{"id":23142,"date":"2020-05-29T14:38:55","date_gmt":"2020-05-29T20:38:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/?p=64901"},"modified":"2020-05-30T07:28:55","modified_gmt":"2020-05-30T13:28:55","slug":"photos-rocky-reopens-after-67-day-covid-19-closure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/local-news\/photos-rocky-reopens-after-67-day-covid-19-closure\/","title":{"rendered":"Photos: Rocky reopens after 67 day COVID-19 closure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When visitors returned to Rocky Mountain National Park after a 67 day closure due to COVID-19, there were no major crowds on the west side of the park \u2014 but there was a constant flow of happy hikers.<\/p>\n<p>Rocky began a phased reopening Wednesday, and hikers with free time ran out into the somewhat rainy weather to enjoy the park. Grand Lake local Kyle Ingle was just about to begin his hike at East Inlet, his first at Rocky in over two months.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s always nice when our trails get reopened,\u201d Ingle said.<\/p>\n<p>For Denver residents Jean and Erin Speer, it was a beautiful day to get out. The mother and daughter even saw a moose, and they were glad to see Rocky open.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\" readability=\"6\">\n<div class=\"row shn-donation shn-donation-mobile p-0\" readability=\"7\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/02\/shn-logo-2x-wht.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/02\/shn-logo-2x-wht.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\" onclick=\"handleDonationButtonClickMidArticle()\">Donate<\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re excited for everything to reopen,\u201d Erin Speer added.<\/p>\n<p>The park is open to visitors without reservations until Thursday, but staff will be evaluating the level of visitation throughout the day to restrict access as needed. Starting Thursday, all visitors will need a reservation to enter the park.<\/p>\n<p>Reservations are on sale now through <a href=\"http:\/\/www.recreation.gov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">http:\/\/www.recreation.gov<\/a> for entry through July 31. The reservation fee is $2, plus the $25 day pass. Annual or senior pass holders will be required to get a permit, but will only have to pay the $2 reservation fee.<\/p>\n<p>Permits will go on sale each month on a rolling basis throughout the summer, with August reservations available July 1; September reservations available Aug. 1; and October reservations available Sept. 1.<\/p>\n<p>There will also be reservations available two days in advance beginning at 8 a.m. For example, additional July 1 reservations will be available June 29.<br \/>Park visitors with a permit will be able to enter the park within a two-hour window of availability between 6 a.m. and 5 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>Ingle usually hikes at Rocky every other week during normal times. He said that he doesn\u2019t see the reservation system as too much of an inconvenience and that he\u2019ll be able to plan around the reservations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think considering the circumstances, it\u2019s probably in their best interest to keep it open,\u201d Ingle said of the time entry system. \u201cI think it\u2019s a good idea.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For Jean and Erin Speer, who typically only come up a couple times a year during a regular season, the reservations mean they might not come back this summer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of people love to do this,\u201d Jean Speer said. \u201cI think it will be a disappointment to a lot of people. I don\u2019t think many people plan.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rocky was the third most visited national park in the country last year with more than half a million visitors entering Rocky from Grand Lake and even more coming to Grand Lake from Trail Ridge Road.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s unclear how capping total visits at 60% will affect the small town that gets a large potion of its economic activity during those summer months, especially when most visitors enter the park from the east side. The park said that the reservation system will go away in later phases of reopening.<\/p>\n<p>Frequently asked questions about the timed entry system can be found at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nps.gov\/romo\/planyourvisit\/fees.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">http:\/\/www.nps.gov\/romo\/planyourvisit\/fees.htm<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/news\/photos-rocky-reopens-after-67-day-covid-19-closure\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Sky-Hi News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When visitors returned to Rocky Mountain National Park after a 67 day closure due to COVID-19, there were no major crowds on the west side of the park \u2014 but there was a constant flow of happy hikers. Rocky began a phased reopening Wednesday, and hikers with free time ran out into the somewhat rainy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-23142","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-21 17:44:34","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23142"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23154,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23142\/revisions\/23154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}