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No boom for Utah parks
In visitation, they are still hoping for a 'bronze'
By Norma Wagner
Deseret News staff writer
Utah could not have bought better advertisements for its national parks than landing the Olympics, but such global publicity only works if visitors visit.
The Olympics have energized downtown, but so far nothing has trickled to Utah's national parks and monuments.
Some park officials are hoping people will visit such monuments as Arches and Canyonlands on their way home from the Games or return in coming years.
So far, however, visitors' sights are set on Salt Lake County and its surrounding venues.
"We've been busier for February, but not anything abnormal," said Karen McKinlay-Jones, a park ranger at Arches National Park. Presidents Day weekend tends to attract larger crowds anyway, she added, but this year hasn't seemed to attract a larger international crowd than usual. "At Arches we see people from all over the world all year long," she said. "We're just popular everywhere all the time."
Arches has had fewer visitors for the past few years, McKinlay-Jones noted, so it is unclear whether this month's count, which won't be available until early March, are up because of the Olympics or just a rebound.
"I wonder if we would have been really dead" had the Olympics not come, she said.
Paul Henderson, park spokesman for Canyonlands National Park, also hasn't tallied the number of visitors so far this month but says by all appearances, the park is getting more visitors from Salt Lake so far this year.
February is traditionally a slow time for the park, Henderson continued. Until the numbers come, it's hard to say for sure that the Olympics have increased attendance. But other large events hosted by the state have brought a surge in visitors to Utah's wilderness areas after the events end.
Canyonlands always has attracted a large percentage of international visitors, Henderson said. "They just tend to be pretty darn amazed of southern Utah. They're just in awe of redrock country."
But while this winter's wet weather has helped ensure a good Games for northern Utah, it has done nothing to help lure tourists to southern Utah's Bryce Canyon.
The area measured about 30 inches less snowfall this year compared to last year, said Cheryl Schreier, public information officer for the park. So cross country skiing and snowshoeing — the park's big crowd drawers — are pointless.
Cindy Micheli, acting chief of interpretation at Capitol Reef National Park, said the number of tourists has increased this February when compared to last, with about a hundred more visitors in the first two weeks. Perhaps it's because people want to escape the Olympic traffic, massive crowds and all the hype and hoopla.
"What we're seeing is a lot of people from the Wasatch Front," Micheli said.
Contributing: Anne Jacobs
E-mail: nwagner@desnews.com
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February 15, 2002
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