John Cletheroe's
USA and Canada Holiday Hints

Free Shuttle Bus Services In US National Parks

Several of the most popular US National Parks operate free shuttle bus services. These services are intended to reduce traffic congestion and parking problems and I highly recommend their use. It is often very useful to be able to park your car anywhere on the shuttle bus route.

All visitors to the relevant parks can make free use of the shuttle buses. Visitors can take as many shuttle bus journeys as they wish, boarding and disembarking any shuttle bus at any stop. In almost all cases no tickets are required.

In some parks there is more than one shuttle bus route and visitors need to ensure that they take the correct bus in the correct direction. Park literature supplied to visitors will almost certainly include maps of the shuttle bus routes.

Usually only the most congested part of each park is served by shuttle buses. In some cases private cars are banned from part of or the whole of the route served by shuttle buses. Private cars may be freely driven in the other parts of the park.

National Parks with shuttle bus systems include the following but this list may not be complete:

Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona - South Rim - three loops: Grand Canyon Village, West Rim Drive/Hermits Rest Road (photograph 29KB) and Yaki Point/South Kaibab.
Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado - a tram system operates at Wetherill Mesa; tickets may be required since priority is given to visitors taking the Long House tour. Many years ago a bus service ran between the Farview visitor centre and Wetherill Mesa but this is no longer in service - you can now drive to Wetherill Mesa.
Yosemite National Park, California - one main loop in Yosemite Valley Photograph (77KB). A separate shuttle bus service runs between the parking area at Wawona and Mariposa Grove.
Zion National Park, Utah - A shuttle bus system has recently been introduced with two loops: Zion Canyon and Springdale.

To the best of my knowledge no Canadian National Parks, US National Monuments, US state parks or Canadian provincial parks have shuttle bus systems.

Free shuttle bus systems should not be confused with tour trams, etc, for which charges are made.

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As with all the other pages on this personal web site, all the information on this page is solely the opinion of the author, who has no connection whatsoever with any of the companies and organisations mentioned other than as an actual or potential customer.

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Most recently modified 9-Mar-01