No more timed entry at Mount Rainier. What will that mean for lines, parking?

The News Tribune headed to Mount Rainier National Park on the park’s 127th birthday to talk to locals about the official cancellation of the timed-entry reservation system for 2026.

The decision to drop timed-entry reservations officially ends months of speculation about the controversial policy and comes on the heels of Yosemite, Arches and Glacier canceling their own timed-entry reservations for 2026.

The timed-entry reservation system was introduced as an effort to help combat crowding in our national parks. But, without it, will summertime congestion return? Did it ever leave? Happy birthday, Mount Rainier National Park

One hundred twenty-seven years ago, on March 2, 1899, Congress designated 369 square miles around the 14,410-foot Mount Rainier volcano as our nation’s fifth official national park. It had become a forest preserve two years prior.

In August 1888, prior to any designations, writer, naturalist, and conservationist John Muir and his team climbed Mount Rainier, in part to advocate for its preservation. He wrote the following in an essay titled, “An Ascent of Mount Rainier,” about standing on the summit:

“… one feels far from home so high in the sky, so much so that one is inclined to guess that, apart from the acquisition of knowledge and the exhilaration of climbing, more pleasure is to be found at the foot of the mountains than on their tops. Doubly happy, however, is the man to whom lofty mountain tops are within reach, for the lights that shine there illumine all that lies below.”

Muir, even though his team’s summit was notable, was not the first to summit Mount Rainier. History attributes that honor to military officer Hazard Stevens and conservationist Philemon Van Trump in 1870. Stevens and Van Trump had a local indigenous guide named Sluiskin, who took them as far as what is now known as Sluiskin Falls. Sluiskin did not wish to push to the summit with Stevens and Van Trump out of respect for, and reported fear of, the mountain.

Van Trump guided his friend John Muir to the top 18 years later, and both were instrumental over the next 11 years in helping advocate for the preservation of Mount Rainier and the wilderness surrounding it. Mount Rainier will not require timed-entry reservations in 2026

On Feb. 25, Mount Rainier National Park officially announced that no portion of the park would require timed-entry reservations in 2026. The update was a bit of an about-face from 2024 when the timed-entry policy went into effect as an effort to remedy a history of long lines, illegal parking and crowding.

Officials noted in the news release that the park “will use parking management strategies to maximize available capacity.”

“Mount Rainier National Park is dedicated to providing meaningful access to visitors while responsibly managing congestion during peak periods,” Superintendent Gregory Dudgeon said in the statement. “We will continue using proven traffic and parking management strategies to support a safe and memorable experience for all.”

When asked, park officials did not provide The News Tribune with an update on exactly what led to the cancellation of timed-entry reservations.

The public affairs office did point to WSDOT signage installed in the spring and fall of 2025 along state Route 706 near the Nisqually Park Entrance as a means of providing visitor transparency.

“Washington State Department of Transportation has installed signage outside the park’s entry gate on Highway 706 stating the approximate wait time at several locations, thus providing visitors with additional real-time information on estimated wait time outside of the park’s primary entrance,” a spokesperson wrote in an email.

The park also said it would use parking-management strategies to actively direct visitors to available parking and will meter locations when they are full. Locals react

Of the four main entrances into the park, the southwest Nisqually entrance is by far the most popular. It’s open year-round, and winds its way along state Route 706 through towns like Elbe and Ashford before arriving at the park gates. While the Nisqually entrance did require timed-entry reservations in 2024, it did not in 2025 due to ongoing construction projects.

As a result of the Nisqually entrance’s popularity, the gateway communities along state Route 706 are often most affected by long lines, with some residents struggling at times to even get home.

“The one summer they did timed-entry here (2024), I saw the longest lines I’d ever seen,” Travis Cantrell, who works at Whittaker Mountaineering in Ashford, told The News Tribune. “And I grew up here. On a normal year, we’d have a three-mile line out of the park. In 2024, we had a six-mile back up all the way through town.”

That’s double the wait time for those who are keeping track. Cantrell went on to say that businesses in Ashford put up signage asking people not to block driveways.

If he had to pick between a timed-entry reservation system and no timed-entry reservation system, Cantrell said he’d definitely pick no timed-entry. He lives closer to the park from work, so his 10-minute drive turned into two hours in 2024.

“I had to drive on the shoulder,” he said.

One block closer to the park from Whittaker Mountaineering is the Ashford General Store. Owner Annette Oh said when people get tired of waiting in line, they often get out of their cars and walk into the store.

“They get so upset, they yell at me,” Oh said. “I tell them I have nothing to do with the park, of course.”

An employee inside the park spoke to The News Tribune on condition of anonymity, as he works for Mount Rainier National Park’s concessionaire, Rainier Guest Services, and is not authorized to speak publicly. He said he is quite happy that timed-entry reservations are now a thing of the past.

“In 2024, I drove the employee shuttle from Ashford,” he said. “We’d sit in line for hours to get into the park. It was a problem. People were constantly late for work, and their paychecks would suffer.”

An NPS employee inside the park also agreed to speak on condition of anonymity, as National Park Service employees require approval before speaking to the media. She admitted that she supports timed-entry reservations. It was the grumpiness factor that mattered most to her.

“Once people get into the park, they’re less grumpy,” she said. “They get all of their grumpiness out in line, outside of the park. Once they’re inside, they see the mountain, find places to park, get on the trails, and they’re happy. When there’s no timed entry, they just jam in here and illegally park on the shoulders and in the meadows. And they’re grumpy because things aren’t working efficiently. I’d rather they leave the grumpiness outside of the park.”