and extend the life of existing roads, Ceja said.
