Fans of California’s Yosemite National Park were alarmed this month after throngs of weekend visitors overwhelmed roads and parking lots, which is what many feared would happen when the park’s superintendent said earlier this year that he had decided to eliminate timed-entry reservation requirements as a tool for controlling crowds.
There were waits of up to 90 minutes at park entrances, and once people got inside, they found the parking lots full, according to media reports and social media posts. A long line of hikers formed at the upper section of the hiker’s route on iconic Half Dome, just below the summit — a section so steep, there are steel cables for protecting hikers against falls.
Timed-entry requirements also were dropped this year at Arches National Park near Moab, Utah, after local county commissioners sent a letter to the park superintendent withdrawing their support for the reservation system. They cited an 18% decline in visitor spending since the imposition of reservation requirements in 2022. Glacier National Park in Montana and Mount Rainier National Park in Washington also got rid of their reservation requirements.
Supporters of entry reservation requirements, including conservation groups and some elected officials, have blamed the Trump Administration for pressuring the parks to remove them. It’s the latest in a series of controversies surrounding the National Park Service, which includes staffing cuts, mining expansion and an executive order that required the parks to remove exhibits that “inappropriately disparage Americans,” which critics said is an effort to whitewash history.
But in Colorado, Rocky Mountain National Park was allowed to keep its six-year-old peak-season timed-entry system, which took effect this year on Friday, May 22, and will run into October. That’s because Interior Department officials went along with the recommendation of superintendent Gary Ingram to continue with its two-tiered reservation system. And when Interior Secretary Doug Burgum met with community leaders last month, they expressed their support for the policy.
“There were a lot of businesses and other groups around the table, and it was pretty much universal that the [9 a..m. to 2 p.m.] timed entry for the vast area of the park — not counting the Bear Lake corridor — is not a deterrent to visit,” recalled Estes Park mayor Gary Hall.
“The timed entry in Rocky is not a substantial impedance. Most people agree with that in town,” he added.
People are much happier
Timed-entry at Rocky began in 2020 as a response to the COVID pandemic, but park officials were already evaluating potential strategies to prevent overcrowding at what was then the fourth busiest of the nation’s 63 national parks. Timed entry was retained as a trial “pilot” program from 2021 through 2023 and was adopted permanently in 2024.
Rocky was the sixth busiest national park in 2025, when Yosemite bumped it out of fifth place.
As in previous years, reservations for 2026 are required from 5 a.m. until 6 p.m. for the popular Bear Lake corridor, while reservations for the rest of the park are required from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m.
Ingram, who has been in charge since 2023, is aware of what happened at Yosemite this month after its reservation system was eliminated.
“I can’t speak for the other parks,” Ingram said. “The key aspects we’re looking for are maintaining positive visitor experiences. The safety aspect has always been key to me. When you have gridlock going up to Bear Lake, or any one of these areas, itap hard to get emergency vehicles to someone who has fallen and hit their head at Rock Cut or having some sort of episode up at AVC,” a reference to the Alpine Visitor Center high on Trail Ridge Road.
“The other thing is that it protects the resources,” Ingram said. “We can manage people a heck of a lot better when we spread out that visitation through the day.”
In the four years before timed entry, Rocky averaged more than 4.5 million visitors annually. In the past four years, it averaged just over 4.25 million.
“When timed entry was first launched six years ago, it was a very difficult year following many difficult years of visitors and park employees being incredibly frustrated with crowding in the park,” said Estee Rivera Murdock, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Conservancy, which is the park’s non-profit partner. “Fast forward six years, and the local community largely understands the value of timed entry. They see that they have a better experience.
“The local business community was really concerned in the beginning,” she added. “Now that we’ve had years of sales tax (data), they know people are much happier, rather than sitting in standstill traffic for two hours.”
At Yosemite, superintendent Ray McPadden said in an announcement that he decided to scrap the reservation system after conducting an analysis of last year’s traffic patterns, parking availability and visitor use.
“We are committed to visitor access, safety and resource protection, and will continue active traffic management strategies to ensure a great visitor experience,” McPadden said. “While reservation systems are one valuable management tool, our data demonstrates that a season-wide reservation requirement is not the most effective approach.”
John Buckley, executive director of the Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center, strongly disagrees, citing frequent incidents of vehicles parked illegally between trees in Yosemite Valley along roads packed with cars.
“I’ve frequently seen vehicles parked along the edges of meadows where parking is not allowed,” Buckley said. “When visitor numbers are spiking, I’ve often seen sensitive habitat areas such as riverbanks along the Merced River in Yosemite Valley get so crowded that riparian vegetation gets trampled and stream banks suffer.”
Buckley is one who suspects pressure from the Trump administration and a local lawmaker were behind the decision to eliminate timed entry.
“The local congressman, Tom McClintock, has consistently promoted unlimited visitation to ensure higher profits for Yosemite region gateway businesses when there are maximum levels of tourism,” Buckley said. “He’s repeatedly expressed strong opposition to any limits on vehicles or visitors to the park, and he has publicly taken some of the credit for the administration choosing this year to abandon any day-use reservation system in Yosemite Park.”
McClintock has been a longtime advocate of expanding public access to Yosemite and opposing reservation requirements.
“The 750,000-acre national park can welcome many more visitors than it does today without restricting access,” he wrote last year in a column on his official website. “All that is missing is a visitor-friendly attitude by Yosemite Park management and a willingness to be a good neighbor to the gateway communities and businesses that depend on tourism.”
“Logical arguments”
If the decision to eliminate reservations at Yosemite came from the top in Washington, as critics allege, that doesn’t explain why Rocky was allowed to continue its approach.
“I can’t speak to their decision to approve this,” Ingram said. “I can tell you, since day one of my arrival here, it was all about the adaptability and flexibility that our timed-entry program has. It gives an opportunity for the short daytrippers who want to come in before 9, or just want to come up and see a sunset, they’ll be coming after 2. Even at Bear Lake, you can still get in there before 5 o’clock in the morning or after 6 (in the evening).”
Hall, the Estes Park mayor, suspects Rocky got approval for retaining its policy because of Ingram’s relationship with his superiors.
“You could call this speculation, but I’ve seen enough signs that I feel he makes good logical arguments, and it has been accepted,” Hall said. “I do believe that Mr. Ingram has a good relationship with Interior, that he has a good argument for why the 9-to-2 is not draconian, and why it does really help management of the park. I think his arguments got through and make sense to Interior, and he’s allowed to do it.”
In Moab, Grand County (Utah) commissioner Brian Martinez sees the decisions at Rocky and Arches as an indication that the Interior Department is sensitive to community sentiment.
“It sounds like the Department of the Interior listened to the local communities and gave them what they wanted,” Martinez said.
Timed entry at Arches cost Grand County businesses $40-$50 million per year in lost revenue since it was introduced in 2022, according to Martinez, plus about $10 million in county and state tax revenues.
“Over the last three years, Arches National Park visitation has been reduced to 2015 visitation levels,” the county commission wrote in its letter to the superintendent last year. “This is having a detrimental impact on Grand County’s economy, negatively impacting Grand County’s working people and the ability of the Grand County Commission to provide services to the local community.”
Community leaders in Moab have been working with park officials to create a shuttle system from town to manage traffic and parking issues in the park.
“When I look at the problem of the crowding that they talk about at Arches, itap not a people problem, itap a car problem,” said Martinez, who expects the shuttle service to begin this fall. “Itap not that we have too many people, we just have too many cars, and we don’t have the infrastructure and the road to deal with them.”
While community leaders in Estes Park voiced support for timed entry when Burgum visited last month, they did raise concerns over conflicting messages coming from the Trump administration last year regarding national parks staffing in the wake of Elon Musk’s DOGE cost-cutting.
“Last year we lost a lot of potential business because people didn’t know what the status was going to be after those firings, rehirings, furloughs and various other things,” Hall said. “Consistency of messaging was the single biggest issue that was discussed around the table. The secretary seemed to accept that as a valid point.”
Ingram said his more than 33 years as a park ranger, which taught him how to deal with life-and-death situations, also helps him navigate the uncertainty coming from Washington.
“It taught me to be flexible and limber and always try to find solutions in worst-case scenarios,” Ingram said. “Whether it was a high-angle rescue, a swiftwater rescue, a car over the edge, a violent person in a campground, we’re always going to give it our best shot to find a solution.
“Whenever a new administration comes in, there’s always change,” he added. “I have counted on my ability to be flexible and to respond in a positive way that will have the least amount of impact to the park, the park employees and the visitors.”
