Update: Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton says she’ll meet with Zoo officials to discuss extending the  hours at Rock Creek Park’s Zoo Loop Trail.

Norton inquired about the 5 p.m. closing hour, and according to a release from her office, The National Zoo said it is tied to their hours of operation in order to maintain accreditation with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. The trail runs through the zoo’s “secondary animal containment perimeter.”

NPS stated that all other trails in Rock Creek Park remain open from sunrise to sunset.

“As chair of the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, I am a strong supporter of bike and pedestrian infrastructure,” Norton said in a statement. “I am pleased to receive this prompt explanation from the National Zoo and the National Park Service on why the Zoo Loop Trail has such limited hours, so I can share it with my constituents.”

DCist/WAMU has reached out to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums for comment on the matter.

Original story: A key trail connector in Rock Creek Park that has been missing for more than four years is finally whole again. But some users are upset at the newly implemented trail hours.

First, the Zoo Loop Bridge will open on Friday at 3 p.m., the National Park Service announced today. Then tomorrow at 7 a.m., the National Zoo will reopen the half-mile Zoo Loop Trail, for the first time since a 2018 storm washed part of it out. Reconstruction on the trail was originally estimated to take only a year, but instead, it took four. The National Park Service and District Department of Transportation installed the new 110-foot pedestrian bridge and rehabilitated the trail as part of a larger Rock Creek Park trail rehabilitation project that began in 2021.

Meanwhile, trail users have been using the narrow, one-person-wide path in the Beach Drive tunnel as a less-than-ideal detour.

But that particular section of the revamped trail, which will be controlled by the National Zoo, will have pretty strict hours — 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. The zoo itself is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. in winter and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. in summer.

Trail users are unhappy with this closing time, saying they remember it being open later in years past. The National Zoo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“While we are excited about the reopening, the bike path closing daily at 5 p.m. is unacceptable and not convenient for evening commuters,” said Jeremiah Lowery, advocacy director at the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, in a statement. “We strongly encourage the National Zoo to expand the bike path hours and look forward to working with them to resolve this as quickly as possible.”

Other users pointed out a disparity with other transportation options in Rock Creek Park. “Remind me again when the parkway shuts down to all car traffic because it’s night-night time…,” wrote Tom Jawetz on Twitter. Another person tweeted that officials “put more care and thought into car commuters than those wanting to use the park for its natural beauty.” Zach Ammerman said “I really don’t understand the reasoning behind closing the trail at all, it needs to at a minimum stay open to like 9 or so, if not later. It’s a critical piece of DC’s bike infrastructure.”

Trail users will have to use the tunnel during the evening and early morning hours.

The rest of the Rock Creek Park trail rehabilitation project is coming along, too. A new nearly mile-long section of trail on Piney Branch Parkway from Arkansas Avenue to Beach Drive is set to open in mid-October.

The full project, estimated to cost about $15 million, is slated for completion by next spring.