Episode 23: Timed Entry Reservations at Mount Rainier NP
Mount Rainier National Park is proposing to begin a timed entry reservation system to access all vehicle entrances to the park starting in summer 2024. In this episode I highlight some of the problems I see with such a system and offer suggestions for how to improve the mitigate the harm this would cause to those who recreate frequently in the park. Please make sure you go to the comment page for the proposal and make your voice heard by June 11th, 2023!
GO HERE NOW – This is the page for the Nisqually to Paradise Corridor Draft Management Plan. The most important thing you can do is go here and scroll down to the “Comment Now” button to send your feedback directly to the park! Please do this before June 11th!
Mountaineers Survey – Survey for Mountaineers members to provide feedback to the club that will be compiled into the club’s official letter to the park.
Big Changes Proposed for Mount Rainier National Park – Great Mountaineers blog post that condenses the dense 200 page report into something readable.
Washington National Parks Fund – Non-profit that supports all three of Washington’s beautiful National Parks: Mount Rainier, Olympic and North Cascades.
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4 Responses
Travis. Thanks for sharing all this info. Would you be willing to put together a boiler plate response for me (us) to copy and paste?
I think it will be more impactful to the park if you write in your own words. I fear that if they see boilerplate they will just ignore it. However, you could drop this prompt into ChatGPT or Bing Chat and get a very good baseline!
“Write me a letter to the Mount Rainier national Park service about the nisqually to paradise cooridor management plan that suggets the following:
1. That in addition to the timed reservation system, the park sell an annual parking pass that allows passholders to continue the access the park spontaneously without a reservations
2. allows gateway community lodging guests to also be exempt from timed reservation requirements”
Here is the actual letter that I submitted:
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I was disappointed that I could find no data in the report on what percentage of visitors are frequent visitors versus infrequent. As a frequent visitor, I have only experienced a queue once because I know to arrive early (before 9AM). That this proposal says that it would operate from 7AM-5PM feels like you are just punishing those who love the park the most.
I am speculating here, and obviously biased, but I believe that 75% or more of the problems experienced at MRNP are unwittingly caused by infrequent visitors–those who visit less than twice a year. Most of these visitors don’t venture far beyond the roads and viewpoints and they are more likely to litter, trample meadows, bring animals, and park illegally. Those who love MRNP and visit it often are the ones most likely to fight to preserve and protect it, but it feels like this proposal dismisses how harmful this will be to their experience. You even call out how these burdens will drive people to just avoid MRNP without providing any mitigations.
There is no need to do this. You can satisfy the needs of both kinds of visitors by offering a season pass that allows passholders to continue to access the park spontaneously without a reservation. Nearly every avenue of outdoor recreation in Washington state offers this kind of two-tier system with a day pass option for infrequent visitors and a season pass for frequent visitors: Discover Pass, Northwest Forest Pass, Sno-Park, nearly every downhill and Nordic ski resort… even MRNP *itself* offers this! It is common with popular theme parks as well, which charge for parking as well as park entrance.
The pass would need to be expensive enough that it would not appeal to infrequent visitors. Most people who would purchase this are already knowledgeable enough to plan their trip to avoid peak hours and would continue to do so. They also take very little time at the gate because they generally already have an annual entrance pass. If my speculative numbers are anywhere near correct (75% visitor are infrequent) then adding the smaller number of season pass holders to the mix should not adversely affect queue times or crowding.
The possible side effect here is if I’m wrong… too many season pass holders resulting in problems. Well, the first assumption is it *can’t* be any worse than it is today, so it will fall somewhere between the extremes. MRNP would have options for how to mitigate this:
– increase the cost of the season pass, which will result in more frequent visitors opting into the reservation system
– introduce blackout periods. For example, maybe you offer a Gold Season Pass that costs X and allows you to enter spontaneously at any time and a Silver Season Pass that is cheaper but is not honored between 10AM-2PM, for example.
– at worst, you discontinue the season pass option
One harm you do call out and attempt to mitigate is how the reservation system will reduce accessibility for underserved populations who not need to pay fees and have internet access to make a reservation. Additionally, they often have less reliable transportation and so hitting a specific time window may prove problematic. While the proposal talks about “fee-free” days, going from 365 fee-free days a year to 10 (at least as it pertains to reservation) is not a great mitigation. There are already systems in place that allow people to “check out” Discover passes from public libraries. A similar model could apply here, where public libraries could loan out a Season Pass which would better address the accessibility implications of this change.
I believe this system will best serve the park and both frequent and infrequent visitors, but it would present a less painful transition than what the park is proposing today and give the park “knobs” it could easily adjust in response to data observations. Thank you for your consideration.
Thanks for the podcast Travis, I 100% agree with you on this and was very sad to hear about the proposal. Your idea r.e the pass seems like a good idea on the surface but I worry that it would favor those with the financial means to pay for such a pass since to make this work, the fee would need to be high enough to prevent “infrequent” visitors from buying the pass to skip the reservation which is probably $100+/yr at least. This immediately locks out lots of folks from a public national park funded with tax dollars and creates a multi tier system, a bit like “first class” vs “economy” on an airline.
Also, as you mentioned, the NPS has no data on “infrequent” vs “frequent” visitors so how would the park even know how much parking capacity to reserve for “frequent” visitors who have purchased the pass? What happens if people will passes show up and all TH’s are packed full? In this case they would have been better off purchasing a $6 reservation through recreation.gov and saving the $1xx they paid for the pass. The NPS aren’t thinking about public education either, both the Nisqually and White River entrances only have 2 entrance booths, so if I have my reservation in hand but the 20 people in front of me are clueless about the new system, then we still have a traffic problem but worse, do these folks turn around and go home after driving for ~3hrs? There’s no phone signal so they cant go to recreation.gov and quickly get a reservation should there be any left.
My personal view is that the entire proposal is a mess and the NPS should do nothing and let the natural laws of supply-demand do their thing. A reservation system benefits no-one but Booze-Allen who will be happy to implement this feature for $xM+ of public money which could be better spent on improving the park infrastructure than lining the pockets of a CEO.
As you correctly stated, showing up at 7am on a Tuesday or even a Saturday doesn’t result in any issues, in fact the toll booths aren’t event open at that time and anyone can just drive on through for free! Are they going to hire more staff? Wait, I thought they had no money for staff and couldn’t find people to work anyway hence the Paradise winter issues?
Anyway, I’m guessing the reservation system will happen anyway regardless of anyone’s views. The NPS charter is to protect the wilderness and due to the explosion in demand they will be forced to do something. To the other commenter, please don’t use Chat GPT, I’m already skeptical that the Park Service will even read the responses, seems like the public comment is only to pacify the public. For reference, the Park Service in BC Canada introduced such a reservation system and it’s a nightmare. Want to climb Black Tusk? Then you’ll need to get a reservation 2 days prior to your climb prior from 7am, and if they’re sold out you are out of luck since they always ticket a fine of $100.