Great To Finally Be Back In Rocky!

Sunrise In Moraine Park after Rocky Mountain National Park reopened
Like seeing and old friend, I was finally able to get back in Rocky Mountain National Park after a nearly 70 day hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I spent my first morning along the Big Thompson river enjoying sunrise and some nice clouds from Moraine Park. I cant wait to spend as much time as possible this summer photographing Rocky Mountain National Park again. Technical Details: Nikon Z7, Nikon 24-70mm F4 S lens

Just like seeing and old friend, heading back up into Rocky Mountain National Park after a nearly 70 day hiatus felt great. In one sense it felt surreal heading back into the park after all the craziness of the past two plus months of closures and lockdown. In another sense it felt just like riding a bicycle again.

While the park reopened on Wednesday May 27th, I did not head up until the morning of Thursday May 28th for my first visit since the lockdowns occurred from the pandemic. NPS did not remove the barriers and get the roads opened until after 6:00 AM on 5/27 so it was not possible to be inside the park for sunrise which occurred at 5:38 AM.

Much of Rocky is still closed and there is limited access to other locations. I expect more things to open in the near future but the park service is dealing with limited staff and housing for its seasonal workers as they filter back. Currently Trail Ridge Road is not open (Rainbow Curve on the east side on the Colorado River Trailhead on the west side). Wild Basin remains closed and its unsure if Old Fall River road will open to automobile traffic this year.

Starting next week, June 4th to be exact, Rocky Mountain National Park will have a timed entry permit system enacted between the hours of 6:00 AM and 5:00 PM. If you are planning on visiting the park between those hours you will need to go online, pay a $2 fee and reserve a time slot to enter Rocky Mountain National Park. The park is allowing about 13,000 visitors a day to enter. 90% of the reservations need to be made 48 hrs in advance although the park will allow a small amount of passes to be released 24 hrs before entry.

I’m still trying to figure out my photography tour service into Rocky Mountain National Park and how I will be conducting photography tours moving forward. My commercial use permit to operate in RMNP will allow me access to the park anytime so this will benefit clients of mine who would like access to the park and possibly were unable to secure a permit in time.

Figuring out how to maintain social distancing both in a vehicle and on the trails where I often have to assist clients hiking and climbing over obstacles is more difficult. Much of this will come down to prospective clients comfort level, photographing, hiking and traveling through the park with me. I’m telling all prospective clients to contact me and we can discuss the difficulties and realities of scheduling a photography tour in Rocky Mountain National Park during the current pandemic.

With that said, my tour business has taken a big hit already due to the closure and pandemic. I plan on being out in Rocky Mountain National Park as much as I can be this summer and will use the free time I now have to explore and photograph areas of the park I have not visited recently or have wanted to revisit. I’ll do my best making lemonade out of lemons and hope we will see some return to normalcy by the end of the season and hopefully into next year. In the meantime I’ll be photographing and enjoying getting back out into Rocky more than you can imagine. Stay tuned here and I’ll update conditions and status often. If you would like to schedule a photograph tour feel free to drop me an email with your questions and I’ll be happy to answer any and all questions.

Good News

Good news is that Rocky Mountain National Park will be reopening on May 27th. Things will be very different this season and the NPS will be instituting a timed entry permit system which will make photography access more difficult. That being said, for as long as possible I’ll be getting out to locations this one on the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park to enjoy the beauty and solitude. Technical Details: Nikon Z7, Nikkor 14-30mm F4 S lens

Finally some good news to report here. After being closed for over two months, Rocky Mountain National Park announced on Tuesday, May 12th that they were planning on starting a phased reopening of the park starting on Wednesday, May 27th.

Superintendent, Darla Sidles, along with Visitor Use Specialist, John Hannon held a meeting with the Estes Park town board on Tuesday night to explain the plan for reopening moving forward. It’s great that Rocky Mountain National Park will reopen on May 27th, but whats apparent from listening to park officials, is that it’s not going to be business as usual.

Details are still being hammered out, and as of this writing the Department of the Interior has not yet approved the reopening plan, but assuming they do, things will be very different in Rocky this summer.

The biggest proposed change will be limiting the number of visitors to the park each day through the use of a timed entry permit system. NPS park officials will use a timed entry permit system between the hours of 6:00 AM until 5:00 AM to limit the number of visitors to Rocky to no more than 13,500 a day. This will help to prevent overcrowding at trailheads, parking issues and allow the Bear Lake shuttle busses to run at half capacity. Of course this is all being done to allow for proper distancing and spacing as they try to mitigate the effects of the Covid-19 virus from spreading.

With the timed entry permit system, 90% of the permits will have to be reserved at least 48 hrs prior to visiting Rocky. As I currently understand it, Rocky will allow 10% of the permits to be held back and released 48 hrs prior to a visit to accommodate a very small segment of visitors arriving at the last minute. There are many dynamics currently playing out in regards to visitation to RMNP right now, but one thing is apparent. Rocky does not want visitors showing up unprepared at the last minute, or people from the Denver area making spur of the moment day trips to visit the park. If you plan on visiting Rocky Mountain National Park this summer, park officials want you to be prepared, with a reserved permit and time slot in hand.

Obviously this is going to have a tremendous impact on visitation to Rocky Mountain National Park as well as the towns of Estes Park and Grand Lake. How it effects photographers is yet to be determined.

As I currently understand it, if you arrive before or after the 6:00 AM until 5:00 PM timed permit window, you will be able to access RMNP. Superintendent Sidles said this policy will continue “at least until we realize there are 10,000 people going in before six … then we would adjust that.” So while it appears photographers may have a window to access the park without applying for the limited permits, be forewarned that this policy could quickly change if park officials feel its becoming unwieldy.

Park officials stated in the meeting that they are still working out many of the smaller details and policies. Much of this will be adjusted and re-evaluated at the end of June so look for park policy to continue to be fluid and evolve.

As for the status of my photography tour business. I’m currently evaluating what I can and cant do adhering to the CDC social distance policies as well as the parks timed entry permit system. Currently, photography tours are on hold because I don’t see a way I can manage the permit system and travel in vehicles while adhering to recommend social distance spacing. Using multiple vehicles and having to manage multiple permits does not seem like a prudent policy from both an ethical standpoint or an environmental footprint standpoint.

I’ll continue to update the status of my photography tour services and I’m hoping by later in July, I may be able to resume booking photography tours for the late summer and fall season in Rocky Mountain National Park. Meanwhile, I be out photographing in the park as much as I am able and will be keeping my fingers crossed that the current policy remains in place so that access to park is still possible during off-peak times.