Touring National Parks During Coronavirus

There is a great deal of confusion as far as the status of national Parks during the corona virus pandemic.  There’s been a significant increase in the amount of people that would enjoy visiting the Parks as illustrated by the online searches for information on their status.  It seems as though it would be the perfect type of entertainment for families during this difficult time, because you can avoid indoor spaces and crowds quite easily in a national park.  After all, there are thousands of acres of space to explore almost none of which his indoors.  So why has the Federal government taken the steps to reduce the capacities of daily visitation at the national parks in the United States?  The main reason is that the staff of the Parks themselves has been reduced significantly during the lockdown.  There’s been a reduction in the amount of people not only manning the entrance gates but also the amount of workers deal with trash and other sorts of enforcement, as well as keeping guests safe while they are inside of the national park exploring.  All of the visitor centers have been closed temporarily, meaning that there is nowhere to go to report any kinds of potential issue or injury when you are inside of the park.  The other reason is that even though there are thousands of acres of space to explore, people still do congregate at specific areas that have been designated as tourist locations.  These are the picture spots that have been proven to get the best views of specific areas of the park which are well known, and unfortunately this means large crowds if they are not controlled.  For this reason the Federal government has decided to only allow entrance into the national parks through the day pass that must be purchased upwards of three months in advance.  This means that we are no longer in a time when you can simply get in your car and drive to the national park of your choice for a weekend outing or vacation.  Instead, you will need to plan your trip in minimum of a few months in advance, and you will need to purchase the day pass for the time that you will be onsite.  Because of the popularity of these areas during the lockdown, passes go quite quickly when they are released on the part websites.  They are released 80% on the first day that they are available and 20% on a subsequent day closer to a time when they can be used.  Additional passes are made available as they are given up by others who have already secured them, but there are no regular schedules of these releases.  If you wish to secure a pass for a national park in 2021, visit the website of that tour well in advance of your trip in order to find out specific information about visitation as well as passes.  We can provide tours to national Parks without individual passes involved for our guests.