Rocky Mountain National Park Proposing Timed Entry System For Visitors

May 24, 2020
When Rocky Mountain National Park reopens this week, you might need a reservation/Kurt Repanshek file

When Rocky Mountain National Park reopens this week, you might need a reservation/Kurt Repanshek file

While Rocky Mountain National Park officials plan to reopen their park on Wednesday, they're hoping to control visitor traffic through a reservation approach that must be approved by Interior Secretary David Bernhardt.

Under the proposal, which Estes Park's Town Board unanimously supported, Rocky Mountain would use a timed entry system to reduce park visitation by 40 percent for the immediate future. As explained to town officials earlier this month, the approach would require visitors to reserve a time slot via recreation.gov for entering the park. 

"The goal of the proposed timed entry system is to increase park access while providing the public a reasonable opportunity to comply with health guidelines and to avoid scenarios where a re-opening visitation surge results in stakeholders inside and outside the park demanding the park to re-close," park spokesperson Kyle Patterson said Friday in an email. 

"If this is approved, permits would be managed by recreation.gov, with the initial opening phase allocating ~60 percent of the park’s maximum parking capacity (13,500 visitors per day, or 4,800 vehicles)," she added. "The park will monitor our ability to operate with present health guidelines and adapt the system accordingly."

National park officials across the country have been using a variety of approaches to improve visitor access. Most are allowing only day-use activities, although there are some exceptions that are permitting backcountry overnight travel.

At Zion National Park in Utah, the shuttle system hasn't been running into Zion Canyon, and so once all the available parking spots are filled, vehicle access to the canyon is closed. Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona has been experimenting with three-day opening schedules for the South Rim to gauge how much visitation they receive and how visitors practice social distancing. Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming has allowed unrestricted access, but only through Wyoming via its South and East entrances, as Montana has yet to lift its requirement that out-of-state travelers self-quarantine for two weeks. In Colorado, Mesa Verde National Park, which is allowing access beginning Sunday (May 24), is not allowing visitors to tour cliff dwellings. Congaree National Park in South Carolina is allowing paddlers to return to the park's waters but only for day trips.

You can see how other parks are approaching reopening on this page.

Yosemite is, like Rocky Mountain, talking about using a reservation system of sorts to limit visitation. Under a plan outlined earlier this month to park stakeholders, the goal is to limit visitation to about 3,600 cars per day into the park, or half of what was counted last June. A story in the Fresno Bee said overnight visitors won't need a permit to drive through the park, but day-use visitors will need to obtain one.

No date has been set for opening Yosemite, as park officials are taking their lead from California Gov. Gavin Newsom and this three-phase reopening plan.

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