You’ll no longer have to make reservations to visit some of the most popular U.S. national parks during the busy summer months.
The federal government announced this week that it’s dropping the requirement at Arches, Glacier, and Yosemite national parks in Utah, Montana, and California, respectively.
That change might be welcomed by the many vacationers who found the park’s reservation systems confusing and inconvenient. But some park advocates warn that dropping the timed-entry requirement could lead to harmful overcrowding.
In recent years, several sites in the National Park System had implemented protocols for peak travel periods during which would-be visitors would have to make online reservations in advance for timed entry to access all of a park or certain of its most crowded areas (the system varied from site to site).
The purpose was to reduce overcrowding, especially amid the surge in national park visitation during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Now, though, park officials have a different plan for managing the summer throngs.
How will national parks handle overcrowding without timed-entry reservations?
In a statement, Kevin Lilly, the Acting Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, said that the agency will be “using targeted tools only where necessary to protect visitor safety, maintain emergency access, and preserve these extraordinary places for future generations.”
The affected parks are increasing seasonal staffing, per the statement, and are prepared to put temporary restrictions in place as needed.
“When parking areas or roadways reach capacity,” the park service’s statement explains, “parks may implement short-term traffic management measures to maintain safe conditions and protect park resources.”
At Glacier, for example, officials at times might need to divert vehicle traffic to reduce congestion on the Going-to-the-Sun Road or impose temporary parking limits at Logan Pass.
So you won’t have to make a reservation to visit, but it sounds like you could still get turned away from some of the places you’d like to go, depending on how busy the park is that day.
Maybe the federal government is counting on smaller crowds this summer due to new policies like the Trump administration’s decision to charge international visitors a $100 surcharge at many of the most popular sites.
In any case, some conservationists have decried the move to drop the reservation requirement because they think doing so will inevitably lead to a boost in cars and people at these reserves.
Emily Thompson, executive director of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, responded to the government’s policy change in a statement that reads in part, “Large crowds can harm fragile ecosystems, endanger wildlife, jeopardize the ability of parks to respond quickly to emergencies, and stretch already overworked staff to the breaking point.”
She called the move a “hazardous decision” that “will cause even more damage at parks that are already struggling to protect resources and provide quality visitor experiences thanks to recent and severe staffing cuts.”
Which national parks still require reservations?
Reservation requirements aren’t going away at every national park that has used such systems.
Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado will again require timed-entry reservations this summer and into fall, from May 20 through Oct. 25.
And, as USA Today reports, a handful of other parks will continue requiring reservations at certain times of day and for select drives and hiking trails. They include:
• vehicle access to Cadillac Summit Road in Maine’s Acadia National Park, May 20 through Oct. 25
• sunrise viewing at Hawaii’s Haleakalā National Park year-round
• hiking Old Rag Mountain at Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park, March 1 through Nov. 30
• hiking Angels Landing at Utah’s Zion National Park year-round
For more information about timed-entry reservations—and instructions for getting them—go to the National Park Service website for the park you’re interested in visiting.
