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As Americans continue to seek outdoorsy escapes and open-air activities amid the COVID-19 pandemic, national parks have become go-to destinations for many-unfortunately, it's oftentimes too many.
Massive increases in visitor attendance over the past two years have created an overtourism problem for multiple national parks and monuments, which means they're contending with overcrowding, traffic congestion at entrances and lack of sufficient visitor parking.
And, the increase in foot traffic is so severe that, in many cases, it's threatening the integrity of the natural environments and ecosystems that the parks are designed to preserve. Americans' inadvertent destruction of those natural resources the park system is intended to protect actually prompted Congress to assign a Senate subcommittee to help solve the issues.
Travel Awaits reported that Acadia, Arches, Glacier, Grand Teton, Great Smoky Mountains and Yellowstone National Parks all set visitor attendance records in 2021, and 2022 turnouts are expected to soar even higher.
"As a result, parks are exploring many different tools and techniques that are most effective for their situation, to help them improve how visitors get to and experience popular park resources and features," National Park Service (NPS) spokesperson Kathy Kupper told Conde Nast Traveler.
The primary way that the most popular parks and monuments are regulating the number of incoming visitors is by implementing an advance reservation system. Last year, some of the nation's most in-demand parks-Acadia, Rocky Mountain, Yosemite and Zion National Parks and Dinosaur National Monument-implemented such reservation systems to control crowding and the complications it brings.
This year, some sites are again requiring guests to reserve an advance time slot for entry or, in some cases, for access to high-traffic hiking paths or driving routes. Would-be visitors to these federally protected lands can head to recreation.gov, which handles most of the permitting and provides a streamlined online reservations process.
Below is a list of U.S. national parks and monuments that will require reservations in 2022 for entry or to access certain routes, along with links to web pages containing more information:
- Acadia National Park, Maine
- Arches National Park, Utah
- Glacier National Park, Montana
- Haleakalã National Park, Hawaii
- Muir Woods National Monument, California
- Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
- Shenandoah National Park, Virginia
- Zion National Park, Utah
For more information, visit nps.gov or recreation.gov.
