One Of America's Most Popular National Parks Has Shelved Its Confusing Reservations System (For Now)

Between the beautiful weather, kids being out of school, and the great American tradition of summer road trips, it's no surprise that summer is usually the busiest time of year to visit a U.S. national park. To combat the crowds, some iconic national parks in America require reservations in the summer, but one park appears to have actually changed its policies to make it easier to visit. In fact, while the popular and stunning Arches National Park had previously used a timed entry program for visitors, it has been canceled (at least for the time being). And while this may come as a surprise, the cancelation of Arches' timed entry program also makes sense.

This is especially true because the system in place was a little complex, requiring visitors driving into the park to book timed entry tickets in advance if they wanted to enter between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m., the most popular hours. Those reservations had to be made in advance by calling special hotlines or using the recreation.gov app, and cost $2 on top of the usual fee to enter the park. Once inside, visitors were free to come and go as they pleased and stay as long as they wanted, but only if they originally entered the park during the entry window they reserved.

This became a problem because Arches has been having more and more visitors and longer and longer wait times to enter, to the point that some travelers have even been seeking out nearby hidden gems to avoid Arches National Park crowds. So, at one time it made total sense that park officials would want to stagger the times that people entered the park during the most popular months. However, more recently, the extreme heat has been keeping visitation numbers down, so at least until August 27, 2025, those willing to brave the desert sun can head into the park whenever they choose without having to reserve a slot beforehand.

Although you can follow the breathtaking Arches Scenic Drive to see all the developed areas within the national park, you're probably going to want to get out and explore some of the trails during your visit. Unfortunately, leaving the comfort of your air conditioned vehicle to explore the high desert is not always a fun thing to do. On hot summer days, it can even be unsafe. Temperatures can soar above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, making the idea of a hike a lot less enjoyable for most people. This usually means that fewer people visit the park during the hot months. Because of this, it was determined that putting up more barriers to visit the park wasn't worth the hassle. The acting public affairs specialist for the park, Karen Henker, told SFGate: "There's no reason to make visitors jump through hoops if the parking lots aren't actually filling up and negatively impacting people's visits."

Arches National Park was already having issues with the timed entry system, since visitors were often confused about the details of their reservation and what exceptions there were, so the park staff was likely somewhat relieved to have a break from the program. However, at the moment Arches has only paused the program, not canceled it. Because of this, chances are that visitors to the park who come between August 28 and the end of October will still need to make reservations. Those interested in taking advantage of the easy entry this summer will need to act fast. Just make sure you know what you're getting into with the desert heat — few people choose to explore Arches in the height of summer for a reason!