SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - The Bureau of Land Management has proposed developing a parking lot and making other changes at one of the most heavily used hiking trails in Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, agency officials said.
About 8,000 people annually pay a day-use fee to hike in South Mule Canyon to House a Fire, a prehistoric Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwelling, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
Visitors park along a dirt road and there are no pit toilets at the trailhead. There is minimal signage along the 1.5-mile (2.4-kilometer) trail, officials said.
The proposal includes a parking lot, new loop trail, toilet installation, a small picnic area and prohibiting parking on road shoulders, agency officials said.
“If implemented, this preliminary proposal would improve public safety and prevent resource damage to this iconic site,” the agency said in a statement, adding that human and food waste are a problem in the area.
The preliminary proposal was reviewed and recommended by the monument committee in February. People can review and submit comments until June 4.
The agency doubled hiking fees in January, in part because of increased visitations. The plan says the fees would be used to improve the facilities, update signage, and increase the ranger presence at the sites and trailheads.
Bears Ears National Monument was designated at the request of five Native American tribes by President Barack Obama in 2016 and reduced by 85% the following year by President Donald Trump at the urging of Utah Republican elected leaders. The move is currently being challenged in federal court.
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