Last year, Mount Rainier National Park turned to a timed-entry reservation system for visitors who wished to enter the park during peak hours during its busiest months. The pilot program, which covered the park’s Paradise and Sunrise corridors, ran from May 24 to Sept. 2, 2024, with visitors able to make reservations beginning Feb. 21.
A year later, there’s no word on whether the program is coming back. In August, the park announced it was seeking visitor feedback on the program. With spring approaching quickly, the park’s website still features the 2024 dates, as does its online reservation portal.
“No decisions have been made if timed entry reservations will be required for the 2025 summer season,” a statement shared with McClatchy by the park’s chief of interpretation, education and volunteers, Terry Wildy, said.
The uncertainty comes amid concerns at national parks across the country over staffing, after President Donald Trump issued a federal hiring freeze. Yosemite National Park has postponed opening its online reservations while awaiting word from the new administration on whether the program can continue.
View from Tolmie Peak Lookout in Mount Rainier National Park Stacia Glenn
If you do decide to visit the park, be prepared for a possibly long wait.
Even local entities that typically help visitors with information about how and when to visit Washington’s three national parks are being faced with a dearth of information.
Matt Wakefield, chief marketing and data officer for the Tacoma-Pierce County Tourism authority, said they simply don’t know when or if there will be timed entry to parks in 2025.
“There seems to be a lack of information across the board,” Wakefield said during an interview by phone. “I’m not sure there are any answers.”
Wakefield said it’s hard to speculate about how a lack of timed entry could impact the park or the visitor experience. At its summer peak months in July and August, Mount Rainier National Park welcomes most of its over 1.6 million annual visitors.
He did say that at the end of peak season in September 2024 when timed entry had ended, but weather and road conditions to visit the park were still good, he personally witnessed very long lines. Wakefield said it took visitors three hours to get in through the Nisqually Corridor entrance, with traffic backed up almost to the town of Ashford about five miles away.
“That’s really not the visitor experience we want people to have,” Wakefield said.
