So, now that plans to allow off-road vehicles onto roads in Utah’s national parks have hit a dead end, would drivers of “street legal” utility terrain vehicles be ticketed if they tried to ride, say, Canyonlands’ White Rim or Capitol Reef’s Burr Trail?
According to federal prosecutors, the answer is an emphatic yes, but questions remain in the wake of the now-rescinded directive from the National Park Service that had ordered Utah parks to open their roads to ORVs.
Parks have long had regulations against these nimble vehicles plying their roads, but an internal memo raised doubts last month about whether such prohibitions are enforceable, given an 11-year-old Utah law allowing properly equipped utility terrain vehicles to travel public roads.