JUST OUTSIDE MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK — On the Sunday before Memorial Day, Christy Narvaez made a last-minute trip from Seattle to Mount Rainier National Park. After a 2 1⁄2-hour drive, Narvaez and her friends arrived to find an hourlong line of cars on Highway 706 leading to the Nisqually Entrance, the park’s most popular gateway. The wait was no surprise — in recent years, lines to get into the park have snaked 2 or 3 miles on summer weekends and holidays.
But Narvaez didn’t expect to be turned away entirely. It was the first weekend of a timed-entry reservation system that Mount Rainier National Park is testing out this summer as a pilot program, an attempt to limit the number of vehicles arriving between 7 a.m.
and 3 p.m. daily.
Like other popular national parks overwhelmed by exploding visitation, Mount Rainier is experimenting with timed entries to combat overcrowding. While park rangers, hikers, conservationists and local business owners can all get behind that goal, the rollout has naturally had some kinks. “I should have done my homework and I didn’t,” Narvaez said.
Since reservations were sold out that Sunday, Narvaez parked at the nearby Gateway Inn until 3 p.m., when she and several other groups waiting at the Ashford motel could get into the park without a reservation.
Mount Rainier National Park rangers and officials are hoping others follow Narvaez’s lead: Come into the park later in the day, spreading park visitation outside peak times. �.