Sunday, February 26, 2012
By Christopher Reynolds
Los Angeles Times
Visitors to the Grand Canyon National Park this year will find new water-bottle refilling stations, a South Rim bicycle rental and bike-tour operation is expected to open, a multiuse trail is expected to be finished, and more.
Grand Canyon National Park, the 5-million or 6-million-year-old granddaddy of Arizona tourism, logged 4.3 million visitors last year.
Rangers say that’s a dip of 3.7 percent from the year before, but the canyon remains among the nation’s most visited parks. And despite its age (also a ranger estimate), it does keep changing.
Visitors to the South Rim — by far the park’s most heavily trafficked area — will find six recently installed water-bottle refilling stations near major trail heads. (There are three more on the North Rim.) The stations are designed to improve hikers’ access to free water and boost reuse of bottles. Park officials have estimated that disposable water bottles make up as much as 30 percent of the park’s solid waste.
For more park info, go to www.nps.gov/grca.
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