Beneath red temples of Navajo sandstone, the Virgin River winds through Zion National Park. Nearby, a steady current of people step into a long shuttle line. A bus quietly rolls into the stop, the door opens, 90 people swiftly board. After the bus rolls away, the line continues to lengthen. Another bus arrives five minutes later; the flow resumes.

The buses are part of the new electric shuttle system transforming the visitor experience at Zion, located in the southwest corner of Utah. The park first launched its shuttle system in 2000 to address the 2.4 million annual visitors that have since grown to 5 million. To further reduce traffic and benefit visitors and wildlife, through reduced emissions and noise pollution, Zion transitioned to an all-electric fleet of 30 buses in 2024.

Shuttles are part of the National Park Service’s legacy of adopting innovative public transportation solutions. In 1910, the newly established Glacier National Park used horse carriages to transport 11 passengers per trip, evolving four years later to a fleet of red buses. Today, Glacier still operates nearly three dozen vintage red propane shuttles, in service since the mid-1930s, that are considered the oldest touring fleet in the world. Other overcrowding solutions utilized by the national park system include peak season reservation and timed entry systems, as seen in Arches and Yosemite. Yosemite also offers a shuttle system, but unlike Zion’s, it is not mandatory. 

Prior to the shuttle system, Lisa White, Zion’s transportation manager, recalls the backlog of parking along the sides of the road, resulting in denuded vegetation. “There weren’t a lot of animals in the canyon,” she said. “I personally saw fistfights over parking spaces because it was just so congested.” Shuttles immediately relieved the traffic congestion.

The original propane buses were less polluting and quieter than standard gas vehicles, but they were still not optimal to protect Zion’s environmental qualities. Since the introduction of electric buses, White says air quality has visibly improved: “The smog is gone.” White’s career in Zion spans 25 years, giving her a long lens on these changes. And she’s seen a real impact on the ecosystem, too. “Vegetation has been able to return, native plants [are] growing again, which brings back the animals,” she said. Visitors now frequently observe mule deer, turkeys and squirrels, and they sometimes even glimpse mountain lions and endangered California condors. Desert bighorn sheep make occasional appearances in winter.

Zion’s shuttle system is now part of the visitor experience. During shuttle season, which runs March through November, all visitors to Zion Canyon — the most frequently visited area of the park — are required to ride the bus. Shuttles arrive every five to 15 minutes and operate between the gateway community of Springdale and Zion Canyon. The buses are between 40 and 60 feet in length, each eliminating 29 to 40 vehicles in the canyon. Roughly two dozen buses are on the road at a time. “The shuttle system is designed to move efficiently,” White explains. “No tickets or reservations are necessary, and the ride is free with the national park entrance fee.” 

While the buses are designed for comfort, White says one downside is that people complain that they cannot see easily out of the windows. The seats face inward, not out toward the windows, as part of a highway safety requirement. Although there are ranger-guided bus rides available with a reservation, White says, “The idea is just to get people out to the canyon, right? We don’t want people just sitting on the buses all day. We want them to get out and hike!” The strategy echoes the words of the park service’s best-known ranger, Edward Abbey: “You can’t see anything from a car; you’ve got to get out of the goddamn contraption and walk.”

Zion’s new electric shuttles are the result of a multi-year partnership among federal, state, local and nonprofit organizations. Funds include donor support and a $33 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation in 2021. The nonprofit Zion National Park Forever Project was instrumental in securing matching funds to ensure what it envisions as “a cleaner, quieter future for the park.”

Another $4.5 million in infrastructure changes, to accommodate a shorter bus-turning radius, was funded by the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act, which utilizes entrance fee dollars and alternative transportation programs.

Considering the long-term costs of the electric buses, White says, “We fully anticipate they’re actually going to cost a little more to operate per vehicle … But we’re willing to trade off for the improved experience and increase sustainability and improved environmental situation … It will be worth it.”

“We’re willing to trade off for the improved experience and increased sustainability … It will be worth it.”

In fact, since the electric shuttles were introduced, park service staffers have witnessed such a profound reduction of wildlife stress that they are now aiming to send fewer buses into the canyon. This means prioritizing larger buses with a 90-passenger capacity to reduce the total number of buses on the road. During shuttle season, personal vehicles remain prohibited after transit hours, giving wildlife an additional respite from motorized traffic.

White said that systems integration is among the greatest challenges the new bus fleet has created for the park. While the interaction between computer systems “has not always gone as smoothly as we would have hoped initially,” she said, “Every time we sort through a new issue or a hiccup, then we learn something new.”