Clarification on the future of timed-entry permits

Here at Rocky Mountain Day Hikes, we were confused when we saw the reports from local news agencies, announcing that the time-entry system would not be implemented next summer since we did not receive any press releases from RMNP on this.  So, we reached out for clarification and received this statement from Kyle Patterson, RMNP's public information officer. 

At this time, we do not plan to implement the same type of timed entry permit system as was used in 2020, but will continue restrictions when necessary and may implement other pilot visitor management techniques if congestion and crowding warrants.

The timed entry permit system at Rocky was a temporary solution to aid in reopening the park last summer due to COVID-19, with our goal of 60 percent of regular visitation.   It is hard to anticipate what public health rules will be in place in May. 

With a 44 percent increase in visitation since 2012, we continue to seek solutions to address what effect this level of visitation is having on visitor and staff safety, resource protection, visitor experiences and operational capacity.   Since 2016, we have put vehicle restrictions in place on the Bear Lake Road, Wild Basin area and Alpine Visitor Center when congestion and crowding warrants.  In 2019, these restrictions occurred every day in July (visitation over 970,000 visitors that month) most days in August, in addition to weekends in June and September.  We will learn from the temporary timed entry permit system last year and incorporate lessons learned as we move forward with our visitor use management planning efforts.