St. George • Traffic around Zion National Park’s main entrance and visitor’s center could get smoother now that a major makeover for the area has been given the green light.
The National Park Service recently announced the signing of a Finding of No Significant Impact, or FONSI, that allows work to proceed on improving safety and traffic circulation by, among other things, aligning the road from the park’s south entrance to the Zion Canyon Visitor Center.
Essentially, a FONSI is issued as part of an environmental and interagency analysis during the Environmental Analysis (EA) process, when it is determined a proposed project will not significantly impact the quality of the environment.
Realigning roads, infrastructure
Zion’s road alignment project, according to park officials, will incorporate roundabouts, reconfigure parking for large vehicles, add a new vehicle and pedestrian bridge, and reroute trails — all aimed at simplifying travel for park shuttle buses and facilitating a smoother traffic flow in the south entrance and visitor center area.
Currently, about 70% of Zion’s 5 million yearly visitors enter the park through the south entrance, compared to 2.4 million in 2000 when the Zion Visitor Center was constructed. The redesign project is geared toward improving circulation by separating vehicle, bike and pedestrian traffic, modernizing infrastructure and improving compliance with the federal Architectural Barriers and Americans With Disabilities acts.
(National Park Service) A proposed design of the south entrance of Zion National Park.
The project also plans to improve pedestrian connections and incorporate more “intuitive wayfinding,” a term that means helping visitors better navigate the park with more visual and physical cues rather than relying on extensive signage.
“Hikers, bikers, drivers, and shuttle riders are all going to benefit from these improvements,” Zion National Park Superintendent Jeff Bradybaugh said in a recent release. “Zion is thankful to the transportation professionals who developed the plan and to members of the public and other stakeholders who shared feedback during our public comment period earlier this year.”
As part of developing the EA, Zion officials took public comment in 2022. The EA was subsequently released for public review on March 12, 2024, and the National Park Service accepted public comments through April 10 of this year, which were considered in the development of the FONSI, according to park officials.
Circling traffic, bridging the Virgin divide
Among other things, the road realignment will include constructing two roundabouts. The first, just north of the park’s south entrance, will include a short-term pullout and bypass lanes. The second traffic circle is projected to improve traffic flows at the Watchman Campground and visitor center’s large vehicle and shuttle-bus parking lots.
Moreover, the project will replace the current Watchman Campground Road with a new iteration that will be located further east. As part of that realignment, the current Watchman Campground Bridge that crosses the north fork of the Virgin River will be removed and replaced with a four-lane vehicular bridge with a longer span further upstream.
A new pedestrian trail underpass will be constructed at the new bridge to connect to the Pa’rus Trail. In addition, according to the assessment, large vehicle and employee parking lots adjacent to the visitors center will be expanded and the nearby shuttle bus parking area will be paved.
Zion National Park spokesperson Amanda Rowland said work on the redesign will take place in three phases to better accommodate visitors and funding. The first phase will start in late winter of 2025 and be completed by late spring of 2026. The timing of the second and third phases will be determined later.
