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Six of the most popular national parks in the United States will be requiring reservations of some kind in 2024, making spontaneous visits nearly impossible.

It not without good reason, though. Since the dawn of the social media age, our national parks have experienced an explosion in popularity with millions of people flocking to them annually.

Not initially designed to handle that many people, overcrowding quickly takes hold at the most popular of the bunch, causing hours long queues at entrances, shoulder-to-shoulder crowds on hiking trails and insufficient parking.

These reservation policies were implemented to control crowd levels, often successfully. While most people don’t like having to make reservations, surveys suggest those same people DO like the reduced crowding in the parks, as they’re actually able to enjoy themselves.

In the post below, I’m going to discuss the six national parks in the United States that will require reservations this year, some pertinent details of those policies, and suggest three national parks that are NOT requiring them that you could visit instead.

1) Arches National Park (Utah)

Arches’s reservation policy will go into effect on April 1, 2024 and will be similar in nature to their pilot program from last year.

According to Arches park officials, reservations will be released in one month blocks, three months ahead of time. For example, reservations for June dates become available on March 1, July reservations on April 1, etc.

Additionally, a small amount of reservations will be released 24-hours prior to each date, beginning at 7pm MDT. These typically go fast so make sure you’re signed into your Recreation.gov account before attempting to get one.

After securing a reservation, you’ll be issued a one hour arrival window. You will not be able to enter any earlier, however, you can stay for as long as you like once you’re inside the park.

2) Glacier National Park (Montana)

This beautiful Montana park will bring back it’s reservation policy in 2024, albeit with a change that park goers are certainly not going to like.

In order to make reservations available to more people, Glacier officials have decided to reduce the number of days your reservation is good for to just one, versus the normal three.

Reservations go into effect for the mega popular Going-to-the-Sun-Road and North Fork on May 24. Starting July 1, reservations will also be required for the Many Glacier Valley. Access to the Apgar Village amenities can be visited without one, though.

3) Shenandoah National Park (Virginia)

After running their pilot program successfully for the last two years, officials at Shenandoah National Park decided to make permanent the permit system for the Old Rag Mountain area.

If you’re planning to visit the area of Old Rag, you’ll need to present both a day-use ticket and a park entrance pass beginning March 1.

This one is highly competitive, as only 800 day-use permits will be made available daily between March 1 and November 30, with that number being split between a 30-day and 5-day release.

Meaning, for the month of June, 400 permits will become available on May 1, with the other 400 becoming available on May 27.

4) Rocky Mountain National Park (Colorado)

Starting May 24, visitors going to Rocky Mountain National Park will be required to have at least one reservation to enter the park. I say at least because there will be two; one for the Bear Lake Road Corridor and another for the, “rest of the park”.

If you’re able to obtain a reservation for the Bear Lake area, the rest of the park will be included with it. However, if you obtain a, “rest of the park”, specific reservation, that one does NOT include the Bear Lake area.

Each month, a fresh block of reservations will become available, and they will be required through October 20 for the Bear Lake area and October 15 for the rest of the park.

5) Mount Rainer National Park (Washington)

Two of the most popular areas of the park, Paradise Corridor and Sunrise Corridor, will require reservations starting May 24 and July 3, respectively.

Reservations will be required daily, between the hours of 7am and 3pm. Visitors without a permit will be able to access the areas without a permit outside of those hours.

6) Yosemite National Park (California)

Ever since the park reopened from its covid-closure in 2020, the park has implemented a reservation policy of some kind, with the exception of 2023.

Without reservations being required, Yosemite became overrun with visitors once again, causing damage to the park, major overcrowding and severe parking issues.

Learning from their lesson, Yosemite officials will again make reservations a requirement. As with the prior three, this one differs slightly from the previous three.

I wrote an extensive post covering all of the details of Yosemite’s 2024 reservation policy. You can read that post here.

Three National Parks NOT Requiring Reservations in 2024

Currently, there are 63 national parks in the United States and only six of them are requiring reservations in 2024. If you had your heart set on one of the above mentioned parks but you weren’t successful in obtaining a reservation, you have literally dozens of other options.

Out of the nine national parks in California, Yosemite is the only one with restrictions. Head a little further south to Sequoia National Park (and neighboring Kings Canyon) for equally beautiful views and stunning hiking trails.

Mount Rainer National Park is popular for a reason, but a trip to The Evergreen State is still worth it, even if you weren’t able to secure a reservation, and Olympic National Park fits the bill as the perfect plan b.

Lastly, if Glacier National Park isn’t in the cards for 2024, my recommendation is to plan a trip to America’s first national park, Yellowstone. With many highlights such as Old Faithful, Grand Prismatic Spring, Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and Hayden Valley, you can’t go wrong.

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