Great Basin National Park ranger reports 151,000 visitors; board outlines marketing push for Ely

Travis Mason-Bushman, Chief Interpretative Ranger at Great Basin National Park, told the White Pine County Tourism and Recreation Board that "2025 was the second busiest year in the Park's history with over 151,000 visitors," second only to 2017's 168,000 visitors. He said higher visitation is increasing demand and that the park is "dealing with staffing challenges." Mason-Bushman added that the park's astronomy ranger has left but staff plan to "continue with a robust astronomy program" and intend a Spring astronomy festival in 2026.

Executive Director Kyle Horvath summarized recent tourism work for the board and described a new marketing campaign titled "Find Yourself in White Pine County." Horvath said print and digital ads are running, YouTube content is nearly finished, and staff submitted final content for the visitor guide. He introduced a new Placer.ai civic report limited to the city of Ely that, he said, counted 306,000 visitors in 2025 from outside a 50-mile radius, a 22% decrease from prior measurements.

On cave tourism, Mason-Bushman said a contract is underway for a cave lighting system and the park is "hopeful that they will be able to restart limited cave tours on Memorial Day weekend with full opening of the caves in late July." Those plans, he said, remain subject to staffing and the contractor timeline.

Marketing Manager Errol Porter told the board that social metrics were up across platforms, total followers exceed 15,000, the newsletter has about 4,800 subscribers with a 1.2% click-through rate, and targeted LocaliQ ads for the "Find Yourself" campaign are live. Porter noted staff involvement in Pony Express territory events and a planned media mission on Feb. 23 in Atlanta tied to America 250 activities.

Horvath and Mason-Bushman emphasized staffing and timing uncertainties: the park is recruiting or reallocating staff following departures, and the cave-reopening schedule depends on contract completion and operational readiness. Horvath said he expects domestic travel to remain strong even as international visitation was "non-existent" in their datasets for 2025.

The board did not take formal action on park operations during the meeting; the discussion provided situational updates and planning information. The meeting record shows the board approved its agenda and minutes earlier in the session and adjourned at 6:06 p.m.