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Show I I jtf Utah Park Visitation Future i Bright, But Competition Stiff 1 Souths Utah, with its I diverse wonderlands, f iceiml the prediction f someday becoming one of w most heavily vacationed 1 in .ho United States VL accompanying chart map shows how th.s ,1 nresently stacks up ac-urdin ac-urdin to 1968-67 visitation as collected by the ,nal Park Service. The Lt and map shows most , the protected areas in a ortJl.to.south slice of tbe hited States, consisting oainly of the mountain sta- es. i a glance at the map shows ,he most heavily , dotted Xeas forming somewhat of triangle around South-ast South-ast Utah. These are Lake 5ead, Grand Teton, Yellow-tore, Yellow-tore, Rocky Mountain and ' Irand Canyon in that order, ..ii nf which in 1968 received close to two million visitois or more. Only about three of the West Coast parks could be ranked with these five areas, and they would ffuT in line about third from the top if listed in this comparison. com-parison. At the bottom of the scale and not having enough visitors vis-itors to warrant more than a speck on the map, are the national parks and monuments monu-ments of Southest Utah. Only On-ly Arches and Capital Reef National Monuments show up with one respectable dot each. The specks on the Utah map represent visitations visita-tions less than 100,00. This is not a degrading picture in any sense of the word. The comparsion presented pre-sented here illustratesthat at the present time Southeast South-east Utah is in all truthfull-ness, truthfull-ness, undiscovered and uri- ' : m ' : -15 v 1 I l V . I .'. I " Jl. ' ' f ' ' ED Map Legend: ' " ' '- , - - lWfr r- Each dot represents 100,000 visitors. TABLE: Figures based on 1968 visitation except those labeled lab-eled (67) which indicates that year had-a higher total than 1968. ! NRA National Recreational Area ' NP National Park NM National Monument J NHS National Historic Site 1 NMEM National Memorial Areas in Bold Type are in Utah. Glen Canyon is not in Bold Type because most of the 1968 visitors were from the Arizona side. 1. Lake Mead, Ariz., Nev. NRA 4,751,800 2. Grand Teton, Wyo. NP 2,970,300 3. Yellowstone, Wyo. NP 2,229,700 4. Rocky Mountain, Colo. NP 2,187,600 5. Grand Canyon, Ariz. NP 1,986,300 6- Mt. Rushmore, S. Dakota NMEM 1,728,500 7. Badlands, S. Dakota NM 1,194,600 8. Glacier, Mont. NP 964,500 9. Shadow Mountain, Colo. NRA ' ' '891,700 10. Zion, Utah NP . . 877,100 . 11. Petrified Forest, Ariz. ' NP 869,400 !2. Carlsbad Caverns, N. M. . NP, . .668,400 , Glen Canyon, Ariz., Utah NRA ' 654,500 " i14- White Sands, N. M. NM 614,800 J5- Flaming Gorge, Utah " NRA 596,700 (67) & Death Valley, Calif. NM 476,700 (67) i1?- Mesa Verde,' Colo. NM 449,762 ! 18' Colorado, Colo. NM 447,100 (67) ' 19- Organ Pipe,. Ariz. . NM .374,800 . 20- Canyon de Chelly, Ariz. ' NM 354,600 (67) J21 Bryce Canyon, Utah - ...NP.. 320,000 22. Dinosaur, Utah, Colo. NM 308,300 23-Saguaro,.Ariz. NM . 307,100 . I'24' Montezuma Castle, Ariz. NM ' 288,400 V5' Cedar Breaks, Utah NM 233,000 !26' Timpanogos Cave, Utah NM 221,400 27' Black Canyon, Colo. NM 215,900 J8- C"ters of the Moon, Ida. NM 214,600 29- Bandelier, N. M NM 193,200 (67) :30' Big Bend, Texas ' NP ' 191,800 i31 Sunset Crater Ariz NM 178,600 J Great Sand Dunes, Colo. NM ' 171,000 33- Capitol Reef, Utah NM 1S6,700 (67) 34 Arches, Utah NM 135,600 35- Wupatki, Ariz NM 102,000 (67) 36' Navajo, Ariz. ' NM 60,900 (67) 37-Ac RumS)' N M. . NM ' 56,"600 :. J' Hubbell Trading Post, Ariz. NHS 50,200 J Natural Brid ges, Utah NM 37'8 Ji'Chaco Canyon N M NM 32,900 (67) JJ- JainBow Bridge, Utah NM 28,000 J!" Jnyonlands, Utah NP 26,300 (J; """anveep, Utah NM 8.200 Vrand Canyon, Ariz. NM MOO - developed. With talk of the creation of two new national parks in the immediate area, it is therefore important to give study to the anticipated anticipa-ted interest that will result. Several factors seem to appear ap-pear in a study of the visitation visi-tation figures. Capitol Reef last year exceeded ex-ceeded Arches in visitation by - about 25,000. Less than 120 miles away Mesa Verde and Colorado National Mon-umnet Mon-umnet both scaled close to three times higher than Arches. Ar-ches. (The figure for Colorado Colo-rado National Monument is based on 1967's records due to a washout in one of the main roads to the area last summer). The reason for the heavier heav-ier visitation in Mesa Verde and Colorado National Monument Mon-ument are probably due to the proximity of well-traveled highways plus the fact fact that a southwest Colorado Colo-rado is being placed on the list of many vacationers as a destination. Whether an area is called a national monument, park, or recreation area may have some bearing on its attractive attract-ive qualities to vacationers. Most of the western national parks are near the top of the list while the national monuments showing less visitation are subordinate. Two notable exceptions to this are Badlands National Monument and Mt. Rush-more Rush-more National Memorial of South Dakota. Both of these areas are on one of the major ma-jor routes west from the populous cities of the Midwest, Mid-west, and well over a million mil-lion visitors take in the sights on their way to Yellowstone Yel-lowstone and Grand Teton. Canyonlands National Park can be likened to the early days of Yellowstone, the nations first such park. It was created in an extremely ex-tremely isolated portion of the continent and even today to-day is far from the major populations. Yet, it has become be-come a chief destination and its charms beckon, millions each summer. The comparative compar-ative isolation of Canyon lands won't keep visitors away providing the qualities here are what they want to visit. Those factors which appear ap-pear to attract the most visitors are as follows. (1.) Water recreation Lake Mead with its almost five million visitors in 1968 demonstrates dem-onstrates the appeal of water wa-ter to vacationers. Lake Powell is rapidly becoming known for its charms, having hav-ing over 600,000 last year and expected to hit a million mil-lion this year. Each of the MORE MORE MORE .. .. first three most popular areas on the chart are noted for their water -recreational potentials. On this point it may be well to emphasize the excellent ex-cellent boating and afting vacations that can be had in Canyonlands National Park and now long the river portion por-tion of Arches National Monument. Mon-ument. (2.) Each of these areas on the chart showing visitation visita-tion over one million are known for cool, evergreen types of landscapes, being located at either high altitudes alti-tudes or northern latitudes which provide an escape from summer's heat. Canyonlands Can-yonlands docs not have the guarantee the higher forested for-ested areas do of being able to provide this type of vacation vaca-tion and therefore may never nev-er appeal to the masses during dur-ing their summer vacations. Big Bend National Park in south Texas, a wonderful place to visit during the winter, is mostly avoided during the hot summers. Yet within the park are 7000 ft. mountains and campsites, and the park is served by paved highways. Although designed a national park it's visitation is just a little above last year's figure for Arches.. Since climate and "tool types of terrain are anion? the most inviting factors of a vacation spot, it would be well to emphasize for this area the pleasantness of camping on the higher mesas mes-as like Island in the Sky and the accessible portions of the nearby mountains. (3.) Roads certainly are a major factors in causing people to decide on a vacation. va-cation. But like in Big Bend and Death Valley, highways do not necessarily automatically automa-tically result in large visitation visi-tation figures in regions whose best climates occur at a time of year when the masses can't and don't take their vacations. The climate of Southeast. Utah, certainly can't he compared to that of Death Valley's. Yet on sunny days it does become hot enough to rob visitors of enjoying the sights, except in the early and late portions of the day. A modifying feature to be emphasized is the flow of cool and cloudy weather during July and August which makes this area quits enjoyable. If the summer climate of Southeast Utah repels the masses from exploring the wonders, the proposed parkway park-way would, no doubt, invile them here in a big way. The Blue Ridge Parkwa- for example, is a 409 mile gracefully - curved highway on the crest of the Appalachian Appala-chian Mountains between Shenandoah and Great Smoky Smo-ky Mountains National Parks. More than 11 million visitors toured this scenic drive in 1963. A similar parkway system connecting several of the areas in southeast Utah would no doubt be the motivation mo-tivation for a comparable visitation figure at som-2 distant date in the future. |