Tour Operator Pleads Guilty to Operating Without a Permit in Zion National Park

[Iceaxe]

Date: December 31, 2010
Contact: Ray O'Neal, 423-772-7823

On October 12, 2010, Daryl Gariglio, owner and operator of Grand-Adventures.com of Las Vegas, Nevada, pleaded guilty to the charge of engaging in a business operation in Zion National Park without a permit. The U.S. Magistrate in St. George, Utah, fined Gariglio and banned him from entering the park for six months.

Earlier in the summer, a park visitor contacted the park and reported that he had been on a commercially guided trip with Grand-Adventures.com. The visitor said that the guide asked him to tell a fee ranger at an entrance station that the group was a family not involved in a commercial trip. This report resulted in an undercover operation in which two park rangers booked a trip with Grand-Adventures.com.

Gariglio

[Deathcricket]

Wonder what the fine was? Might have been worth it.

[Iceaxe]

Here is his website: http://www.grand-adventures.com

If I read it correctly he was charging $125 bucks for round trip service from Las Vegas to Zion. That included transportation, lunch and a guided tour. The price is cheap... depending on the size of the groups... but I'm guessing if he didn't have the proper Zion permit he probably doesn't have a lot of other items like insurance for a commercially guided trip or business insurance on the vehicles, yada, yada...