Summer officially begins Thursday, with the solstice occurring at 4:51 p.m. — the earliest since June 20, 1796. Yet even when the longest day of the year arrives more promptly than expected, there aren’t enough hours in it to enjoy all the fun warm-weather activities one would like. Case in point: visiting the national parks. That’s on many a family’s itinerary this summer, but space is limited, especially now that crowds in the park system have returned to — or exceeded — pre-pandemic levels.
In fact, overcrowding has become a serious problem for some of the most popular parks. In addition to risks this creates for the parks’ wildlife, ecosystems and man-made infrastructure, the sheer stress — traffic jams, fights over parking spots, congested hiking trails — can spoil what should be a relaxing time in the great outdoors. Park rangers sometimes spend more time directing traffic than on duties that actually enhance visitors’ experience, such as interpretive talks.
The National Park Service is responding pragmatically, however, managing the flow of people through the parks with timed-entry reservation systems. About a dozen of the most popular destinations now require booking in advance. The federal government’s travel-planning platform, Recreation.gov, issued more than 2 million timed-entry passes last year, as well as 1.5 million permits and 4 million camping reservations.
Recent experience at Yosemite National Park in California illustrates the need: Yosemite instituted a timed-entry system to deal with a surge of outdoor recreation seekers during the pandemic, discontinued it last year, experienced gridlock — and reinstated the reservation system this year.
The latest to join the trend is Rocky Mountain National Park, just outside booming Denver. Last month, the NPS announced that Rocky Mountain, where annual visits exceeded 4 million in 2023, up by about a million from 2013, will institute a permanent timed-entry reservation system this summer. The purpose is to spread entries out across the day and throughout the park during the high season from late May to mid-October. The NPS acted only after testing the concept in pilot programs for three years.
To be sure, getting a permit to experience natural wonders feels at odds with America’s land-of-the-free ethos and with the fact that those natural wonders belong to the public. Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.), who was interior secretary in the Trump administration, has denounced what he calls “a deliberate strategy to keep the public out of parks.” In addition to objections along those lines, critics of the reservation system cite practical issues: Lodge owners near parks complain of canceled bookings. Reserving online precludes road-trip spontaneity, and the process can be a hassle, especially when the internet turns glitchy. Indeed, there are concerns about equity in a system that favors those with computer and internet access.
Valid though the criticisms might be, the essential trade-off remains: maximizing access to the parks vs. preserving their quality. Properly designed reservation systems can help strike the right balance.
Rocky Mountain, for example, took three steps to maximize flexibility for visitors. The park releases 40 percent of each day’s available passes at 7 p.m. the night before so they aren’t all snapped up a month ahead of time. Reservations are required only from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Finally, in what’s sometimes rare for federal agencies, the park promises to review usage patterns every year and adjust accordingly.
Wherever possible, parks could require reservations only for marquee sites most at risk of being loved to death, as opposed to park access generally. Anyone can enter Zion National Park in Utah, for example, but you need a permit — distributed by lottery — to climb the famous Angels Landing. Similarly, vehicle reservations are required to drive to the summit of Cadillac Mountain in Maine’s Acadia National Park. And Shenandoah National Park in Virginia now requires tickets to hike Old Rag Mountain from March through November.
Parks should continue to tailor rules to local considerations, with input from the community. Haleakala National Park in Hawaii requires reservations to drive in for the sunrise — between 3 and 7 a.m. — but not to see the sunset. Arches National Park in Utah also rewards highly motivated early risers: Tickets are required only from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Smart crowd management at big-name parks might steer more traffic to underutilized gems. An America the Beautiful pass provides unlimited entry to national parks and more than 2,000 other federal recreation sites, only a few of which require timed-entry passes. It’s $80 per year, and we’d call that a bargain even at twice the price.
