On Sunday, Arches National Park officials announced that the iconic Fiery Furnace hiking zone would be closed until further notice due to staffing shortages.
In February, the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) fired 1,000 existing National Park employees and rescinded job offers for another 5,000 seasonal workers. Although the government reversed course on the temporary workers a few weeks later and a federal judge ordered the reinstatement of national park employees last week, most of those have been placed on paid leave, while national parks like Arches are still working to fill the temporary positions that manage day-to-day operations within park boundaries.
Best known for its towering sandstone slot canyons and semi-technical terrain, the Fiery Furnace garnered so much attention in the 1990s that park officials put a permitting system into place to ensure that no more than 75 people could enter the area per day.
In a normal year, Arches National Park receives nearly 2 million visitors. The park relies on seasonal employees to accommodate hikers and monitor the Fiery Furnace hike. However, both ranger-led programs and self-guided trips in the area are staff-intensive according to the park, which has left officials with no choice but to close the hike.
Karen Hanker, a spokesperson for Arches National Park told Backpacker that the park’s “limited team is doing visitor services, staffing the front desk, giving guided tours, etc.”
Given the volume of visitation right now we’re at a level where if we don’t have our seasonal workers to help us manage the front desk and issue permits, we have to put our full time workers toward the basics,” Hanker said. As a popular destination for spring break travelers, traffic starts to grow in March and April. Fiery Furnace generally opens on Presidents Day. Usually the park would offer permits at this time of the year, but without their usual team, there simply aren’t enough resources.
In addition to requiring more staff members to support permitting and ranger-led programs through Fiery Furnace, Hanker told the Moab Times-Independent,“There’s also the search and rescue component.”
“Should something happen to someone in the Fiery Furnace, we would need to provide support,” she aid. “Rescues are incredibly staff intensive anywhere in the park, let alone a place as geologically complex as the Fiery Furnace.”
The trail through Fiery Furnace takes hikers across slickrock and through canyons where it can be difficult to see a path. Without many conventional trail markers on the Fiery Furnace hike, it isn’t uncommon for visitors to become lost in the area. Staffing shortages not only make standard park operations challenging, but they also render officials unable to help in rescue situations, since a single rescue for a sprained ankle could require 10 employees.
The Fiery Furnace is also a beloved canyoneering area due to its technical terrain. It’s that same terrain that makes rescues in the area so complicated.
Even with federal orders are in place to reinstate employees across the NPS, many national parks face housing shortages, which can make the hiring process challenging even in normal times. With their future at the agency uncertain, some of those impacted by the layoffs have also acquired other jobs. (This week the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to reverse the order to reinstate federal employees.)
“Once our seasonal staff are here and trained we look forward to resuming normal spring operations, including opening Fiery Furnace,” Henker said. Officials aren’t yet sure when they’ll be able to revert to normal operations.
With temperatures rising in the meantime, the park hopes that visitors will choose safe replacement activities.
“We appreciate [it] if folks can do their research about their plans and choose an activity that’s safe and appropriate for them. It can still get hot in spring, and with fewer folks to respond to calls it is important for visitors to look out for themselves and to avoid needing a rescue,” Henker said.”
Additional reporting by Frederick Dreier at Outside
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