Drones Banned in Arches, Canyonlands And Other Parks

Drones were officially banned today from Arches and Canyonlands national parks and from Hovenweep and Natural Bridges national monuments. The park service has been working to ban them from all of its properties after incidents where the unmanned aerial devices have caused problems including:

• Endangering people visiting Mt Rushmore by flying close over them
• Harassing climbers in Yosemite
• Crashing into the Grand Canyon
• Harassing big horn sheep in Zion
• Crashing into Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone

National Park Service properties were given until Aug 20 to come up with plans to prohibit the use of drones in their areas. As of now, private drones are totally banned from parks in Utah. These rules are provisional rules and could be modified over time.

Drones have become a popular way to take photos and videos, and can provide interesting images that are difficult or impossible to obtain in other ways.

Arches Climbing and Canyoneering Permits Now Available Online

Arches provided this news release:

Free day use permits for canyoneering and rock climbing in Arches National Park are now available online.

Canyoneers are required to self-register for all routes except for those in the Fiery Furnace. Permits for the Fiery Furnace still need to be obtained at the park's visitor center. Canyoneering groups on the Fiery Furnace and Lost Spring Canyon routes will be limited to six persons, while group size elsewhere will be limited to ten persons.

Rock climbers are encouraged to self-register, and groups will be limited to five persons. Day-use data will be used to assist the National Park Service in actively managing and monitoring desired resource and visitor experience conditions.

Online permits and more information are available on the park's Canyoneering and Rock Climbing web pages. Self-registration permits for routes other than the Fiery Furnace are also available outside Arches Visitor Center at the Climbing and Canyoneering panel.