Grand Canyon Weekly Wrap-up — Nov. 15-19, 2021

COVID News

Upcoming Vaccine Event-Monday, December 6

We are pleased to announce that we are once again partnering with Coconino County Health and Human Services and the Grand Canyon Rec Center to host a vaccine event for the Grand Canyon community. This event is scheduled for Monday, December 6 inside the Rec Center in the large community room.

We are still working with the County to finalize specific times as well as what vaccines will be available to what age groups for this event. More information, including a flyer, will be shared in the near future on these details.

Arizona and Grand Canyon Community Statistics

Case numbers in Arizona increased this week to 3,542 new cases per day compared to last week’s average of 3,053 per day. As of Tuesday, there have been a total of 268 cases in the 86023 zip code since the beginning of the pandemic (of these, approximately 72 cases are in the park).

Coconino County reports the Grand Canyon community is 72.9% vaccinated as of November 6.

Public Health Contacts

Ronan King, Lieutenant Commander, U.S. Public Health Service

Mobile: (202) 891-8599, Email:ronan_king@nps.gov

For all email correspondence, please also cc: Chris Glime, Captain, U.S. Public Health Service

Mobile: (202) 641-3518, Email: christen_glime@nps.gov

South Rim Prescribed Fire Treatments Complete

Grand Canyon National Park fire managers-working with resources from Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Zion National Park and the Kaibab National Forest conducted prescribed fire treatments this week near Desert View Drive with monitoring continuing through this weekend. The treated area, referred to as the ‘RX 300 Project’ encompasses an area of approximately 400 acres.

This week, President Biden signed into law the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which includes a historic $3.3 billion investment in wildland fire management. To assist with implementation of the bill and increases in wildland firefighter compensation and benefits, the Office of Wildland Fire and our partners are undertaking a workforce assessment and developing compensation and benefit reform plans.

These efforts will also support the administration’s focus on developing a robust firefighting workforce that is available year-round for wildland fire response and hazardous fuels management to better meet the challenges of today’s wildfire season.

Native American Heritage Month

Throughout the month of November, the NPS and Grand Canyon has been promoting Native American Heritage Month. This theme highlights the heritage, culture, and experience of indigenous peoples both historically and in American life today.

This month our staff will be providing great information on the park social media sites about ways to know and understand the importance of Native Americans in our communities. Go to the park website, follow the hashtag, “#GrandCanyonFirstVoices” on our park’s social media channels, or follow the links in the wrap-up to explore the first voices of the Grand Canyon.

As we celebrate Native American Heritage Month, take a moment, wherever you are, to listen to the wind and the stories it carries. The history played out on public lands, like Grand Canyon National Park, has been dramatic and difficult, but learning from our shared past, present, and future will bring this nation together. This week we released a powerful video highlighting these themes. For an audio described version of this video, visit this link.

Bison Management Video Now Available!

This video presents an overview of bison management on the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park. By 2025, the National Park Service will reduce the size of the overpopulated Kaibab Plateau bison herd through live capture and transfer to American Indian Tribes and lethal removal with Skilled Volunteers.

Grand Canyon National Park is reducing the size to under 200 in order to protect park resources—including vegetation, water, and sacred archeologic sites—from the impacts of the bison.

Yo-Yo Ma Visits the South Rim

Yo-Yo Ma visited GRCA last week and experienced it with the same awe we share for it. Yo-Yo is more than a renowned musician and wonderful human being. He is also insightful and passionate about so much of what we are doing in our efforts to advance the park into the 21st Century. He is especially interested in indigenous issues, science, education, and information technology. Yo-Yo has expressed interest in working with us to support our efforts to lead in these areas. We am grateful and excited at the prospects of working with him to join us in advancing these interests.

Given Covid precautions, Yo-Yo and his team kept the event very small, with only a handful of park staff involved in the visit. His visit was focused on him learning about time, geologic and human, and how our understanding of time connects with indigenous people and the environment. Thank you to all the park staff who helped Yo-Yo understand time, history, culture and human connections.

The events gave us opportunities to expound upon the work we are doing in the park to extend the Desert View vision of collaborating with indigenous neighbors to reimagine how to better manage the park. In the words of Jim Enote, cultural guide to Yo-Yo Ma from Pueblo of Zuni, “We are trying to manage with hope and clarity. Hope that we can work together with our indigenous neighbors with respect and inclusion; clarity that this is the right path forward for the park.”

South Rim District Report Available

In the interest of improving information-sharing and transparency within our community, South Rim Patrol has made available a bimonthly South Rim District Report. These summaries provide access to information on significant incidents occurring within the Grand Canyon Village’s South Rim response area.

Significant incidents may include: traffic offenses, arrests, assault and disorderly conduct offenses, DUI offenses, motor vehicle crashes, and natural resource offenses. For privacy purposes, no personally identifying information will be included within these summaries.

Questions related to these reports can be directed to: grca_public_affairs@nps.gov.

Inner Canyon Composting Toilet Closures

Throughout the next several weeks there will be rotating closures of composting toilets in the inner canyon as these facilities are evacuated and routine maintenance is performed.

Through Thursday the Cedar Ridge composting toilet will be fully closed between the hours of 7:30 a.m.-3 p.m. At Phantom Ranch, the composting toilet located north of the Ranch will be closed between November 29-December 2 between the hours of 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

Upcoming Shuttle Bus Updates

Hermits Rest Route (Red Route) will be suspended for the season November 30 and will resume March 1. From December 1- February 28, visitors will be able to use their private vehicles to access Hermit Road.

Beginning December 1, the Village Route will operate from 6 a.m. until 9 p.m., and the Kaibab Route will operate from 6 a.m. until one hour after sunset. The Hikers’ Express Bus will run at 8 and 9 a.m.

Lion’s Club Rummage Sale-November 20 from 7 a.m.-12 p.m.

Thanksgiving Food Distribution-November 22 from 11 a.m.-1 p.m.

Community Bike Ride-November 27 at 10 a.m.

Holiday Light Show-December 1 from 5-7 p.m.

Note: Items marked in red are new changes as of this past week. Please note, next week there might be slight operational changes in hours due to busy holiday visitation.

South Rim

Xanterra

Delaware North

Other

Desert View

North Rim

The following park closures remain in place:

Please visit the Grand Canyon National Park website for a complete list of closures and available amenities.

Photo Credits (in order of appearance)