Arches National Park’s Fiery Furnace Closes as Staff Shortages Mount

Arches National Park posted an alert on its website on March 23, announcing that the Fiery Furnace would be closed to visitors for the foreseeable future.

“No ranger-led tours nor self-guided permits will be issued until further notice,” read the park closure alert. “We look forward to offering these services soon.”

The closure is due to reduced staffing at the National Park Service (NPS) following President Donald Trump’s mass layoffs, Karen Henker, the public affairs specialist and interpretive specialist for Arches National Park, told the Moab Times-Independent this week.

Henker is referring to the federal workforce reductions of Trump and Elon Musk. Those cuts included about 1,000 NPS employees who lost their full-time positions at parks across the country in February.

As part of those layoffs, 5,000 seasonal public lands jobs were also cut or delayed, and parks across the country have struggled to maintain visitor services as a result. The move has caused issues with NPS hiring processes, delaying start dates for many seasonal employees at parks like Arches.

GearJunkie reached out to Henker and Arches National Park numerous times this week. We have not heard back.

Arches National Park: Fiery Furnace Permits Discontinued

The Fiery Furnace is a natural labyrinth of sandstone rock formations sticking up out of the area’s red-orange desert sand. Visitors to Arches National Park must get a permit through NPS before they can enter this area. Every day, 100 permittees are allowed to explore the Fiery Furnace, 75 of which are usually self-guided.

NPS also offers ranger-led tours, which accommodate 14-42 people depending on staff availability, the Moab Times-Independent reported.

Without enough rangers to lead the groups or administer the safety video and orientation at the park’s visitor center, those permits have been temporarily discontinued. And that’s not the only service that Arches has cut. Another alert on the park’s website states, “Some trash cans and picnic tables have been removed to reduce maintenance workloads.”

The decision to close the Fiery Furnace also had a search and rescue (SAR) component. According to Henker, if a visitor were injured or lost, NPS would be responsible for providing SAR support. And “rescues are incredibly staff intensive anywhere in the park, let alone a place as geologically complex as the Fiery Furnace,” Henker said.

Henker told the Moab Times-Independent that NPS plans to reinstate the Fiery Furnace permits once an adequate number of seasonal hires have been put in place. She said the park is actively hiring for those positions now.

Not the Only Understaffed National Park

Since the layoffs and hiring freezes were first instated in mid-February, parks across the country have struggled to maintain normal services and operations.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the nation’s most visited national park, has been forced to close six of its 10 campgrounds. The park is issuing reimbursements for visitors who booked now-closed campgrounds, picnic areas, and pavilions in advance. In February, Yosemite National Park similarly announced it was delaying the sale of reservations for five of the park’s most popular campgrounds.

While two federal judges have ruled the Trump administration’s NPS firings were illegal, Trump has defied their orders to reinstate many of the positions it eliminated. The effects of these layoffs and hiring freezes will continue to ripple through the national park system as visitation increases into spring.

That’s why Henker recommends planning ahead and being even more prepared if you visit national parks this year.

“Folks should know our staffing levels aren’t all the way up to what they normally would be this time of year,” Henker said. “Plan ahead so you don’t need to be rescued — because search and rescue response might be delayed since there’s not as many of us out here.”

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