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Daily Mail
20-07-2025
- Daily Mail
Fears grow as Utah city set to transform into trail tourism hotspot
Locals in a charming Utah city fear it is set to transform into the next hot spot for trail tourism after becoming the latest magnet for thrill seekers. While many are hailing a possible economic boom for the town of Richfield, residents are also concerned that it could go the way of Moab, a trail tourism city which now welcomes five million visitors each year. Richfield is located in Sevier County, which has boomed since it was declared 'Utah's Trail Country' five years ago in an effort to draw in tourists. Their decades-old off-road and newer mountain bike trails have brought in swamps of visitors to their hotels almost every summer weekend. But with a population of just 8,000 people, locals are worried that the influx of visitors will change their small town for the worse. 'Selfishly, I don't want to happen here what's been happening in Moab because it's just become crazy,' Richfield native Tyler Jorgensen told The Salt Lake Tribune. 'It's really an amazing territory out here, so the unselfish part [of me] wants to share this with the world,' he continued. 'Let's keep it intimate. Keep it small. Let's not get crazy.' Moab endured a surge of tourists seeking its famous Slickrock Bike Trail and plenty of offerings for adventure enthusiasts, as well as views of its canyons and red rock formations. The boom has sent house prices soaring to make Moab one of the most expensive places to buy a home in the state. The median listing price for a home in the city was $584,500 in June, per the Utah Association of Realtors. One family man, who grew up in Moab, said that the overcrowding and a lack of affordability eventually drew him to Richfield. 'I was in Moab for a long time, and I always thought, "Man, when I retire, it's gonna be Moab,"' 37-year-old Tyson Curtis told the outlet. 'Now there's just no way I could ever afford to live there. And it's not even the same city as it was when I went to school there and graduated and moved back there for a couple years.' Curtis said, however, that when you leave Moab, it feels like travelling back in time. 'You come to a spot like this, you're like, "This is Moab again." With the Paiute Trail, with 2,000 miles, there will always be a spot that you'll still have this solitude and this privacy in nature.' But for Richfield, its proximity to biking trails threatens locals with a future similar to Moab's overcrowded and expensive lifestyle. House prices rose by almost 40 percent in the year to June 2024 to a median listing price of $400,000, per Redfin. Carson DeMille and his friends first constructed a mountain biking trail network as a way to bring business into the town, but primarily to entertain themselves. 'We just built what we liked, what we wanted,' DeMille said. 'It was a selfish endeavor. I guess it just worked out.' Utah is already renowned for the fastest-growing youth mountain bike league in the country, the Tribune reported. Richfield has already had a taste of what it could be like if the city was overrun by tourists. DeMille and a group of volunteers built the course 20 miles east of Richfield, dubbed the Glenwood Hills course, which held its first National Interscholastic Cycling Association race in 2018. The event was a 'pretty eye-opening experience' for DeMille, the city and the county after more than a thousand school-age racers arrived and families took over local restaurants and hotels. 'We kind of had to start out with volunteer efforts to showcase what the possibilities were,' DeMille continued. 'And then from there, the city and the county were great partners. We didn't have to try very hard to convince them to put some investment into it.' By 2021, state and local backing poured $800,000 into a 38-mile cross-country network of trails. One was even named as one of the five best mountain biking trails in Utah, known as the Spinal Tap, which consists of three parts and spans 18 miles long. Its reputation has continued to attract more riders, reaching around 150 per day — three times the amount it used to attract per week. Every year, the course hosts one or two NICA races as well as others, such as the Intermountain Cup cross-country circuit, which brings around 500 to 700 bikers and their families, the circuit's business developer Chris Spragg told the Tribune. The trail's popularity has been reflected within the small town's growing hotel revenue, which increased by 31.5% from 2019 to 2023. 'I do really think that, as they develop this,' biker Dave Gilbert told the outlet. 'It's going to drive more of the economy here.' Yet, this is exactly the fear of those who have witnessed the boom in Moab. 'That's probably one of the most vocal concerns of people's, is we're opening Pandora's box to crazy growth and issues like Moab has,' DeMille said. 'I'd be naïve to say there probably aren't going to be some growing pains. There have been some growing pains with more people.' However, DeMille points out some natural character differences between Richfield and Moab that may save their small town from changing too much. 'Moab has two national parks, the Colorado River. They have mountains of slick rock. They have Jeeping. They have thousands of miles of mountain biking trails,' he said. 'And maybe, you know, we could try our darndest and never become Moab if we wanted to.'
Daily Mail
20-07-2025
- Daily Mail
Gorgeous rural town where locals FEAR becoming the next Moab
Locals in a charming, Utah city fear it is set to transform into the next hot spot for trail tourism after becoming the latest magnet for thrill seekers. While many are hailing a possible economic boom for the town of Richfield, residents are also concerned that it could go the way of Moab, a trail tourism city which now welcomes five million visitors each year. Richfield is located in Sevier County which has boomed since it was declared 'Utah's Trail Country' five years ago in an effort to draw in tourists. Their decades old off-road and newer mountain bike trails has brought in swamps of visitors in their hotels almost every summer weekend. But with a population of just 8,000 people, locals are worried that the influx of visitors will change their small town for the worse. 'Selfishly, I don't want to happen here what's been happening in Moab because it's just become crazy,' Richfield native Tyler Jorgensen told The Salt Lake Tribune. 'It's really an amazing territory out here, so the unselfish part [of me] wants to share this with the world,' he continued. 'Let's keep it intimate. Keep it small. Let's not get crazy.' Moab endured a surge of tourists seeking its famous Slickrock Bike Trail and plenty of offerings for adventure enthusiasts, as well as views of its canyons and red rock formations. The boom has sent house prices soaring to make Moab one of the most expensive places to buy a home in the state. The median listing price for a home in the city was $584,500 in June, per the Utah Association of Realtors. One family man, who grew up in Moab, said that the overcrowding and a lack of affordability eventually drew him to Richfield. 'I was in Moab for a long time, and I always thought, "Man, when I retire, it's gonna be Moab,"' 37-year-old Tyson Curtis told the outlet. 'Now there's just no way I could ever afford to live there. And it's not even the same city as it was when I went to school there and graduated and moved back there for a couple years.' Curtis said, however, that when you leave Moab, it feels like travelling back in time. 'You come to a spot like this, you're like, "This is Moab again." With the Paiute Trail, with 2,000 miles, there will always be a spot that you'll still have this solitude and this privacy in nature.' But for Richfield, its proximity to biking trails threaten locals with a future similar to Moab's overcrowded and expensive lifestyle. House prices rose by almost 40 percent in the year to June 2024 to a median listing price of $400,000, per Redfin. Carson DeMille and his friends first constructed a mountain biking trail network as a way to bring business into the town, but primarily to entertain themselves. 'We just built what we liked, what we wanted,' DeMille said. 'It was a selfish endeavor. I guess it just worked out.' Utah is already renowned for the fastest-growing youth mountain bike league in the country, the Tribune reported. Richfield has already had a taste of what it could be like if the city was overrun by tourists. DeMille and a group of volunteers built the course 20 miles east of Richfield, dubbed the Glenwood Hills course, which held its first National Interscholastic Cycling Association race in 2018. The event was a 'pretty eye-opening experience' for DeMille, the city and the county after more than a thousand school-age racers arrived and families took over local restaurants and hotels. 'We kind of had to start out with volunteer efforts to showcase what the possibilities were,' DeMille continued. 'And then from there, the city and the county were great partners. We didn't have to try very hard to convince them to put some investment into it.' By 2021, state and local backing poured $800,000 into a 38-mile cross-country network of trails. One was even named as one of the five best mountain biking trails in Utah, known as the Spinal Tap which consists of three parts and span 18 miles long. Its reputation has continued to attract more riders, reaching around 150 per day - three times the amount it used to attract per week. Every year, the course hosts one or two NICA races as well as others, such as the Intermountain Cup cross-country circuit which brings around 500 to 700 bikers and their families, the circuits business developer Chris Spragg told the Tribune. The trails popularity has been reflected within the small town's growing hotel revenue, which increased by 31.5% from 2019 to 2023. 'I do really think that, as they develop this,' biker Dave Gilbert told the outlet. 'It's going to drive more of the economy here.' Yet, this is exactly the fears of those who have witnessed the boom in Moab. 'That's probably one of the most vocal concerns of people's, is we're opening Pandora's box to crazy growth and issues like Moab has,' DeMille said. 'I'd be naïve to say there probably aren't going to be some growing pains. There have been some growing pains with more people.' However, DeMille points out some natural character differences between Richfield and Moab that may save their small town from changing too much. 'Moab has two national parks, the Colorado River. They have mountains of slick rock. They have Jeeping. They have thousands of miles of mountain biking trails,' he said. 'And maybe, you know, we could try our darndest and never become Moab if we wanted to .'
Axios
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
The Leonardo closes indefinitely for repairs
The Leonardo has closed for critical repairs, with no set reopening date. Why it matters: The unexpected closure this month of the nonprofit science and art museum, a fixture in Salt Lake City's Library Square, highlights its ongoing financial woes since opening in 2011. Catch up quick: The museum sought to honor the painter and scientist Leonardo daVinci and aimed to deliver cutting-edge immersive exhibits. Yes, but: It has long struggled to pay off debt. In 2019, Mayor Jackie Biskupski's office served the museum a default notice of over $600,000 in unpaid bills and neglected building maintenance, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. The city owns the building occupied by the museum. The latest: Andrew Wittenburg, a spokesperson for the Salt Lake City Mayor's Office, said the city will continue to work with The Leonardo's leaders to "address repairs that are desperately needed at the facility, as we have for more than a decade." "Due to maintenance needs that have not been resolved by the tenant as part of the lease agreement, certain systems have failed and now require sustained attention," he said in a statement to Axios. The city is also working with the museum to meet ADA requirements. The other side: Museum staff did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday afternoon. In an email sent to patrons, the museum's board chair, Lisa Davis, said she was "optimistic that these repairs will be completed soon," and planned to work with the city on other fixes, the Tribune reported Tuesday. Zoom in: A Google review of the museum dated a week ago stated that the elevator, escalators and some bathrooms were out of service. Another review from about two weeks ago said the museum's projectors and televisions were not turned on. "I don't know if this is representative of what it's typically like, but if not, I don't know why they bothered opening at all today," the reviewer wrote. What's next: Ken Sanders Rare Books, a popular bookstore that relocated to the space in 2023, will remain open Tuesday through Sunday.
Axios
17-06-2025
- Politics
- Axios
Utah Sen. Mike Lee's posts about Minnesota shootings reflect online MAGA persona
Mike Lee's inflammatory social media posts about last weekend's deadly political shootings in Minnesota are drawing fresh attention to his years-long MAGA transformation. Why it matters: Once seen as a buttoned-up conservative, Lee is increasingly positioning himself as an ultra-online, hard-right firebrand in line with the right's most provocative wing. State of play: Lee's posts, which baselessly ascribed leftist motives to the attacks on Minnesota Democrats, were only the latest to attract scrutiny of his far-right online profile — especially under his personal @BasedMikeLee account on X. His activity on the platform has skyrocketed since the beginning of President Trump's second term, with an average of more than 100 posts per day in the first three months of 2025, per an analysis by the Salt Lake Tribune. What's inside: The posts are largely MAGA red meat, with broad criticism of "leftists," culture war grievances and right-wing conspiracy theories. Case in point: A week ago, he called the "No Kings" protesters"Marxist psy ops" funded by China. By the numbers: Via @BasedMikeLee, he has posted about Marxism 15 times and tagged Elon Musk in 40 posts so far this month. As of Tuesday, he had not yet posted the word "Utah." Neither Lee's office nor Utah GOP chair Robert Axson responded to Axios' requests for comment Tuesday morning. What they're saying: "This is not normal, regular civic banter, especially for man of his stature in the office that he holds," said Mike Madrid, a veteran Republican political consultant and co-founder of The Lincoln Project. "Something is wrong with him, and I think his family should be concerned." "I think the more he has engaged in [inflammatory posts], the easier and more instinctual it's become for him," said Becky Edwards, who challenged Lee in the 2022 primary. The latest: By Tuesday, Lee had deleted the posts about the Minnesota shooting suspect — though he had initially kept them up even after friends said the suspect was deeply conservative. The big picture: For years, Lee was seen as an uncompromising yet intellectual conservative. As The Atlantic's Tim Alberta recounted last year, Lee tried to modify GOP convention rules to prevent Trump's nomination in 2016. Upon seeing the "Access Hollywood" tape, Lee called on Trump to withdraw from the race. "It's as if Ned Flanders became a 4chan troll," Alberta wrote. Reality check: Lee has always been very conservative. In 2010, he unseated Bob Bennett, a powerful, three-term Republican incumbent, in the state GOP convention by running to Bennett's right. The upset was widely seen as a bellwether in Utah of the influence of the Tea Party movement, which backed Lee. Catch up quick: After Trump took office, Lee quickly became one of his most ardent allies and pushed him not to accept defeat in 2020. As a MAGA acolyte, he likened Trump to Captain Moroni, a heroic figure in the Book of Mormon. "He went from being a respected conservative constitutionalist to sort of this loyalist sycophant for somebody who represents nothing of the values he once held," Madrid told Axios.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Yahoo
Nearly half of Utah's foreign tourism comes from this country, and they're not coming this year
For more than a third of her life, Tina Hunt has made a tradition of visiting the Southwest for her birthday. When the 59-year-old started daydreaming about this year's 10-day trip last fall, she felt called to return to St. George, Utah, where she and her husband enjoy mountain biking, hiking and sightseeing. Yet when the Vancouver, Canada, residents boarded the plane in April, it was bound for Costa Rica. And at no point would they touch down on United States soil. Hunt made sure of that. 'Just with the things going on, we thought, 'Nope,'' Hunt said. 'We're just part of those Canadians who are 'Nope. Not until things change.'' Canadians, who have a reputation for being some of the most polite people in the world, have been putting their foot down this year when it comes to traveling to the United States. Infuriated by President Donald Trump's threats to make the U.S.' northern neighbor its 51st state, concerned about the effects of tariffs on their economy and shaken by border detainments and airplane crashes, they have been changing or canceling trips in droves. And perhaps nowhere is their absence felt more keenly than in Utah, where Canadians account for nearly half of the state's foreign tourists. The Salt Lake Tribune explored data and spoke with tourism officials and small business owners to find out how declining numbers of tourists from Canada are impacting Utah. 'The trend seems to be that they're going away, right?' said McKay Edwards, working partner at Moab Springs Ranch, a collection of bungalows near Arches National Park. 'They're canceling instead of coming.' Perhaps unsurprisingly given their proximity, similar mountain terrain and propensity for adventure travel, Canadians generally like visiting Utah. In 2023, 40% of Utah's foreign tourists — more than 270,000 people — hailed from Canada, according to the Utah Office of Tourism. The French are the next most likely to visit the state, accounting for 7.3% of its foreign travelers, followed by Germans at 6%. Relative to the nearly 10 million Americans who visit the state annually, the number of Canadians coming in is small. But their spending power is mighty. Edwards said they tend to stay longer and spend more per visit than Americans. They are also conscientious visitors, he said, who tend to respect the surrounding environment and his ranch's rules. The Canadian market is of such importance that the Utah Office of Tourism has market representatives in the country to help promote the state. Last year, the tourism agency extended its contract with a consulting firm to spearhead strategies to draw even more visitors from the north. 'Clearly,' said Natalie Randall, managing director of the Utah Office of Tourism, 'Canada is a critical market to us in Utah.' From the day Trump reentered the White House, however, luring in Canadian visitors became exponentially more difficult. On his first day in office, Trump threatened to impose 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico. In February, he made the first of numerous suggestions that Canada should become the 51st U.S. state, prompting calls for boycotts within the northern country. By early March, according to a study released by the not-for-profit research institute Angus Reid, 58% of Canadians planned to cancel or delay travel to the U.S. That movement only gained momentum earlier this month when Trump told newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, 'Never say never' after Carney remarked that Canada is not for sale. Amidst those already roiled waters, stories about Canadians being detained by U.S. immigration officials — including actor Jasmine Mooney — make people like Hunt, who lives just 20 minutes from the border, think twice about crossing over. 'Just the disrespect, you know?' Hunt said. 'We're a sovereign country. We have our ways of being and doing, and just the repeated threats of annexing us? Honestly, most are saying 'No effing way.'' Randall said her office is aware of the downturn in Canadian tourism nationwide. Ticket sales for summer flights from Canada to the U.S. are down 21% when compared with the same time in 2024, the biggest drop from any country, according to an analysis of Airlines Reporting Corporation data by The New York Times. Statistics Canada reported car travel from Canada dropped 35% in April compared to April 2024, marking the fourth straight month of year-over-year decreases. That visitation void is seeping down into the Rocky Mountain states, including Utah. Each of the past four weeks, bookings and revenue from Canadian tourists at U.S. mountain destination towns have fallen precipitously when compared with the same week the previous year, according to Inntopia, which tracks lodging. A month ago, reservations for arrivals between May 1 and Dec. 31 of this year were down 40.1%. As of last week, they were down 46.6%. Meanwhile, European bookings are down 30% year over year, said Tom Foley, senior vice president for business intelligence at Inntopia. When he first noticed the downward trend in Canadian bookings in January, Foley said it was unlike anything he and other market monitors had seen over the previous two years. 'But as those declines have steepened and the data have become more clear in the ensuing months — including supporting data from other researchers,' Foley said. 'We've been able to directly attribute these steep declines to both trade and annexation events on the calendar.' Randall, the Utah tourism director, said her office has only seen hints of that downturn. At Salt Lake City International Airport, for example, industry sources show bookings from Canada to the U.S. have begun to slow, according to an airport spokesperson. Still, last week the airport added service by WestJet, a Canadian carrier, offering direct flights to and from Edmonton, Alberta, in the summer. 'We've been able to hear a handful of sentiments from Canadians, and that handful isn't positive. They're either delaying or not coming,' Randall said. 'But again, it's a handful.' Still, Randall acknowledged that even a handful of cancellations can add up, especially for Utah's small-business owners. 'Those small mom-and-pop guides and outfitters or bed and breakfasts,' Randall said. 'Any type of economic impact that happens always hits them first.' It's already bludgeoning Moab Springs Ranch, Edwards said. A big, red, maple-leaf flag flies outside the historic ranch house-turned-front desk. Pretty soon, he said, it will be the only sign of Canada on his property. An oasis among the red rocks, Moab Springs Ranch sits where Moab's first non-Native settler, Black frontiersman William Grandstaff, homesteaded in the late 1880s. Located just south of Arches National Park, it's now a collection of 20 well-appointed bungalows and townhouses nestled among two springs. Edwards humblebrags that the ranch has been TripAdvisor's No. 1 Traveler's Choice hotel for Moab for the past five years. 'We're independent. We're not part of a national chain, or anything like that,' Edwards said. 'So, I think we drive the big boys crazy because we're sitting in that number one position all the time.' Due to the ranch's small size and the outsized number of American tourists who visit Utah, Edwards said foreign tourists make up a small fraction of his guests. In an average year, he said, international tourists comprise less than 10% of guests at the ranch. Canadians account for about 2% of his business. Still, his profit margins also are not more than 8%. So, losing that clientele could be crippling. And Edwards said his booking numbers show that's a real possibility. Year to date, bookings are down $170,000, he said. Foreigners account for 44% of cancellations. And in August, Edwards doesn't show a single booking from Canada. 'If you're treading water and your nostrils are just above water, 5% can be a big deal,' Edwards said. 'So those of us who operate on thin margins are hurting from that.' The rub, he said, is that international bookings were just bouncing back from the post-COVID lag. Plus, as was the case in 2020, Americans are not making up the slack, especially when it comes to trips to National Parks. The U.S. Travel Association reported declines in National Park trips among Americans' otherwise consistent travel patterns. With uncertainty over staffing at National Parks amid Department of Government Efficiency cuts, some visitors and park advocate groups have voiced concern that conditions at the parks will falter, in ways such as overflowing trash cans, bare toilet paper rolls and reduced programming. 'People don't know if the park is going to be open, if toilets are going to be overflowing,' Edwards said. 'The National Park Service is getting just hammered and people are rightfully concerned.' When the parks faced a similar scenario in 2020 and during a government shutdown in 2023, Edwards said state leaders helped alleviate much of the uncertainty by guaranteeing they would keep the state's Mighty 5 parks open and operating mostly as usual. Legislators have made no such promises to cover the gaps made by federal cuts. 'There's been crickets. Nothing. And it's because they don't want to seem disloyal to the current administration,' Edwards said. 'There's a lack of understanding at our state level of how big an industry tourism is.' Even if the state stepped up and provided some sureties, Hunt indicated the damage has already been done. She and her husband canceled a trip to New Mexico planned for later this year and will be going to Europe instead. And her next birthday trip? Maybe she'll look at Guatemala instead of St. George. She doesn't know when, or if she will be back to the U.S. If it's up to her husband, it won't be in the next four years. 'What it comes down to is just kind of lost trust in the States at the moment,' she said. 'And losing trust takes over twice as long to regain back.' This story was produced by The Salt Lake Tribune and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
