Your tax dollars hard at work

This is the current status of RMNP with reservation systems implemented. These pictures were taken on a weekday, leaving the park, just past the Bear Lake corridor entrance. The line stretched all the way from the entrance to the visitor center.  Prior to this, I witnessed scores of people being turned around from the full parking lots, and these people presumably had reservations as well.  So how exactly are reservations helping?? Seems to me like it's still a pretty bad experience the typical visitor. 

Luigi Mwrote:

This is the current status of RMNP with reservation systems implemented. These pictures were taken on a weekday, leaving the park,...

Was the weekday yesterday, 5/31?

Marc801 Cwrote:

Was the weekday yesterday, 5/31?

No

Luigi Mwrote:

This is the current status of RMNP....  So how exactly are reservations helping?? 

What is your suggestion to manage increasing visitation, keeping in mind the NPS mission statement (see italics below)?

I think we can all agree that not doing anything is a management option but doesn't exactly help the wilderness character of the trails around Bear Lake or Lumpy Ridge.

"Preserve unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the National Park System for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations."

Rocky is taking public comments on visitor use management until July.  As a major user group, it would be sweet to see climber's opinions represented.

https://www.nps.gov/romo/learn/news/get-involved-public-input-requested-on-long-range-day-use-visitor-access-strategy-in-rocky-mountain-national-park.htm

Philip Magistrowrote:

What is your suggestion to manage increasing visitation, keeping in mind the NPS mission statement (see italics below)?

First come. First served. 

Ranger station entrance keeps a numbers list for capacity. Reservations are part of list.

At capacity, one group leaves, and next in line gets in.

Seems straightforward and fair. If I make a reservation... I better have a spot!

Have park website updates with capacity numbers. Turn around and go home. Try again another day.

Nolan Yahok wrote:

I don't believe you

I'm sorry that that's the case. I have little incentive to lie on a forum where I am essentially anonymous. My suggestion, as someone pointed out above, is simply first come first served. What ever happened to early bird gets the worm? 

The reservations are for a two hour window. That means cars are going to be lined up at the entrances prior to their reservation entry time. It would be nice if the rangers had a system for checking in people in the line so that when their time slot opens up they can get through quickly (and to tell people who don't have a reservation that they should turn around). For example, the rangers could go down the queue and check passes, collect payment, hand out maps and answer questions, and then give the driver a pass to get through the entrance station.

How do they handle people who have a reservation and are driving around the park? Seems like they should be able to jump the line, but the roads at the entrance stations are not set up to allow for that without closing down a lane to oncoming traffic for a while.

If people are being turned away at parking lots, that is bad--but also completely normal along the Bear Lake corridor. As long as there is an option to go to the park and ride lot and ride the shuttle to the Glacier Gorge and Bear Lake trailheads, I am not offended. Since the shuttle didn't start running until Friday, maybe that's why you were seeing people being turned away.

Reservations are required beginning on May 28th, last Friday. This Friday is also a holiday for some. So unless these pictures are from May 28th, your weekday photos are from a time when reservations are not required to enter the park. Are you able to please clarify what day the photos are from? This jam could also be caused by people not realizing they need to have a permit to enter, since the permit needed/ not needed transition date was close.

I think the park expressing concerns over covid is a bit of a farce - they are a national organization, the CDC (national organization) is declaring vaccinated folks can be outdoors with no issue. The National Parks Ranger I interacted with last week was not wearing a mask. I think the biggest concern is preserving the natural resource, and I view the timed-entry permits as a decent temporary solution to this. I mean, it sucks, but also IDK what else they could do. 

First-come first-serve/ early bird gets the worm is still possible, thankfully they've left a loophole for that. 

BigFeetwrote:

If I make a reservation... I better have a spot!

With the timed-entry permit system set up like it is, there is no guarantee of a parking spot.   I can see how a lot of people will end up frustrated this summer having paid a fee and "reserved" a permit for 9am entry to outlying areas like Lumpy, Wild Basin, and the Longs Peak TH only to find overflowing lots from folks who arrived prior to 9am.

PRRosewrote:

For example, the rangers could go down the queue and check passes, collect payment, hand out maps and answer questions, and then give the driver a pass to get through the entrance station.

FWIW I think they are doing something like this.  Over the holiday weekend LE rangers were stopping traffic near the Beaver Meadows visitor center before the entrance gate and turning folks around who didn't have timed-entry permits before they ended up in line for the entrance station.  

I’ve seen throngs of people wading through Big Thompson canyon to get in the park, insane!

BigFeetwrote:

If I make a reservation... I better have a spot!

Or what? Not much you can do about it.

BigFeetwrote:

If I make a reservation... I better have a spot!

Philip Magistrowrote:

FWIW I think they are doing something like this.  Over the holiday weekend LE rangers were stopping traffic near the Beaver Meadows visitor center before the entrance gate and turning folks around who didn't have timed-entry permits before they ended up in line for the entrance station.  

This seems like what's happening - people are trying to enter the Park, not knowing they need a timed-reservation. 

https://theknow.denverpost.com/2021/06/02/rocky-mountain-national-park-reservation-problems/259783/

And I don't really blame them. First the system is relatively new, but it's also just confusing: you need to pay to enter the Park, where you then need to pay? Listen hunny, I got a crying 3 year old in the back that hasn't taken a sheeet since Iowa! We just wanna see the Rocky Mountains! The burden I guess falls to the Park rangers in taking the abuse from a badly designed system.

Fehim Hasecicwrote:

I’ve seen throngs of people wading through Big Thompson canyon to get in the park, insane!

Holy smokes, that's even worse than the Narrows in Zion......also probably almost as prone to flash flooding as the Narrows.....

Wow Colorado is terrible. Utah is next. 

The government is jam packed with idiots from wall to wall. 

Grug Mwrote:

Wow Colorado is terrible. Utah is next. 

utah is the same. i was turned around at zion last month because the park was "full". 

Grug Mwrote:

Wow Colorado is terrible. Utah is next. 

Next? Moab looks... fun these days.

Isn't it just fucking great what the internet has accomplished for our empty spaces?

Christopher Smithwrote:

Holy smokes, that's even worse than the Narrows in Zion......also probably almost as prone to flash flooding as the Narrows.....

Almost as narrow too

Peter Bealwrote:

Almost as narrow too

Almost as sandstonish, too.