– credit, Zion National Park Service
The world renowned Zion National Park has become the first to offer an all-terrain wheelchair for disabled visitors who want to enjoy the canyon system’s trails.
The equipment was made available thanks to a charitable nonprofit which used donated funds to purchase the wheelchair on behalf of Zion.
In going through the process of outfitting and delivery, the wheelchair’s manufacturer, Extreme Modus, realized that Zion was about to be the first of America’s national parks with its own offroad mobility options.
“It’s been almost two years in the making,” said Extreme Modus’ chief business development officer, Kenny Jardine.
“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.”
Co-founder of Extreme Motus, Ryan Grassley, developed the chair model over the last 7 years while taking a friend of his with cerebral palsy named Sam to all but 1 of Utah’s NPS properties.
He spoke with KSL news in 2024 about the experience, and returned to share more information about the donation to Zion with the outlet.
“When Kenny, Sam and I went to Zion to deliver the chair last year, the coolest thing happened,” Grassley recalled.
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“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. It became immediately clear that having that equipment available was 100% the right thing to do.”
Zion National Park now allows anyone to use the chair for free on a first-come-first-served basis, being that only one is available.
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