Yosemite among the 9 parks requiring reservations in 2024
YOSEMITE, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – Several national parks will be requiring timed-entry reservations, mostly for their busiest hours and their most popular attractions. These are the nine parks that will be requiring reservations in 2024.
Yosemite National Park, CA
According to Yosemite National Park, the “Peak Hours Plus” 2024 vehicle reservation pilot system for park entry will be on weekends starting April 13 to June 30 – and then every day from July 1 to Aug. 15 – and on weekends again from Aug. 16 to Oct. 27.
Park officials say reservations will be required for vehicle entry to the park between 5 a.m. and 4 p.m. during the reservation periods. Reservations are not required to enter the park after 4 p.m. Visitors will pick from two types of reservations: reservations valid for a full day or reservations valid for entry any time after noon.
Reservations will be available for purchase online (click here) beginning at 8 a.m. on Jan. 5, 2024, for all arrival dates Apr. 13 to Oct. 20.
Reservations for Yosemite National Park are coming back for 2024
Officials say 50 percent of the available reservations will be released two days prior to a day-use reservation date for last-minute travelers.
Other national parks also requiring timed-entry reservations are:
Acadia National Park, ME
In Acadia, park officials say visitors must have a park entrance pass to enter the park in addition to purchasing a vehicle reservation for Cadillac Summit Road. Visitors can do so upon arrival at the park or online at recreation.gov. Vehicle reservations need to be purchased in advance.
During the summer and early fall months, park officials say 30 percent of reservations are made available for 90 days in advance of a reservation date with 70 percent of them being available for last-minute purchase at 10 a.m. ET two days in advance of the reservation date.
Officials say two different types of vehicle reservations will be offered for the Sunrise and Daytime with start times varying by month, depending on the forecasted sunrise time.
Arches National Park, UT
According to officials, Arches will require reservations from April 1 through Oct. 31, 2024, maintaining the same parameters of its 2023 pilot program.
Visitors will be able to book on a first-come, first-served basis through Recreation.gov beginning 8 a.m. on Jan. 2. Reservations will be released three months in advance in monthly blocks. For example, all April reservations will open on Jan. 2, May reservations open on Feb. 1, and so on.
For those without early reservations, a limited number of additional tickets will be released at 7 p.m. MDT each day for park visits the following day. It could be booked online or by calling Recreation.gov before entering the park. It will not be available at the park entrance.
Entre permits will not be required for visitors who already have camping, backpacking, Fiery Furnace, or commercial tour bookings, officials said.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park, NC and TN
Park officials say park entry is free, but they require visitors to purchase a daily, weekly, or annual parking tag to park anywhere within the park’s boundaries for over 15 minutes. Daily tags are $5, weekly tags are $10 and annual tags are $40.
Glacier National Park, MT
Officials say vehicle reservations at Glacier will be required on the west side of Going-to-the-Sun Road and North Fork from May 24 through Sept. 8, from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m.
From July 1 through Sept. 8, officials say vehicle reservations are required for Many Glacier from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Visitors with camping, lodging, or commercial activity reservations within the specified reservation areas can use proof of their reservation for entry instead of a vehicle reservation to gain access, meaning they do not need a timed reservation, according to officials.
A portion of the vehicle reservations will be available 120 days, or four months, in advance on a daily rolling basis beginning Jan. 24, 2024. Next-day reservations will be available at 7 p.m. starting May 23 on a daily rolling basis.
Vehicle reservations are not required for tribal members throughout the park, in accordance with the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978.
Haleakala National Park, HI
Park officials say they will require reservations for each vehicle entering the park before sunrise due to limited parking and the popularity of sunrise viewing at the summit from 3 a.m to 7 a.m.
Limited entry reservations will be available two days in advance of a visit, beginning at 7 a.m. HST on a two-day rolling basis.
Rocky Mountain National Park, CO
According to officials, Rocky Mountain a timed-entry reservation will be required with a Bear Lake Corridor permit window from May 24 through Oct. 20 from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m., and a second permit will be for the “rest of the park” excluding the Bear Lake Road corridor from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Officials say reservations will be available around one month in advance, with a one-month rolling window. For example, On Aug. 1, reservations will be available for September and any remaining days in August that have not been booked.
Rocky Mountain will reserve 40 percent of timed-entry permits for next-day reservations as well, from 7 p.m. MT through recreation.gov, rather than 5 p.m.
Shenandoah National Park, VA
Officials say visitors to Old Rag Mountain, including hikers on the Saddle, Ridge, and Ridge Access Traill will need to obtain an Old Rag day-use ticket in advance, in addition to a Park entrance pass, from March 1 to Nov. 30.
400 tickers will be released 30 days in advance of the reservation date, and the remaining 400 will be released five days in advance of each date, daily, at 10 a.m.
Zion National Park, UT
Park officials say they will continue the park’s pilot lottery permit program, which will allow visitors to hike Angels Landing. The lottery is set to open two months in advance of an intended hike date.
A next-day lottery permit will be also available daily from 12:01 a.m. to 3 p.m. MT. Winners will know if they won a permit at 4 p.m. MT the same day they applied. It costs $6 to apply for a permit, and once the permit is confirmed, an additional $3 will be charged.
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