Backcountry permits for overnight camping in wilderness areas of Rocky Mountain National Park during peak season go on sale this Saturday at 8 a.m.
That season begins May 1 and runs through October 31. Permits are sold online only — first come, first served — . The cost of reservations is $36. A can be found on the Rocky Mountain National Park website.
Unless you already know where you want to camp, you should do some research ahead of time. There are a dozen general areas of the park where wilderness camping is allowed, and the Rocky Mountain National Park website lists them on a page called . That page outlines the number and location of sites within each area, their distance from trailheads, the site elevation and the elevation gain from the trailhead. There are also links to maps of each area showing the distribution of campsites within it.
To purchase a permit, you must first set up an account through recreation.gov. You should be logged into Recreation.gov and be ready to go when permits go on sale. Once logged in, you should search for “.”
When you are prompted to reserve a site, start by clicking on “Check Availability.” Select your desired dates and the number of people in your party. Then select “Starting Area,” and find the area of the park where you predetermined you want to camp.
Clicking on an area will populate a map showing the backpacking sites within that area. Sites that have already been booked will be marked by a gray box with a zero. Sites that are still available will be indicated by blue boxes with the number of sites open to reserve.
Select the sites you want, click “Book Now,” and pay for your permit. Your selection will be held in your cart for 15 minutes. If you get an error message, that means someone beat you to it, which is why you want to have a priority list of sites ready before you start.
Reservations for developed campgrounds this summer are already on sale. They can be made up to . The Moraine Park Campground is currently unavailable for reservation because of an ongoing construction project there.
“The contractor is working to finish up the project and it is expected to open this summer, however we are unable to predict the start date,” park spokeswoman Kyle Patterson said in December. “We need to be confident regarding the availability of specific sites before we make sites available through reservations.”
