The South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park is seen in Grand Canyon Village, Arizona, on August 8, 2023.
Alex Brandon/AP
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Alex Brandon/AP
Visitors will no longer be able to stay overnight at Grand Canyon National Park hotels after a series of outages in the only pipeline serving the popular tourist destination.
The restrictions will be in effect through Labor Day, when hotels will be near or at capacity, Grand Canyon spokeswoman Joelle Baird said Wednesday. It’s an unprecedented measure, even for a water main that has suffered frequent outages, including four major breaks recently.
The 12.5-mile Transcanyon Water Pipeline, built in the 1960s, supplies drinking water to facilities on the South Rim and the inner canyon. Park officials say its lifespan has exceeded its design life, and since 2010, more than 85 major breaks have disrupted water supplies.
All park concessions will suspend overnight lodging, including El Tovar, Bright Angel Lodge, Maswik Lodge and Phantom Ranch. Hotels outside the park in the town of Tusayan, Arizona, will not be affected.
Heidi Zahner Younts of Iowa City, Iowa, said in a comment on the park’s Facebook page Wednesday that she had planned “the trip of a lifetime” with her daughter for the weekend, calling the situation sad.
On Wednesday night, however, she told The Associated Press via Facebook message that she had been able to book another hotel outside the park.
“Maybe less traffic and people?” she said.
The park will remain open during daylight hours, along with the Grand Canyon Lodge at the North Rim and other North Rim visitor services.
Since July 8, officials said, the park has been experiencing water supply issues and no water is currently being pumped to the south or north rims of the canyon.
Park officials hope to restore full operation of facilities for overnight visitors on the south shore as soon as possible.
In the meantime, under current water restrictions, officials are asking residents and visitors to help conserve water by limiting showers to five minutes or less, turning off taps while shaving or brushing teeth, flushing toilets selectively and washing clothes only in full loads.
Restoration efforts are complicated by the fact that the failures occurred in a narrow part of the canyon known as “the box,” an area prone to rockfall and high temperatures at this time of year.
“It’s certainly a difficult place to be and for a pipeline rupture to occur,” Baird said, noting safety concerns for crews repairing the damage.
The National Park Service recently began work on a $208 million water main rehabilitation and upgrade of the associated water distribution system, which is expected to be completed in 2027.
The park aims to meet the water needs of 6 million annual visitors and about 2,500 year-round residents, officials said.
