Interior Secretary Plans Grand Canyon Visit for Reopening

Interior Secretary David Bernhardt is scheduled to be at the Grand Canyon this weekend to highlight the park's partial reopening after it shuttered temporarily over coronavirus concerns. The Grand Canyon has been opening intermittently with limited hours and services. Entrance gates at the more popular South Rim will be open from 4 a.m. to 10 a.m. until Monday. Visitors, who will have access to some food services, hiking trails and bicycle rentals, are being encouraged to leave around sunset. Bernhardt is expected to meet with park Superintendent Ed Keable, whom he once worked with at the Interior’s Office of the Solicitor, and park staff. Keable has been at the helm of the Grand Canyon for about two weeks. Bernhardt has no planned public appearances Saturday. Bernhardt visited Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge and Petroglyph National Monument on the edges of Albuquerque, New Mexico, during his trip to the Southwest. He also met with and spoke to tribal leaders in New Mexico and Arizona about the coronavirus, water supplies, the economy and access to public lands. He joined officials in Prescott on Friday to talk about a planned solar power project in La Paz County, and a land exchange the U.S. Bureau of Land Management approved last year that could expand mining in Pinal and Gila counties...MORE