You haven't been to Yosemite in a while.Bonnie and Clyde wrote: ↑Mon Oct 31, 2022 7:35 pmWe decided the day before to ride up to Rocky Mnt N.P. and by chance I Checked the N.P. website which informed me that we needed a reservation to ENTER the park. What? Ya I guess certain busy parks are requiring entrance reservations for certain times just to drive around and look. We happened to get a reservation that would work for us. So we packed up and rolled north.
I found that the different parks have their own "protocols". As an example (for RMNP) you can cruise right in if you get there when the park opens. There wasn't anyone in the kiosk to check my pass. (But I did slip in the SW entrance -- apparently the one you left by.)
And for camping at RMNP, you have to make sure you can get an entrance pass (day pass) before reserving a spot. I followed the directions on that series of web pages, but ended up having to pay for my entrance pass -- it didn't ask whether I have a Geezer Pass. (I challenged that and got a refund out of NPS.)
As I recall, the timed entry is just for Bear Creek. But if you get a camping pass (the campground is up there), I don't think you have to get the timed-entry pass.
I talked to a ranger on the phone who clued me in on getting there at opening time. That was after whining that my timed-entry was for 4PM. Another trick he told me about: I think all the parks save some day passes for sale on that day. You evidently got one. But if you reserve a pass earlier, you can't replace it with a better one on the day of. You'd either want to not reserve one ahead of time (what he was recommending) or have someone else in/on your vehicle get it, because it's one-per-customer. (I think they go by both name and email address, or something like that.)
Back to RMNP ... I went through all of that, but my bike broke down and I didn't end up going at all. That's okay -- I had just ridden through the park earlier this summer. There are worse things to waste money on.
Slipping in at opening time also worked at Yosemite -- the lovely ranger woman just waved me through. In both cases, I actually did have a pass. I just didn't need to show it to anyone.
None of this works at Arches: they wanna see your timed-entry pass no matter when you show up, which was problematic for me because my phone's email crapped out (thank you Google -- did you know I don't much like Google?). But at Arches, the rangers had a terminal in the kiosk and could look me up by my reservation number, which I had copied off my desktop at home.
But at Glacier NP, the kiosks don't have computers. The very lovely ranger just smiled, said "I have no way to check this", and waved me through. This was after one unsuccessful attempt to get a day-of pass the day before. These went on sale at something like 7:30 AM, and I tried to snag one at about 7:29:59 -- the second attempt (immediately after), I got a "site overrun" message or whatever it is. My third try, before 7:32, reported that they were sold out. The next day I waited until about 7:30:02 and I got lucky -- but the Going-to-the-Sun Road was still closed anyway. Add it to the bucket list.
And then there's Yellowstone. I made it through last year -- was so crowded I couldn't wait to make it out. And this summer, all my reservations (including a room in a lodge) got cancelled for the flooding.
Anyway, I'm glad I'm not trying to manage all us tour-ons; rules are rules; so straighten up and fly right!
Naw. For the lovely rangers, all you really need is my charming personality.
I got to RMNP from Wyoming (via Walden, CO). It gets to Granby Lake entrance to RMNP just as it would turn into the part of US-40 you rode. It's a target-rich environment for m/c roads up there. I had planned to come down the Peak-to-Peak Hwy from Estes Park to Idaho Springs or so; but I ended up staying with friends in Golden instead. So that's still on my bucket list, along with some of the Front Range stuff you wrote about, further south. And CO-14 between Fort Collins and Steamboat Springs.Bonnie and Clyde wrote: ↑Mon Oct 31, 2022 7:35 pmThe road hwy 40 I think has some excellent switchbacks. It was great motorcycle road.
God's country.
