Should Timed Entry Systems Become Permanent in National Parks?

One of the most popular national parks in the United States is seeking public comment on a plan to make its three-year-old timed entry permit system permanent—and several others parks aren’t far behind.

Between 2012 and 2019, Rocky Mountain National Park experienced a 44 percent increase in visitation; in 2021 alone, boosted in part by the well-documented pandemic-driven spike in interest in outdoor participation, the park hosted 4.4 million visits. In response, officials began implementing a timed entry pilot program in 2021. The program required visitors to secure a visitation slot in advance, and allowed them to enter the park during a 1-hour period on their selected date. Even with the pilot program in place, visitation stayed high, with the park recording some of its busiest seasons ever.

Despite the park’s growth in popularity, the program was effective enough at managing congestion and cutting down waits at entrance stations, leading officials to implement the same program again in 2022 and 2023. Now, officials want to make it permanent. 

Like the timed entry pilot program, the long-range visitor management plan aims to maintain quality of the visitor experience, staff safety, and the protection of the park’s terrain, which includes delicate alpine tundra and essential wildlife habitat. “This plan is needed to provide day-use visitor access in a way that protects resources while creating opportunities for high-quality visitor experiences,” officials wrote. 

Pending public feedback, the future program would look similar to the pilot program, enforcing two timed entry systems (one for the Bear Lake Road Corridor, and one for the remainder of the park) that give visitors a one-hour window to enter the park. 

Rocky Mountain National Park isn’t the only park that may make its reservation program permanent. Visitation to Utah’s Arches National Park increased by 73% between 2011 and 2021, making the park one of the most rapidly growing outdoor destinations in the country. When the park service’s decision to implement a reservation system at Arches cut crowding and wait times in 2022, the agency announced it would extend the program by another year. And last month, Arches officials announced that they, too, were seeking public feedback on a long-term visitor management plan.

“We have learned a lot from these past two years of pilot timed-entry programs and now we’d like to hear from the public about what has worked, where there are still challenges, and what longer-term visitor use management could look like.”  

Like Rocky Mountain and Arches National Park, Glacier National Park is also evaluating the future of the park’s visitor management system, although it isn’t yet clear if those efforts will translate into a permanent timed entry program. At the moment, officials are gauging the public experience to determine how to move forward in 2024. 

Meanwhile, Yosemite, which ended its timed entry pilot program earlier this year, is considering bringing it back after visitors this summer complained of waiting in line for as long as 4 to 5 hours to enter this park.

While there’s nearly universal agreement that crowding at many national parks is hurting the visitor experience, determining the best way to maintain access to these destinations while protecting resources isn’t a simple matter. 

Organizations like the National Parks Conservation Association claim that limiting the number of visitors in the park has already contributed to a healthier environment. Last year, the association’s outreach and engagement coordinator, Cassidy Jones, stated: “Thanks to managed access, visitors to Arches, Glacier and Rocky Mountain saw more wildlife and wild [sic] lands than brake lights and traffic jams the last several years.” But not everyone agrees that limiting the usage window is the best strategy. In places like Yosemite National Park and Mountain Rainier, rock climbers have historically expressed frustration at such systems, citing an increase in early-morning traffic from those who are trying to get around the timed entry system as a reason for concern. Organizations dedicated to diversifying outdoor participation also argue that reservation systems effectively remove access to public lands for those who don’t have the means or ability to snag a slot in advance. 

Those who are interested in providing feedback on Rocky Mountain National Park’s future visitor management plan can do so until December 14.