Zion is still hottest park in the state

ZION NATIONAL PARK — The temperature was approaching the daily high, a mere 108, as my biking companion, Paul Harman, and I approached the east entrance to Zion National Park.

But it was a dry heat.

We needed to get to the swimming pool at the Zion Park Inn in Springdale, beyond the other end of the park, as soon as possible.

To be honest, at this temperature we wouldn't have been surprised if we'd had Zion all to ourselves — just us and the Great White Throne. Don't most people plan to avoid the sauna season? We half thought the park might be closed.

But it was not closed, and we were only alone if you ignore 17,000 others.

The rangers at the information desk at the visitors center said that despite the most extensive heat wave in local memory, more than 4,000 vehicles, with an average of four passengers each, have been paying the daily $25 entry fee during July. In addition to that, about 1,000 people walk into the park on a daily basis this time of year and utilize the complimentary shuttle bus service to get around.

Zion is really hot even when it's really hot.

This is nothing new of course. Year-in, year-out, Zion is Utah's most-visited national park. With annual visits averaging more than 2.5 million (2.57 million last year), it sees almost as many visitors as Utah's four other national parks — Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef and Bryce Canyon — combined.

For that matter, few national parks in America are as popular. Maybe Zion can't compete with Great Smoky Mountain National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee, the National Park Service's perennial No. 1 with over 9 million annual visits from the nearby population centers on the East Coast, nor with the perennial runner-up, Grand Canyon, with over 4 million visits per year. But it is always in the running with the likes of Yosemite (3.2 million last year), Yellowstone (2.8 million), Grand Teton (2.4 million) and Glacier (2.4 million).

Zion visits this year are up 11 percent over last year, according to the rangers. The all-time high of 2,677,342 set in 2004 could be eclipsed just like all the high temperature records.