Pilot Timed Entry Permit Systems

Congestion near Emerald Lake

NPS

Rocky Mountain National Park will implement a Pilot Timed Entry Permit Reservation System for summer season 2024. The park has implemented pilot timed entry permit systems during the summer seasons of 2020 - 2023.

Attached below are the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) documentation related to the decision to pilot visitor use strategies during the summers of 2020 - 2024.

For the 2020 and 2021 summer seasons, the park used categorical exclusion (CE) A.8 related to a Public Use Limitation due to impacts from the COVID-19 Pandemic. The public use limitation was necessary to ensure the safety of visitors and employees and to prevent the spread of a disease that had already been designated as a pandemic by the World Health Organization. Visitors could still visit open areas of the park.

For 2022, the park used CE 3.3 D.2 for minor changes in amounts or types of visitor use for the purpose of ensuring visitor safety or resource protection in accordance with existing regulations. The Timed Entry Permit System (TEPS) implemented during the 2022 year targeted 90% of parking and transit capacity, which equates to around 20,000 visitors and 7,200 vehicles per day.

For 2023, Rocky Mountain National Park used CE 3.3 D.2 for minor changes in amounts or types of visitor use for the purpose of ensuring visitor safety or resouce protection in accordance with existing regulations. The Timed Entry Permit System (TEPS) implemented during the 2023 summer season targeted 90% of parking and transit capacity, which equates to around 20,000 visitors and 7,200 vehicles per day.

For 2024, Rocky Mountain National Park signed a Memo To File on the pilot Timed Entry Permit System. This memo states that Rock Mountain National Park plans to implement a pilot timed entry permit system in 2024 (TEPS 5). The pilot will be the same as 2023 (TEPS 4) with one minor change: the rest of the park reservation system ends one week earlier than as piloted in 2023, ending on October 15, 2024. The Bear Lake Road Corridor Timed Entry Permit System will continue through Sunday, October 20, 2024, consistent with TEPS 4.

• Categorical Exclusion Documentation - Public Use Limitation - 2020/2021
• Categorical Exclusion Documentation - Pilot TEPS 2022
• Categorical Exclusion Documentation - Pilot TEPS 2023
• Memo To File - Pilot TEPS 2023

 

Interested in Learning More about Rocky's Long-Range Day Use Visitor Access Planning?

Rocky Mountain National Park is seeking public comment on an Environmental Assessment (EA) for the park’s long-range day use visitor access plan. This plan is needed to provide day use visitor access in a way that protects resources while creating opportunities for high-quality visitor experiences.

The park experienced a 44 percent increase in visitation from 2012 to 2019. In 2021, the park received 4.4 million visits. Even with a timed entry system in place the park received some of the highest visitation in its history. The park's top five visitation years are as follows: 2019, 4.67 million; 2018, 4.59 million; 2016, 4.51 million; 2017, 4.437 million; 2021, 4.434 million. Rapid growth in day use visitation and changing use patterns in the park have degraded natural and cultural resources, diminished quality of the visitor experience, increased visitor and staff safety concerns, and created a heavy strain on the park’s facilities and ability to perform daily operations. The goal of the plan is to identify strategies that will help protect park resources, offer varied opportunities for high quality visitor experiences, and enhance visitor and staff safety.

For more information on Rocky Mountain National Park's Day Use Visitor Access Plan and Environmental Assessment, click the following link to visit RMNP's Day Use Visitor Access page.

How Can I Participate or Submit a Public Comment?

Park staff are eager to continue engaging with stakeholders and park visitors about the purpose and need for action; the environmental issues and impacts being addressed, and the proposed alternatives. We hope to hear from members of the public who have visited the park, local businesses, and the surrounding community.

Park staff invite members of the public to submit their comments via the park’s Planning, Environment and Public Comment (PEPC) website at
https://parkplanning.nps.gov/ROMO_DUVAS. Public comments on the EA are open through December 14, 2023.

To submit a comment, click on the “Open for Comment” button, located on the left side of the page, and click on the “Submit a Comment” button.

Public comments may also be sent to the following mailing address:

Superintendent
Rocky Mountain National Park
1000 US Highway 36
Estes Park, CO 80517

Before including your address, phone number, e-mail address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be aware that your entire comment – including your personal identifying information – may be made publicly available at any time. Although you can ask in your comment to withhold your personal identifying information from public review, we cannot guarantee we will be able to do so.

Thank you for your continued interest and involvement in this process!