GCNP visitation<br>lowest in a decade

Originally Published: January 24, 2002 6 p.m.

GC VILLAGE — Grand Canyon National Park experienced its lowest visitation in 10 years, according to the final 2001 numbers released last week by the park’s Fee Management and Statistics Office.

Not as many cars lined up to enter Grand Canyon in 2001.

Total visitation for the park totaled 4,439,796, a decrease of 7.8 percent from 2000. The 4.4 million was the lowest since 3.9 million visited in 1991.

The park’s recreation visits came in at 4.1 million, an 8-percent decrease from the previous year.

Visitation through the popular South Entrance Station was down 10 percent for the year. The vehicle count through that station came in at 1.08 million, a 7-percent decrease. The total numbers through all methods at the South Entrance totaled just above 3 million visitors.

Visitors taking a tour bus into the park declined dramatically. The 2001 bus totals came in at 640,778, a 24-percent decrease from 2000.

Those numbers were heavily affected after the terrorism attacks of Sept. 11 when international travel took a big hit.

The only area to show an increase on the South Rim involved the number of passengers coming in via rail. Grand Canyon Railway numbers came in at 170,481, a 1-percent increase over the previous year.

Other areas of the park also showed decreases, except for specific spots such as Lees Ferry and Grand Wash.

Lees Ferry showed an increase of 81 percent over 2000 while Grand Wash numbers were 110-percent higher. Tuweep statistics were also ahead of last year by 24 percent.

Through the East Entrance, numbers declined 16 percent with that percentage staying consistent with both private cars and bus passengers.

On the North Rim, visitation was down 6 percent. Bus passengers coming through that entrance declined 19 percent.

Following is a breakdown of various areas of the park:

o Recreation overnight stays with concessioner lodging — 561,668.

o Concessioner campgrounds — 41,034.

o NPS campgrounds — 277,527.

o NPS backcountry — 250,876.

o NPS miscellaneous — 20,967.

o Total overnight stays — 1,152,072.