Man Banned from National Parks For Organizing 139-Person Grand Canyon Hike

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A Washington State man faces probation and a multi-year ban from several United States national parks after he pled guilty to misdemeanor charges stemming from a 139-person group hike he organized in the Grand Canyon in defiance of park guidelines.

Joseph Don Mount, of Chehalis, Washington, pled guilty to violating park rules limiting group size to 11 people on the October 2020 hike. He will serve two years on probation and will be banned from entering national parks in northern Arizona including the Grand Canyon during that time.

The National Park Service first became aware of Mount's plans in September 2020, when the Grand Canyon's permit office received a tip that a large group of more than 100 people was planning to hike the canyon on October 24. The pseudonymous tipster sent a screenshot of a post by Mount in a private Facebook group noting that he had "112 COMMITTED HIKERS COMING FROM 12 DIFFERENT STATES!!!" and talking about the importance of taking precautions so that they wouldn't draw attention to themselves. Grand Canyon National Park has limited sizes for under-the-rim groups to 30 since 2014, and further lowered the limit to 11 after the Covid-19 pandemic began. When Mount spoke to the park's permit office, however, he said he was bringing a group of 12 people; when advised that his group was slightly over the limit, he asked about the possibility of splitting it up to comply with the park's rules, and was informed that was not allowed.

However, Mount kept planning the hike--and park rangers, who had gained access to the Facebook group, continued to monitor it, going so far as to call him again to warn him against hiking the canyon with an oversized group. All that meant that when the hike went ahead as planned, rangers were in place and witnessed the whole thing.

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