Each year, more and more people are heading into the outdoors for the scenery, peace, and adventure.The 2023 Annual Outdoor Participation Trends Report revealed that 55% of the U.S. population participates in outdoor recreation, and the outdoor industry is up 14.5 million participants since 2020.
While this is good news for our nation's mental health and the outdoor industry economy, the growing popularity of the outdoors has also put a strain on our public lands. Visits to the U.S. national parks are booming, leading to overcrowding, long waits to enter, overflowing parking lots, and congestion on the trails. While the huge numbers of visitors can make a trip to a national park more frustrating these days, the sheer volume of people in the parks is also not good from a preservation perspective. More people in the parks means more wear and tear on the trails and natural resources and, potentially, more infrastructure to support the masses of people.
To help mitigate some of the problems of overcrowding, some parks, such as Yosemite, began piloting what is known as an "access system" as early as 2022 to control how many people are in the park at one time. Now, eight national parks are requiring reservations of some sort for 2024. Depending on the park, these reservations are for vehicles, are timed entries into the park, or are for specific trails or areas. These reservations generally do not include an actual day pass to the park, so you will still have to purchase one. Also, keep in mind that each park's rules are different and may vary depending on the season and location within the park.
Fear not: We've used these reservation systems, and they aren't too hard. Read the rules carefully when planning your trip, come prepared, and you'll have a great time in America's most beautiful lands.
1. Arches National Park
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Arches National Park, right outside of Moab, Utah, is renowned for its beautiful arches and orange sandstone cliffs. It's also been known for its ridiculously long entrance lines, which occasionally back up into the main road.
Arches has begun implementing timed entry tickets, which are released on a first-come, first-served basis on Recreation.gov three months in advance, in monthly blocks. For example, April reservations (April 1-30) open on Jan. 2.
A limited number of tickets will also be available one day prior to entry through Recreation.gov, but they are expected to sell out quickly. Tickets are required from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily from April 1 to Oct. 31, so plan for an off-season trip if you don't want to deal with timed tickets.
2. Glacier National Park
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Glacier Lake National Park in northwest Montana is renowned for its alpine lakes and glacially carved valleys. Its Going-to-the-Sun Road is a world-famous scenic drive, and it now requires vehicle reservations to drive the west side of the road from May 24 to Sept. 8.
Vehicle reservations are released four months in advance on Recreation.gov, on a daily rolling basis. Some next-day reservations are also available on a daily rolling basis, though these are expected to sell out quickly. You'll also need vehicle reservations from July 1 to Sept. 8 for the Many Glacier area, where most of the popular spots for day hikes in the park are located.
3. Rocky Mountain National Park
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Rocky Mountain National Park, in northeast Colorado, is one of the highest national parks in the U.S., with 60 mountains over 12,000 feet high. People flock to the mountains to hike and climb, and now they'll need a timed reservation.
The park is piloting its reservation system starting May 24. Two types of reservations will be available: one for the Bear Lake Road Corridor, which includes the corridor and access to the rest of the park, and one for the entire park excluding the Bear Lake Road Corridor.
Reservations will be released on Recreation.gov the month before their date, starting on the first of the month. So the first round of reservations will be available May 1 and will cover May 24 to June 30. The next will be released on June 1 and will be for the month of July.
4. Yosemite National Park
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Yosemite National Park is known for its massive, steep cliffs. It's a rock climbing and hiking paradise, but the landscape of the park makes it difficult to accommodate everyone who's visiting. The steep-sided valley is relatively narrow and very prone to overcrowding.
To combat this, Yosemite has been working on a visitor access management plan, part of which includes requiring reservations during peak periods. A reservation is required to drive through Yosemite most of the year, though the requirements change depending on the season. From Feb. 20-25, a reservation is required 24 hours per day on the weekends, as well as on Washington's Birthday (Monday, Feb. 19). This is to accommodate the spectacular Firefall phenomenon.
Reservations are also required from April 13 through June 30 from 5 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the weekends and holidays. Starting July 1 through Aug. 16, reservations are required every day from 5 a.m. to 4 p.m., and then from Aug. 17 through Oct. 27 on weekends and holidays from 5 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Reservations are available on Recreation.gov starting Jan. 5. Reservations are expected to sell out quickly. Additional reservations will be available a week before set arrival dates.
5. Zion National Park
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Zion National Park, in southwest Utah, is a sightseeing, hiking, and canyoneering mecca. The entire park is filled with steep, thousand-foot-tall sandstone cliffs. Like Yosemite, it is difficult to manage the number of visitors in a park where the landscape makes it nearly impossible to spread out.
While Zion doesn't require a reservation for entire the park, many of the popular hikes do. Angels Landing, a breathtaking and exposed location, requires a permit to hike it. There is a seasonal lottery for permits, where you can pick seven ranked days and times, or windows of days and times, that you want to hike. The lottery is the luck of the draw and opens three months prior to the date. So the lottery opened on Jan. 1 for people looking to hike Angels Landing from March 1 to May 31. There is also a "day before" lottery for last-minute hikers.
You'll also need a permit for the popular Narrows hike, which winds through a slot canyon. Reservations are available on the fifth day of every month for the upcoming month. Permits are often fully booked within just minutes of opening. There is also a last-minute daily lottery for permits.
6. Acadia National Park
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Acadia National Park, on the coast of Maine, is known for its rugged coastline and rocky, subalpine summits. It's also both one of the smallest national parks and one of the most popular national parks in the U.S., making it even more prone to overcrowding.
To mitigate this, vehicle reservations are required between May 24 and Oct. 22 to drive Cadillac Summit Road, which goes to the top of Cadillac Mountain. From May 24 to June 30, vehicle reservations will be available two days in advance of the reservation date. From July 1 to Oct. 22, 30% of reservations will be available 90 days before the reservation date, while 70% will be available two days in advance of the reservation date. Vehicle reservations have a timed entry.
7. Haleakala National Park
Haleakala National Park at sunrise on Maui
Haleakala National Park, on the island of Maui in Hawaii, is an incredible volcanic landscape and home to Haleakala, a dormant shield volcano with one of the largest volcanic craters in the world. The otherworldly terrain and colors are also an incredibly popular place to watch the sunrise.
Visitors who want to visit Haleakala for the sunrise will now have to make sunrise viewing reservations beforehand, available through Recreation.gov. Reservations are required for each vehicle entering the park between 3 a.m. and 7 a.m., and they may be booked up to 60 days in advance.
8. Shenandoah National Park
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Shenandoah National Park, located in Virginia just 75 miles from Washington, D.C., contains over 100 miles of the Appalachian Trail and is known for its waterfalls, fall foliage, and spectacular views.
Old Rag Mountain, a 9-mile trail up rocky switchbacks that leads to a beautiful, 360-degree view, is by far the most popular hike in the national park. To help control numbers, a pilot reservation system for the hike was first used in 2022. Now, in 2024, you'll need a day-use permit to hike Old Rag from March 1 to Nov. 30. Eight hundred permits are available each day; 400 are released 30 days in advance of the reservation date, and the second 400 are released five days in advance of the reservation date. The rest of the national park is accessible without a reservation.
READ MORE: 9 Best National Parks in the U.S. for Every Kind of Outdoor Adventure
