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Show i -I Visitors ignore area national parks Visitation in area national na-tional parks for the month of April was drastically under the same month last year, down by a 39 percent average in Can-yonlands. Can-yonlands. The Island in the Sky and Maze Districts of Canyonlands National Park showed the greatest visitor loss, 53 and 57 percent respectively. The Rivers and Needles Districts Dis-tricts were down by 35 and 26 percent respectively. Natural Bridges National Nation-al Monument was down by 38 percent, while Arches National Park, with 32,042 visitors in April last year and 27,386 visitors this year, was down by 15 percent. Arches received nearly 4 times the number of visitors Canyonlands did during the month and nearly 7 times the number tallied at Natural Bridges. Year-to-date visitor totals to-tals are a reflection of the April experience, down 24 percent at Canyonlands, down 29 percent at Natural Natu-ral Bridges, and about even at Arches. Paradoxically, camping rose at Arches and Canyonlands Can-yonlands both for the month and for the year to date. Camping was up by 26 percent in April at Arches, and was up there by 19 percent for the year to date. The number of campers rose by 9 percent in Canyonlands for the month, and by 2 percent for the year to date. Natural Bridges, however, experienced a 26 percent decrease in camping during dur-ing the month, and was down by 4 percent for the year to date. |