Zion National Park has achieved a milestone in accessibility by becoming the first national park in the United States to offer an all-terrain wheelchair available for public use. The specialized mobility device enables disabled visitors to explore the park's renowned canyon trails that were previously challenging or impossible to access with standard wheelchairs.
The wheelchair became available through a charitable organization called 2Live4, which provided donated funds to purchase the equipment on behalf of the park. The manufacturer, Extreme Modus, discovered during the delivery process that Zion would be the first among America's national parks to provide its own offroad mobility options for visitors.
The project required extensive planning and coordination. Kenny Jardine, chief business development officer at Extreme Modus, noted the lengthy timeline involved in bringing the wheelchair to fruition.
"It's been almost two years in the making," Jardine told Good News Network. "Zion actually got the chair in July of last year from a donor through a nonprofit organization called 2Live4, who was able to come in and donate the money to be able to make this possible."
The wheelchair represents seven years of development work by Ryan Grassley, co-founder of Extreme Motus. His design process was informed by personal experience taking a friend named Sam, who has cerebral palsy, to all but one of Utah's National Park Service properties.
Grassley shared details about the wheelchair's delivery to Zion with KSL news, recounting an emotional moment that underscored the equipment's significance. As the team demonstrated the chair to park rangers at the visitor center, a family with a child who used a wheelchair happened to walk past.
"We were standing in front of the visitor center and telling the rangers how to use the chair, and a family walked by. They had a child that used a wheelchair, and the mom was like, 'What is happening right now?' We explained what we were doing, and the mom just started crying," Grassley told Good News Network. "It became immediately clear that having that equipment available was 100% the right thing to do."
The all-terrain wheelchair is now available to any visitor at no charge. Because the park currently has only one unit, access operates on a first-come-first-served basis. Park officials have not announced plans to acquire additional wheelchairs at this time.
The initiative positions Zion as a leader in accessibility among national parks, potentially setting a precedent for similar programs at other federal recreation sites. The specialized wheelchair allows users to navigate unpaved trails and uneven terrain that standard wheelchairs cannot traverse, opening up wilderness experiences to visitors with mobility limitations.
