Zion National Park closes climbing routes to protect endangered falcons

SPRINGDALE, Utah — More than a dozen climbing routes on rocky cliffs in southern Utah’s Zion National Park have been temporarily closed to help protect peregrine falcons.

U.S. Park Service officials closed the routes on Monday on cliffs where the endangered falcons have nested in the past.

Park officials say they’ll reopen any of the sites that don’t have nests by late April or early May. Sites that do have nests will be monitored until the chicks leave the nests, typically in late July.

The closures are based on nesting surveys collected since 2001. They include: Angels Landing, Cable Mountain, The Great White Throne, The Sentinel, Mountain of the Sun, North Twin Brother, Tunnel Wall, The East Temple, Mount Spry, The Streaked Wall, Mount Kinesava, the Middle Fork of Taylor Creek and the Isaac route in Court of the Patriarchs.