National Park Service Scraps Glen Canyon Motor Vehicle Rule, Ends Rulemaking

Twenty-four miles of OHV and street-legal ATV routes through the Orange Cliffs Special Management Unit of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area are staying open. The National Park Service made it official on March 18, 2026, publishing a Federal Register notice withdrawing the motor vehicle rule that had threatened to shut them down and formally terminating the rulemaking process.

The now-dead rule was finalized in the final days of the Biden administration in January 2025, shaped by years of litigation from environmental groups who argued the area, which sits adjacent to Canyonlands National Park's remote Maze District, needed stronger protections for desert tortoise habitat and wilderness character. Under it, OHV and ATV access would have been eliminated on those 24 miles, with only approximately 8 miles of the Poison Spring Loop remaining open for motorized use.

The rule barely had time to breathe before the brakes went on. The NPS delayed its effective date in February 2025 and then, on March 14, 2025, postponed it indefinitely, pending judicial review. By then, both chambers of Congress were already moving to kill it outright. The House and Senate had both introduced joint resolutions providing for congressional disapproval of the rule under the Congressional Review Act.

President Trump signed the Congressional Review Act resolution into law, with the resolution introduced by Rep. Celeste Maloy and Sens. Mike Lee and John Curtis. It overturned the NPS rule that had limited motorized access on those 24 miles of road. "When Utahns found out that the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area's Travel Management Plan included nonsensical restrictions on motorized access, they reached out for help," Maloy said. "We took legislative action and, through this CRA, reversed a rule pushed through by the previous administration."

The congressional disapproval carried a powerful secondary consequence. The Congressional Review Act prohibits the agency from issuing a new rule that is "substantially the same" as the overturned rule unless authorized by a new piece of legislation. That means the NPS cannot simply restart this rulemaking on its own. Kevin J. Lilly, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, exercising the delegated authority of the Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, signed off on the withdrawal notice.

Jacob Ohlson, Superintendent of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, is the contact for further information and can be reached at P.O. Box 1507, Page, Arizona 86040, by phone at 928-608-6209, or by email at GLCA_Superintendent@nps.gov.

For off-road advocacy organizations, the outcome represents a significant federal-level victory, with groups like the BlueRibbon Coalition having repeatedly cited Glen Canyon as a test case for how motorized recreation access on federal lands can be challenged, defended, and preserved through the legislative process. For anyone who has been watching the Orange Cliffs situation for years from a distance, waiting to book a trip, the Federal Register notice from March 18 is the green light.