Many outdoor enthusiasts have spent hours in front of a computer, racing to reserve a campsite, backpacking permit or national park entrance ticket. A recent study suggests that the way these reservation systems are designed can favor higher-income visitors.
In a paper published in Nature Communications , CU Boulder economist Jonathan Hughes found that people from higher-income neighborhoods in the United States are more likely to successfully secure the most competitive permits, including timed-entry reservations for Rocky Mountain National Park.
The park ends its timed-entry permit system for the season on October 18.
“The parks are trying to come up with ways to manage finite resources,” said Hughes, professor in the Department of Economics and a fellow at the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI). “But if you look at the founding document of the Yellowstone National Park, our first national park, it is to be ‘ set apart as a public park…for the benefit and enjoyment of the people,’ not just rich people.”
National parks in the United States have seen steady increases in visitors since around 2013, with the COVID-19 pandemic pushing visitation even higher in recent years. In 2024, more than 331 million people visited national parks.
Crowds can put pressure on park infrastructure, impact the ecosystem and make emergency response more difficult. In response, many parks have introduced online reservation systems for parking, popular trails and entering the park at certain times.
For example, during peak hours from mid-May to mid-October, Rocky Mountain National Park requires visitors to obtain a permit for $2 in addition to the entrance pass to enter the park during a specific time window. The park releases some permits on the first day of each month for the rest of that month, while another batch becomes available the evening before each entry date.
Hughes has navigated many of these reservation systems himself over the years. He recalls coming to campus early to take advantage of the faster WiFi connection and using two computers to give himself the best chance of securing a permit.
“It made me think about who has the ability to participate in such a process. Not everyone can plan months ahead, is comfortable with technology or has access to a fast internet connection,” he said.
Hughes has previously studied the river permit system in the American West, which allows visitors to boat and fish through a combination of lotteries and an advance reservation system. He found that people who managed to secure a permit through advance reservation tend to have higher incomes than those who got the permit through the lottery.
He wondered if reservation systems at national parks show a similar bias.
Hughes examined 11 reservation systems covering more than 5 million reservations at seven national parks, including Rocky Mountain National Park, Glacier National Park and Yosemite National Park.
By tracking the ZIP codes associated with reservations, he found that among systems that offered advanced reservations, visitors who secured permits weeks or months ahead tended to come from higher-income areas than those who obtained permits the same day or a day in advance.
Particularly for highly competitive permits, where most tickets sell out within five minutes after they become available, successful reservation holders came from ZIP codes with median household incomes about 3% to 6% higher than those associated with less competitive reservations.
Hughes said this could be because higher-income visitors have more flexibility to plan trips months in advance, are more familiar with the reservation system and tend to be more tech-savvy.
As parks continue to adjust their reservation systems, Hughes said the findings could help managers consider different ways of distributing permits. For example, parks could experiment with how many permits are released months in advance versus closer to the visit date. In some cases, random lotteries may provide a more equitable alternative.
“For many years, the people responsible for stewarding our public lands have worked to give everyone equal access,” Hughes said. “Income is just one indicator. Education, age and race could also play a role. Any indication that some people have better access than others runs counter to that goal.”
Nature Communications
29-Jul-2026