The Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona announced in a press release on Wednesday that it would close to the public after receiving a request to do so from Coconino County health officials.
The park would close immediately until further notice, the press release said. The closure follows an announcement earlier this week that a Delaware North employee is the Grand Canyon South Rim’s first identified case of the coronavirus. It also follows weeks of pressure from health officials.
“The Department of the Interior and the National Park Service will continue to follow the guidance of state and local health officials in making determinations about our operations,” department Secretary David Bernhardt said in the press release. “As soon as we received the letter from the Health and Human Services Director and Chief Health Officer for Coconino County recommending the closure of Grand Canyon National Park, we closed the park.”
The South Rim is home to more than 2,500 residents from the Grand Canyon Village inside the park and the neighboring Town of Tusayan and Valle, several miles outside the park, according to The Arizona Republic. The Navajo Nation had pleaded with the federal government to deny tourists access to the Grand Canyon to keep its confirmed cases of coronavirus among residents from rising.
Staff at the Grand Canyon had been shutting down visitors services piecemeal as the federal government initially rebuffed its request to shutter completely. On Tuesday, visitors still had access to restrooms, a grocery store and bank at Grand Canyon Village, and trails along the popular South Rim.
The closure of the Grand Canyon means that only one of the top 10 most popular U.S. national parks remains open: Utah’s Zion National Park, which, while technically open, has only limited service available to the public. On March 27, Utah Governor issued a “stay safe, stay home” order to combat the spread of COVID-19.
Photo courtesy Grand Canyon National Park
