Rocky Mountain National Park Timed Entry & Park & Ride
There are two permits, they are not interchangeable, and the one most people need is the harder one to get. Timed Entry + Bear Lake Road covers the whole park including the Bear Lake corridor and is enforced 5 a.m. to 6 p.m., May 22 through October 18, 2026. Plain Timed Entry covers everything except Bear Lake Road and is enforced only 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., May 22 through October 12.
Both cost $2 on Recreation.gov, on top of your entrance fee. Outside those hours you need no reservation at all — which is why the park's serious hikers are through the gate at 4:30 a.m. and its Longs Peak climbers never see the system.
The facts
- Trail served
- The whole park — Bear Lake, Glacier Gorge, Trail Ridge Road and the Alpine Visitor Center, Longs Peak, Wild Basin and the Moraine Park corridor all sit behind one or other of the two permits
- Cost / pass
- Parking free. Park entrance $30/vehicle for 1 day or $35 for 7 days, $25/$30 motorcycle, $15/$20 per person; $70 RMNP annual pass. America the Beautiful accepted. Non-US residents 16+ pay an extra $100 unless admitted on an annual or America the Beautiful pass. Timed entry reservation $2 non-refundable Recreation.gov processing fee, per permit, on top of all of the above
- Lot size
- No park-wide figure published. NPS publishes no space count for any individual trailhead lot in the park — not Bear Lake, not Glacier Gorge, not the Park & Ride, which is unusual for a park of this traffic
- When it fills
- The permit windows are the park's own admission of when it fills: 5 a.m. on Bear Lake Road, 9 a.m. everywhere else
- Overflow option
- The Park & Ride on Bear Lake Road, feeding the free Bear Lake and Moraine Park shuttles. Note that the Park & Ride is itself inside the corridor — driving to it during enforced hours still requires the Bear Lake Road permit
- Tow / citation risk
- NPS publishes no RMNP-specific towing or citation policy. Federal regulation restricts parking to designated areas park-wide, but no fee schedule or enforcement detail appears on any park page
- Restrooms
- Yes
- Road to the lot
- Three entrances — Beaver Meadows and Fall River from Estes Park, Grand Lake from the west. Trail Ridge Road connects them only when it's open, roughly late May to mid-October
- Busy season
- June through September for full road access. Trail Ridge Road and Old Fall River Road are both seasonal, and the timed entry system exists precisely because those months are unmanageable without it
Getting there
Get directions →Which permit, and the mistake that wastes a morning
The distinction is the whole ballgame, and the park's own naming makes it easy to get wrong.
Timed Entry + Bear Lake Road gets you everywhere. Timed Entry gets you everywhere except Bear Lake Road. If you booked the plain one and your plan was Emerald Lake or Sky Pond, you cannot drive down the corridor during enforced hours — and NPS states the corridor permit is required “to access all destinations on Bear Lake Road,” which includes the Park & Ride you were counting on as your backup.
The windows differ too, and not by a little. Bear Lake Road is gated 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. — thirteen hours. The rest of the park is gated 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. — five. A Trail Ridge Road day needs only the cheaper-to-obtain plain permit, and if you're on the road before 9 you need nothing at all.
The end dates differ as well: October 18 for Bear Lake Road, October 12 for the rest. See the note below — NPS's own pages disagree about those by a day.
How to actually get one
Reservations go on sale on Recreation.gov in monthly blocks, 8 a.m. MDT on the 1st, for the following month: July 1 released all of August, August 1 released September, September 1 released October 1–18. If you're reading this in advance of a trip, that date is the one to put in your calendar.
If you missed it, the second chance is real and underused: a further tranche drops at 7 p.m. MDT the night before your arrival date. This is the same mechanism Glacier used to run and Arches abandoned, and it works — people cancel, and the park re-releases inventory rather than leaving the park half-empty.
What you're buying is a two-hour arrival window, with no departure time. Get through the gate inside your window and the day is yours. The $2 is a Recreation.gov processing fee and it is non-refundable, which matters more than it sounds: a rained-out Saturday costs you the $2 and the slot.
The 5 a.m. loophole is the actual local knowledge
Neither permit is enforced around the clock, and the gap is wide enough to drive a whole trip through.
Before 5 a.m. on Bear Lake Road, and before 9 a.m. everywhere else, entry is unreserved. After 6 p.m. and 2 p.m. respectively, the same. This is why the summit crowd on Longs Peak — leaving the trailhead at 2 or 3 a.m. as a matter of routine — mostly doesn't know the permit system exists. It is also why an afternoon arrival at Trail Ridge Road after 2 p.m. is a completely legitimate plan that no reservation page will suggest to you.
The catch is that the early window is unreserved, not empty. Bear Lake is “often full by 9 a.m.” by NPS's own count and Glacier Gorge “fills early each day.” Skipping the permit by arriving at 4:45 a.m. is only useful if you also wanted to be there at 4:45 a.m.
Two official pages, two different end dates
Worth knowing if you're planning a mid-October trip, because a day matters when it's the last one.
The timed entry permit page (updated May 14, 2026) says the season ends Sunday, October 18 for Bear Lake Road and Monday, October 12 for the rest of the park. The park's own February 18, 2026 news release announcing the season says October 19 and October 13.
Neither is a weekday typo — October 18 really is a Sunday and October 19 a Monday, so both documents are internally consistent and simply disagree. We use the permit page, on the grounds that it was updated three months later and its dates match the published shuttle season exactly. If you're travelling on one of those four days, check the permit page again before you book.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a timed entry permit for Rocky Mountain National Park in 2026?
Yes, during enforced hours. Timed Entry + Bear Lake Road is required 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. from May 22 through October 18, 2026. Plain Timed Entry, which covers the park except Bear Lake Road, is required 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. from May 22 through October 12. Outside those hours no reservation is needed.
What is the difference between the two Rocky Mountain timed entry permits?
Timed Entry + Bear Lake Road covers the entire park including the Bear Lake corridor, and is enforced 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. Plain Timed Entry covers the whole park except Bear Lake Road, and is enforced only 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Both cost the same $2. If your plan includes Bear Lake, Glacier Gorge, Sprague Lake or the Park & Ride, you need the Bear Lake Road version.
How much does a Rocky Mountain timed entry reservation cost?
$2, a non-refundable Recreation.gov processing fee. That is separate from the entrance fee, which is $30 per vehicle for one day or $35 for seven, or free with an America the Beautiful pass. The $2 applies either way.
When do Rocky Mountain timed entry reservations get released?
In monthly blocks at 8 a.m. MDT on the first of the preceding month — September 1 released the October dates. A second tranche is released first-come, first-served at 7 p.m. MDT the night before each arrival date, which is the best option if you missed the monthly drop.
Can I enter Rocky Mountain National Park without a reservation?
Yes, outside the enforced windows. Before 9 a.m. or after 2 p.m. for the general park, and before 5 a.m. or after 6 p.m. for Bear Lake Road. This is genuinely how many hikers and nearly all Longs Peak climbers use the park, since a pre-dawn start sits entirely outside the system.
Facts on this page last verified July 28, 2026. Fees, hours, and access rules change seasonally — confirm with the official source before a long drive.