Visitation to Rocky Mountain National Park was strong in 2017, but not as strong as the record year of 2016/Kurt Repanshek file photo of Mills Lake

Rocky Mountain National Park saw strong visitation in 2017, but it was down nearly 2 percent from the record year of 2016. Still, visitation to the Colorado jewel is up 40 percent from 2012 levels, according to park staff.

The tally for last year was 4,437,214, down 1.8 pecent from 2016, the National Park Service's centennial year, when 4,517,584 visited the park.

That said, these tallies are somewhat soft estimates. Rocky Mountain staff note that "determining visitation is a difficult and imprecise effort. Visitation statistics are reliably accurate estimates and help park managers see overall trends."

Rocky Mountain National Park celebrated its own centennial in 2015 followed a year later by the National Park Service Centennial.  Additional factors of the rise in visitation at Rocky include an increased population along the Front Range of Colorado. 

Park managers will continue to address what effect this level of visitation is having on visitor and staff safety, resource protection, visitor experiences and operational capacity.

Through last summer and into early fall, park staff continued to restrict vehicle access in three specific areas: the Bear Lake Road corridor, the Wild Basin area, and the Alpine Visitor Center, when parking areas filled and heavy congestion warranted. 

This occurred from late June through September of 2017.  These actions will again take place in 2018. Park staff are continuing to address day use for the long-term and will be engaging stakeholders and the public on this planning effort later this year.