Record crowds cause Rocky Mountain NP concerns

Visitation in Rocky Mountain National Park jumped 21 percent in 2015, as the park eclipsed 4 million visitors for the first time in its 100-year history.

The national park 45 miles from Fort Collins attracted 4,062,132 visitors through November, as overall visitation to the country’s national parks is expected to hit 300 million once December visitation is counted. That will best last year’s all-time high of nearly 293 million.

Rocky Mountain National Park now braces for what could be an even busier 2016, as the National Park Service celebrates its 100th birthday and continues to urge Americans to visit their national parks through marketing campaigns that include giving free passes to every fourth-grader and their families.

PHOTOS: Rocky Mountain National Park

“Now, we have to look at how we manage the park if we continue to stay around that 4 million mark.” said Kyle Patterson, spokeswoman for Rocky Mountain National Park.

Visitors to Rocky this past summer and fall experienced long lines and wait times at the park’s Beaver Meadows entrance, filled parking lots early in the morning at Bear Lake and packed hiker shuttles.

Park signs warn people when areas are full, and the park encourages visitors to use the hiker shuttles and arrive to the park early or on a weekday, but new avenues to alleviate crowding must be considered, park officials say.

“How are those 4 million people impacting park resources? How do we deal with staffing and infrastructure and preserving the park?” Patterson said. “These are all things we’re looking at in 2016.”

Must-do winter hikes in Rocky Mountain National Park

With December's visitation still to count, Rocky Mountain jumped 627,381 visitors from 2014 to last year. You have to go back to just after World War II to see as dramatic a spike in year-over-year visitation, when visits increased from 356,793 in 1945 to 804,588 in 1946.

Throw out the devastating flood and government shutdown that impacted 2013 and visitation to Rocky Mountain has increased every year since 2008, when 2.75 million people visited the park.

Patterson attributed Rocky Mountain's record 2015 to the country’s low gas prices, a recovered economy, the park’s 100th anniversary celebration and a booming Front Range population.

Fall was Rocky Mountain's busiest time, as six of last year’s top-10 busiest days fell in September and October, which are prime aspen viewing and elk bugling months. The park counted 12,996 vehicles on Sept. 26, last year's busiest day.

Ridership of the park’s shuttles - which usher hikers from the Park & Ride lot to the popular Bear Lake area - spiked in 2015. A record 570,000 people rode the park shuttles last year, a 24 percent increase over 2014.

FUN FACTS: Trail Ridge Road, lakes, elevation and more

Elsewhere across the country, some national parks saw 2015 visitation climb more than 40 percent above 2014 levels.

Yellowstone reached a record 4.1 million visitors, Yosemite is poised to break its 1996 record of 4.2 million, Zion set a record with more than 3.5 million and Grand Canyon hit a record 5.3 million visits.

Online publication National Parks Traveler reports that during the height of summer, it took some visitors at Yellowstone up to three hours to get through the entrance at West Yellowstone. In Utah’s Arches, crowds trying to get into the park during Memorial Day weekend were backed up to U.S. Highway 191, prompting the Utah Highway Patrol to temporarily close the entrance.

The joke among national parks enthusiasts is that the National Park Service’s, “Find Your Park” campaign should now be changed to “Find Another Park.”

January and February are Rocky Mountain's quietest months but New Year’s Day (Friday) and Saturday offered a jarring glimpse of what we might expect in 2016.

Cars, filled with snowshoers and sledders, overflowed from the Hidden Valley parking lot at the base of Trail Ridge Road, prompting park rangers to deal with severe congestion and dozens of cars unsafely parked along Trail Ridge. Also, the Bear Lake parking lot frequently reaches capacity on blue bird days.

“Normally over the holidays if there’s snow, we’ll be pretty darn busy,” Patterson said.

Xplore reporter Stephen Meyers covers the outdoors and recreation for the Coloradoan. Follow him on Twitter @stemeyer or @XploreNoco. 

5 Colorado places to explore in 2016

A busy fall 

Rocky Mountain National Park's top-10 busiest days reveals thousands of people visited the park for the beauty of the fall colors and the sights and sounds of the bugling elk. 

2015

Sept. 26: 12,996 vehicles

Oct. 3: 11,294 

Sept.  6: 11,016 

Sept. 27: 11,003 

Sept. 20: 10,670 

Sept. 19: 10,339 

July 12: 10,148 

Aug. 8: 10,093 

July 3: 10,083 

July 26: 10,073 

2014

Sept. 27: 13,295 Vehicles

Sept. 20: 10,289 

July 6: 9,355 

July 5: 9,253 

July 20: 9,139 

Sept. 28: 8,668 

Aug. 16: 8,634 

July 27: 8,492 

June 2: 8,248 

Sept. 26: 8,152