Tripod use banned on Zion National Park trails

Zion's "Little Tree" photographed with the Milky Way. It's single, 25 second exposure and Low Level Lighting required the use of a tripod.

Tripods are not allowed in Zion National Park —but only if you are in a photography workshop, and the restriction only applies to park trails and trailheads. The new 2018 rules for Guided Photography Workshops, do NOT apply to individual photographers who are on their own and not traveling with a commercial business.

A recent photography blog article may be misleading. The real issue is not so much a restriction of tripods in Zion park photo workshops, but the ban of tripods on trails. Tripods are allowed in Zion park workshops, just not on trails —and to many visitors this is a good ruling. The CUA operating plan is written in a way that can be quite confusing to some.

In previous years, photo workshop operators were given a complete list of where tripods were allowed in Zion, but now even these areas are off limits to tripods. For 2018, no tripods can to be used on any trail within Zion. "No two groups from any one company are authorized to guide (or be on) on any one trail at the same time. [However,] Groups may travel on foot up to 100 feet off of designated trails, using existing disturbances or staying on hardened surfaces." Most of the photographers I interviewed agree that getting groups off the trails will help improve park access for everyone.

Why the change? Quoting section 7 of the 2018 Operating Plan For Guided Photography and Painting Workshops: “The use of tripods on trails is prohibited by permittees or clients (monopods are authorized); [because] Tours must not interfere with the general visiting public. [Furthermore] …Due to the sensitivity of nighttime resources in Zion National Park, all requests for nighttime photography must be made at least three weeks ahead to time. All requests must include all proposed locations and dates/times of proposed nighttime activities. Since nighttime photography requires the use of tripods and tripods are not authorized on park trails, nighttime photography is not authorized on park trails.”

As you can see from that last statement, photographing at night is becoming a more sensitive issue in the park, and will probably require even greater planning (and maybe even additional permits) in the future. Currently, workshop operators are only permitted to guide in 16 specific areas and trailheads/trails within the park (see section 11).

My opinion: Prohibiting groups of photographers from blocking trails with their tripods is a good idea. From the feedback I'm getting, trail congestion from workshop groups has happened in the past. However, I've noticed that most of my workshop operators friends spend a lot of time educating and setting the example for best practices. I believe the park would do better by concentrate more on the large foreign tour operators who seem to allow their participants to do most of the trail blocking—not only clogging trail access, but also running ahead and blocking the view from other tourists and photographers who came before them.

Maybe the park service should consider an educational brochure on photographer ethics and park regulations, printed in the most popular languages. In light of current budget shortfalls, they might also consider raising the entrance fee rates for large tour groups, who currently only pay less than $7.31 per person, compared to the normal $15/person or $30 per car. Fees might also be increased for foreign visitors, who do not pay taxes to support our national parks.

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Adding Ballast to Stabilize Your Tripod

My tripod stabilized with a heavy bag of rocks during a time-lapse series.

Use the heaviest tripod you can stand to carry: Many wildlife photographers recommend that if a person wants sharp photos when using a long telephoto lens, one should buy the heaviest tripod that he or she can stand to carry into the field. Although nightscape photographers typically use wide angle rather than telephoto lenses to capture the night skies, the need for a stable tripod is still there, especially when multiple exposures are required.

Or, add the extra weight once you're on location: One way to get the stability of a heavy tripod is the add the weight or ballast after you get to your location. Ballast is often defined as the heavy material that is placed in the hold of a ship to enhance stability. In my night photography, this ballast comes in the form of a canvas shopping bag that is partially filled with rocks (gathered on location) and hung from the bottom center of the tripod.

The day or night solution to sharp images: I often use this same technique for my daytime photography. The new light-weight carbon fiber tripods are very sturdy, but I've discovered that even a medium breeze can sometimes shake my camera and blur my images. Adding ballast in the field offers a win-win solution!

In the night scene below I captured the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River bathed by the light of a quarter moon. Six hours later, after the moon had set, I was able to capture the glory of the Milky Way. Because the weighted tripod remain perfectly stable between the two exposures, combining these two images was fairly easy in post production.

Grand Canyon and the Colorado River bathed by moonlight ~ © Royce Bair

6 hours later, with the moon gone, I can now capture the glory of the Milky Way ~ © Royce Bair

In post production, I easily combined the two exposures because of perfect alignment, due to a stable tripod.

Equipment Used: For the above photos, I used the Canon EOS 5D Mark III camera body with a Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 lens. The 5D Mark III provides excellent low-noise control at the high ISOs I need for this type of starry night photography, and the ultra-wide (114º) Rokinon lens provides excellent coma aberration correction. The camera was mounted to a Manfrotto 410 Junior Geared Head, attached to a light-weight Manfrotto 190CXPRO3 3-Section Carbon Fiber Tripod (weighted down with my canvas bag of rocks). You can read about the benefits of using a geared head here.

When I am on unstable soil, i.e. sand, I also take the precaution of placing flat rock supports under my tripod legs so there is less chance of shifting between exposures. (During the night, wind gusts reached over 40 mph, so I was glad that the tripod had been weighted with the bag of rocks!)

Flat rocks under the tripod legs provide added support when on unstable soil, i.e. sand.