National park seeks public input on day-use access

ESTES PARK – Rocky Mountain National Park, which has seen little reduction in visitation despite imposing a timed-entry program meant to reduce congestion and adverse environmental impacts in the park, is seeking public comment on an environmental assessment for long-range day use that includes options for further visitor-access restrictions.

The park will host a virtual public meeting on Wednesday and two public open houses later in the month to provide opportunities for the public to learn more about the environmental assessment, ask questions of National Park Service staff and learn how to provide formal written comments online.

Wednesday’s virtual public meeting will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. and requires registration online. The public open houses will be from 5 to 7 p.m. Nov. 14 at the Grand Lake Center, 301 Marina Drive in Grand Lake, and from 5 to 7 p.m. Nov. 27 at the Estes Valley Community Center, 660 Community Drive in Estes Park.

The park experienced a 44% 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.

According to the environmental assessment, “visitation levels under current conditions (i.e., 2020–2023) have been influenced by several external factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic and wildfires in Colorado that resulted in temporary area closures in the park. When compared to average annual visitation from 2016 to 2019, visitation in 2022 had just a 5.6% decrease; however, all park units across the country saw a 4.6% decrease, indicating that visitation to Rocky Mountain National Park was not disproportionately impacted by the pilot timed-entry systems implemented in 2020–2022. Furthermore, changes in visitation primarily occurred during summer months (i.e., June to September), while visitation in shoulder and winter months stayed relatively constant or increased slightly.

Under the timed-entry system, visitors must make advance reservations through recreation.gov to enter the park during peak hours from late spring through early hours, with tighter restrictions for the popular Bear Lake corridor.

According to the park in a news release, “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.”

Some of the alternatives, if the timed-entry program were ended, include closing park entrances when a peak number of visitors is reached.

Although some users have either praised or adapted to the timed-entry system, others have decried the loss of spontaneity. A guest opinion published Friday in the Estes-Park Trail-Gazette, for instance, decried “ad hoc visitor-use management on the fly,” citing alternatives presented in the new plan that would impose temporary closures “with no notice, for any reason,” year-round reservations or extending timed entry earlier or later in the year and for extended hours during the peak season, and doubling the fees to make online timed-entry reservations.

The park is accepting public comments through Dec. 14 via the park’s Planning, Environment and Public Comment (PEPC) website. Comments also may be sent by mail to Superintendent, Rocky Mountain National Park, 1000 U.S. Highway 36, Estes Park, CO 80517.

The park will announce operational plans for next  summer in the coming weeks.

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