A visitor reservation system will be tested at Arches National Park next year.
In an effort to reduce congestion and provide visitors with certainty that they'll be able to enter the park, Arches National Park will use a reservation system in 2022 to see if it solves those problems.
Such a proposal was raised back in 2017, when the park released a draft Traffic Congestion Management Plan. However, concerns that it could cost the Moab area upwards of $22 million in lost economic spending prompted the National Park Service to take a look at several other options for managing traffic. Among the options the park staff said it would examine were a shuttle system, which previously was deemed impractical, and a secondary entrance road, something Utah's governor had suggested.
Now the park is moving back towards the reservation option.
In recent years increased visitation to the park in southeastern Utah has caused problems both navigating the parks main road and finding parking inside the park, as well as on the entrance road when traffic was backed up all the way to U.S. 191. In severe cases, the Utah Highway Patrol required the park to close its entrance until the jams were resolved.
“By implementing a temporary, timed entry reservation system, our goal is to better spread visitation throughout the day to reduce traffic congestion and visitor crowding. We believe this will create a higher-quality experience while maximizing access for our visitors,” said Arches Superintendent Patricia Trap on Friday. “Additionally, we will use data gathered from this pilot to adapt and improve this system throughout the season, as well as to inform our future responses going forward.”
The pilot will run from April 3 to October 3, 2022. Visitors can book reservations first-come, first-served on Recreation.gov beginning at 8 a.m. MST on January 3, 2022.
The park will release reservations three months in advance in monthly blocks. On January 3, reservations will open for April 3 through April 30. On February 1, reservations will open for the month of May and any remaining reservations that have not been booked for April. Additional months will continue the same pattern according to following schedule:
April reservations (April 3–30) open January 3.
May reservations (May 1–31) open February 1.
June reservations (June 1–30) open March 1.
July reservations (July 1–31) open April 1.
August reservations (August 1–31) open May 1.
September reservations (September 1–30) open June 1.
October reservations (October 1–3) open July 1.
After booking a reservation, visitors will receive a Timed Entry Ticket. Timed entry tickets will be required to enter the park from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily and will allow visitors to enter the park during a one-hour specified window of availability. After entering, visitors may stay in the park as long as they wish for the remainder of the day. Reservation holders may exit and re-enter the park on the same day with a correctly validated ticket.
For those without early reservations, a limited number of additional reservations will be available for purchase at 6 p.m. MDT the day before entry through Recreation.gov. Reservations must be purchased online or by calling Recreation.gov before entering the park and will not be available at the park entrance. Timed entry reservations will not be required for those with camping permits, backcountry permits, Fiery Furnace permits, special use permits, concessions contracts, or commercial use authorizations. All reservations are expected to sell out quickly, and visitors are encouraged to plan ahead.
During 2009 to 2019, annual visitation to Arches grew more than 66 percent, from 996,312 to 1,659,702. This high level of visitor use creates congestion and crowding that can negatively impact public safety, visitor experiences, and park resources. The National Park Service met with the public in two virtual meetings in September to discuss potential solutions to these challenges and solicited comments about congestion management during a 30-day comment period. Additionally, park leadership has been working to collaborate closely with the local community and other stakeholders in the implementation of this pilot.
After analyzing visitation patterns and considering comments from the public and stakeholders, the National Park Service determined that a temporary timed entry pilot could ease vehicle congestion and visitor crowding by proactively pacing visitation into the park. The park expects timed entry reservations to provide visitors with a more reliable and enjoyable experience while protecting the park’s extraordinary landscape. Additionally, data collected over the duration of the pilot will help determine timed entry’s viability as a component of a longer-term visitor access strategy.
Comments
This is just crazy. When we travel we like to just explore, see things as they come. Having to make reservations for a national park is just ridiculous.
I agree in principle. It's a conundrum which applies to camping recervations as well.
The problem is that Arches is so crowded at times that traffic jams stretch a mile or more down the highway back to Moab. You can still try to get a reservation the night before.
During my late summer 2021 visit to Yosemite National Park, I had to use their day-use reservation system. I didn't have any issues making the reservations, which were good for three days at a time, and I felt that, while Yosemite was still crowded, it could have been much worse without that reservation system. It's just like anything else you must make a reservation for (air travel, car rental, lodging). You have to plan far ahead of your intended trip. It's a sign of the times, I guess, but nowadays, the more popular national parks are so crowded that it's difficult to really explore and enjoy yourself if you have to wait in line to hike a trail or catch a shuttle or even get into the park. If you want to stay within the purview of the National Park System and are willing to drive 2-3 hours further, there are other unique places to explore that might not be as crowded and won't require any reservations, like Hovenweep National Monument and Natural Bridges National Monument and Colorado National Monument. Just use the Traveler's search engine to pull up the articles published about these three national monuments if you want to know more.
Visitors want their moments or even their "Instagram moments" these days. Who is going to settle for a lesser known place other than some serious national park geeks? I was arguing with someone over whether or not more national park designations would somehow relieve pressure at the premier national parks like Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Grand Canyon. I believed the answer was no, but one guy kept on claiming that it needed to be done in order to give people a different outlet. But it's not about what a few people are going to do, but about what most people are going to do. And most people want these big, well known places to visit.
When I visited Arches, I looked up the annual visitation and it was somewhere in the 800K annual visitation range, and I wondered why some place that spectacular didn't have more visitors. Now that there are more visitors, we're talking about what can be done because it's not overcrowded. So I guess be careful what you wish for since you might just get it.
And reservation systems may need to be tweaked. I remember when Yosemite first started the Half Dome cable permits, but only for Friday to Sunday and holidays. I was immediately predicting that it would turn into record visitation Monday-Thursday and that happened almost immediately.
A few years ago we traveled the country visiting our National Parks in our truck and small travel trailer for a period of 3 1/2 months(seniors). Nearly impossible to make reservations in the parks so we made reservations at state parks often within a short drive of the NPS. Today you cannot camp anywhere without reservations unless you boondock or camp on pavement in an RV park. Reservations are gobbled up the first day they become available. If I have to make day use reservations at the park as well I think I would bypass it and visit other locations instead. Yes reservations will work to lesson the load, as well as affect commerce to the park and local businesses. Perhaps a very large increase in fees to non-residents of the U.S. would lessen the load and help retain some revenue. Just a few thoughts...
According to the park's web site, "Timed Entry Tickets are free but require a non-refundable $2 reservation processing fee." Granted it is a small charge, but I think the article should have mentioned it. Even more, I think the park should not be spewing such nonsense. If it costs $2, it is not free.
It wouldn't be the first time that free isn't really free. I've been to places where there was some sort of "reservation fee" that allegedly went towards paying for the cost of the reservation system. Heck - once I visited an exhibit where they had that rationale, but we got a timed ticket in person and still had to pay the same fee. They've done this many times throughout the national park system including Half Dome cable permits, parking reservations at Muir Woods National Monument, or entry before sunrise at Haleakala NP.
As a park volunteer, employee, and visitor for 30+ years, I personally am just tired of all the Instagram addicts who care little about which park they are in at the moment, who "don't have time" but want that "perfect picture they saw somewhere online" except now it will have them in it. Usually in ridiculous poses that might endanger them or their rescuers if they do fall off whatever precipice they managed to find. Maybe reservations will keep them away. Sorry, frustration abounds here. The only way to escape them is lesser known trails and places.