It’s been over a month since national parks started reopening after COVID-19 closures, and people have started pouring into these outdoor spaces. National parks are huge, natural areas, often containing millions of acres of wilderness and hiking trails. But the reality is that tourists tend to congregate at the same popular viewpoints and cultural sites—which can make social distancing tricky.
For example, we were just in Yellowstone, and it was absolutely packed. If you’ve never been: Yellowstone’s most popular attractions are its geothermal features (hot springs, geysers, mud pots, etc.). Throughout the park, there are “geyser basins” where a path of wooden boardwalks gives visitors a safe way to walk around and view these features. Since you can’t safely stray from the boardwalk in these areas, everyone has to share the same small pathway. When everyone decides to take a road trip to Yellowstome this summer, these popular areas will be packed. It would be slightly less problematic if everyone wore a mask; when we were there, maybe only a quarter of people did.
In more positive news, almost everyone in Mount Rainier National Park had a mask around their neck and pulled it up over their faces when they walked by other people. The mask-wearing was top notch. Bottom line is it really depends on the state you’re in, what the local regulations are, and who happens to be in the park the same day you are.
If you’re planning to visit a national park this summer, here’s what you need to know.
Park employees are not strictly enforcing social distancing or masking.
Parks are posting signs in popular areas encouraging visitors to distance, the same way they post signs to warn of natural dangers like wildlife. But park rangers are not walking around enforcing social distancing or masking, the same way they don’t tell you whether or not you’re getting too close to a bison. It’s not exactly realistic to expect them to—they’d also be putting themselves at risk by approaching visitors throughout the day and policing their actions. So it’s up to visitors to maintain safe distances from each other and respect health recommendations. If you’ve been on social media lately, you know that there’s a wide range of opinions on COVID-19 safety measures, especially masking. If you’re visiting a popular area of a popular national park, anything can happen.
My suggestion is to avoid these sorts of places by visiting less popular parks, going on a weekday if you can, sticking to hiking trails and other areas where it’s easy to spread out and avoid others, and saving the Instagram-famous spots for another year when it’s safer to be in a big crowd of other humans.
Expect some things to be closed all summer.
Most national parks have reopened, but the level of openness varies a ton. Some parks aren’t issuing backcountry permits for the whole summer; others are keeping campgrounds closed for the foreseeable future; some places, like the Jackson Lake Lodge in Yellowstone, will remain closed for the entire season. Some parks are putting special measures in place—for example, you need to reserve an entry day/time online to get into Rocky Mountain National Park, even if you have an annual parks pass (you just need to pay a $2 reservation fee).
If there’s something in particular you want to do in a park, look it up ahead of time on the individual park’s website to find out if it’ll be open. That last thing you want is to take a long road trip with dreams of a specific park or hike in mind, only to arrive and learn it’s closed or that you needed to reserve something in advance.
Avoid visitor centers when possible.
Some park visitor centers are still closed, while others are open but require masks and put limits on the number of guests inside at once. I love a good visitor center and generally head there first whenever I get to a national park, but if you can, avoid them this summer. Most parks have rangers stationed outside near these areas so that you can ask questions (don’t forgot to pull up your mask!) without having to be indoors in close quarters. You can always get park maps and newspapers—which I love because they outline important safety precautions and things to do—at entrance stations, and lately I’ve seen people stationed outside visitor centers handing them out. The only thing you’ll miss out on is browsing all the parks merch, which is a bummer but trust me, it won’t impact your visit.
You’ll need a camping/lodging plan well in advance.
It’s always very difficult to get a room at a national park lodge inside the park. You have to book that shit a year in advance. This summer, with closures and partial closures and logistics nightmares for the park concessioners, it’s just as difficult. Don’t expect to be able to show up and get a room. Don’t expect to be able to book a trip a few weeks out and get a room. Same goes for campgrounds. Some park campgrounds are first come, first serve, but every park we’ve been to in the past month has had “FULL” signs outside all the campgrounds every single day.
If you’re driving a long way to a park, don’t expect there to be an easy lodging option. Plan in advance. That might mean you need to stay an hour or more outside the park. You might get lucky and find a spot closer, but in our experience, pickings are slim. If you have a self-contained RV—aka, you’ve got a bathroom, water tank, bed, etc.—you can try out some dry camping or “boondocking” and find a spot to camp for free on public land. iOverlander and FreeRoam are two great apps for finding spots that other campers recommend. This is what we do when we’re heading to an area where all the RV campgrounds are booked for miles. It also makes social distancing pretty seamless.
