Do you have to wait long lines to get into National Parks?

24 comments

1. Sometimes, depending on the park. Some popular parks will have a reservation system during peak season (Arches NP does this for one) so they can limit the overall number of people in the park to avoid overcrowding. I usually like to go early in the morning to avoid crowds, which works well.

   In fact right now Arches NP has the following warning on their website: [https://www.nps.gov/arch/index.htm](https://www.nps.gov/arch/index.htm)

   >Temporary Entrance Delays Possible
   >
   >Parking lots at trailheads may fill before 9 am, causing the park to temporarily restrict access until congestion lessens. Periods of restricted access can last 3-5 hours.

2. In Yosemite, before they implemented the reservation system, yes, this kind of thing could happen. Rarely 2-3 hours wait, but sometimes on very busy weekends.

3. For the most part, no. However I have heard that some of the more popular parks like Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon occasionally have long waits during the most popular vacation times.

4. I’ve seen some parks close to that at peak season. Skyline Drive in Shenandoah can have some pretty gnarly waits – especially in fall when the leaves turn – and some of the more famous ones out west can be a nightmare in the busy season.

   But I roll up to Shenandoah at a trailhead before [BMNT](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twilight#Nautical_twilight), so that’s never a problem.

5. Most national parks no. Some of the most popular ones can have a wait. I wouldn’t expect a 2-3 hour line though. Maybe more like 30 minutes.

   I have heard Yosemite can get crazy.

   Acadia can be busy but I’ve never had to wait more than about 30 minutes. Same with the Smokys but I also haven’t been to the Smokys on a holiday weekend in peak season.

   Yellowstone was a breeze and Arches and Bruce had zero wait time.

6. I have never had to wait hours to get into one, but once you are inside, there can be very heavy traffic congestion in the most popular areas that causes you to sit and wait for a while.

   All of the national parks I have been to are beautiful places, but I would not wait 3 hours to get into any of them. If there are that many people waiting to get in, surely it’s going to be a miserably overcrowded experience once you get inside?

7. Typically no. With [423 National Parks](https://www.nps.gov/aboutus/national-park-system.htm) in the United States, most are accessible with no wait. Only a handful of parks have population controls in place.

8. Front gates to popular parks like Yosemite, Zion and the Grand Canyon can have a line/wait, but generally getting in is pretty quick. In some places like the Colorado National Monument (one step down from national park status) we only saw one other couple on the whole drive through. We stopped for a picnic lunch at a designated area with over a hundred parking spots – we had the entire place to ourselves from start to finish.

9. I’ve waited in lines to get into Yosemite and Grand Canyon. Nowadays most people get their entry passes/reservations ahead of time and it’s not that bad.

10. I never have at any of the parks I’ve visited.

11. At Yellowstone, it can depend which entrance you use. The north one at Gardiner gets backed up, since that’s the closest to several gateway towns & Bozeman. There are separate lanes for concessionaire employees, because that’s where their warehouse, laundries & offices are.

    The west entrance is the real nightmare. It’s immediately adjacent to the gateway town West Yellowstone, and the one closest to Old Faithful. In high season, 2 or 3 hours wouldn’t surprise me. It’s not a timed entrance or reservations, just how long it takes everyone in front of you to pay & get told not to pet the bison.

    What’s really fun is that it can take just as long to get out. The town gets backed up, because it’s small & tons of people come back at the same time.

    The other 3 entrances are usually a breeze, though.

12. go in very early in the morning (like 6 am~?), you won’t see any line.

13. Glacier park had fucking reservations again this past summer. I went after the kids were back in school and the reservation system ended and it was still stupid busy. 0/10 would not recommend Glacier.

14. Depends on the park and the gate to get in.

15. I never waited more than 20 minutes to get into a national park, but I don’t go through the high traffic entrances. Some have a reservation system during busy times of the year

16. Not really, it’s interesting about Reddit. By most metrics, the Smokies are they most visited National Park by a landslide number. Yet on this subreddit any National Park question will include just about any example but that park.

    Like it gets roughly 10x the visitors Yosemite gets by a lot metrics. But one happens to be extremely close to Silicon Valley I guess.

17. No, not really.

    Most parks you just go into when you want.

    Rocky Mountain, though, has a timed entry you have to make reservations for beforehand. And I think Olympic is really crowded. But even a park like Yosemite and Yellowstone wouldn’t get crowded to the point of waiting hours to get inside.

18. I’ve been to Yosemite many times, but the longest I’ve ever had to wait was for Sequoia. It was about an hour-long line. On July 4 a few years ago, so it should have been expected.

    I’ve heard of really long waits to get into Yosemite, but I’ve always managed to avoid entering at those peak times.

19. A few years ago I drove 3 hours to go to Plitvice national park in Croatia. When I got there the line was so long I gave up and went to some random village in Bosnia instead.

20. Get into the park? Never. There might be some crowding at specific attractions, but national parks are huge, like for example Yellowstone is only a little bit smaller than Kosovo.

21. Joshua Tree in summer: no wait and you might not see another person for miles.

22. Most parks don’t have a long line, but some of them have insane lines during peak season.

23. I’ve never waited in line at all at a national park, but I’ve also never been to the biggest tourist draw ones (like Yellowstone, Yosemite, etc) during peak tourist season on a weekend.

    If you go at an off day/season even the main ones are decently empty.

    I’ve been to Shenandoah, Great Smoky Mountains, and Rocky Mountain national parks many times and never had any sort of wait. Also been to Arches, Joshua Tree, Petrified Forest, Mesa Verde, Everglades, and Congaree without any wait but also not at super peak tourist season times.

24. Maybe at the most popular ones on a summer holiday weekend (like July 4th or Labor Day). But not usually.