Going to a National Park this Summer?

[vlamgat]

Good luck !

https://www.wsj.com/articles/nationa...dailydiscvrtst

[Homebrew]

Originally Posted by vlamgat

Good luck !



https://www.wsj.com/articles/nationa...dailydiscvrtst

Just a ad, no story

[PhilFromMaine]

Originally Posted by Homebrew

Just a ad, no story

Going to be at Acadia NP next week for a week!

[vlamgat]

National Parks Are Overcrowded and Closing Their Gates
As pandemic-weary Americans head for the most popular parks this summer, nearby towns are getting overrun
By Allison Pohle | Photographs by Niki Chan Wylie for The Wall Street Journal
June 13, 2021 7:00 am ET
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TEXT
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MOAB, Utah—Southeast Utah is among the most popular tourist destinations in the U.S. with two national parks and millions of undeveloped acres.

But visitors are increasingly spending more time sitting in their cars as they wait to access the vast outdoors.

“Anywhere you go, there’s going to be a line,” said Libby Preslock, who on a recent Thursday arrived at Arches National Park at 9 a.m. only to find that it was full and signs encouraged visitors to come back in three to five hours. She then headed to the area’s other national park, Canyonlands, where she waited about half an hour to get inside.

With its natural stone arches, sandstone fins and towering red rock formations, Arches attracted about 194,000 people in April, up 15% from April 2019. It was closed in April 2020 due to the pandemic.

Arches reaches capacity and closes its gate to visitors most days before 9 a.m., according to the park social-media channels, which send out real-time tweets when the park temporarily closes because its parking lots are full. Those who can’t get in often head to Canyonlands, a traditionally less popular park more than four times the size of Arches. Canyonlands has seen its own visits jump 30% in April 2021 from April 2019, to nearly 117,000. Lines to enter Canyonlands can stretch up to two hours during peak visitation times.

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[ppine]

Nope.

[Homebrew]

With all the new campers on the road and all the cancellations that happen over the past year the parks will be crowded.
We just finished 3 of 7 scheduled camping trips. We stayed at 2 state parks and 1 Army Core of engineers park, the weekends were packed, but during the week it was 1/4 full.
Still waiting to schedule our Acadia trip, it’s too early to schedule at this point.

[PhilFromMaine]

Originally Posted by Homebrew

With all the new campers on the road and all the cancellations that happen over the past year the parks will be crowded.
We just finished 3 of 7 scheduled camping trips. We stayed at 2 state parks and 1 Army Core of engineers park, the weekends were packed, but during the week it was 1/4 full.
Still waiting to schedule our Acadia trip, it’s too early to schedule at this point.

Homebrew, beware that Acadia has a maximum 60 day in advance reservation system. No last minute availability. At lease that is what they told us.

[Homebrew]

Originally Posted by PhilFromMaine

Homebrew, beware that Acadia has a maximum 60 day in advance reservation system. No last minute availability. At lease that is what they told us.

We finally got our site reservations for Acadia Schoodic woods. We were able to reserve 13 days in a giant pull thru site.
You are correct about the 60 days. But the weird thing is my phone doesn’t show as many open sites as the computer. Not sure why but if anyone is having issues try from the computer.
We hope the new COVID variant doesn’t screw with our fall trip.

[Mike134]

Glacier mid Sept. might have snow closures but will take the chance rather than the summer crowds

[msusslin]

Originally Posted by Mike134

Glacier mid Sept. might have snow closures but will take the chance rather than the summer crowds

We are currently in Glacier, for a 2 week stay, and the new entry system seems to work better with fewer crowds. However there are lots of early birds crowding out the ticketed entry visitors. Since we are a flexible punch getting up at 4:30 am to get into the park before 5 am is not too bad to get a parking spot in the park to go hike those beautiful spots in the park.

I think, once the cruise ships fill up again, this will all settle and back to normal.

[DrMikeG]

After Labor Day.