Eldorado Canyon restarts seasonal timed-entry system
ELDORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — If you're planning to visit Eldorado Canyon State Park this summer, you may need a reservation.
The park resumed its seasonal time-entry system, which runs from May through September. The system requires visitors on weekends and holidays to make a reservation before entering the park, located about 10 miles south of Boulder.
Eldorado Canyon State Park first implemented the system in July 2021 to reduce congestion and help distribute the canyon’s roughly 200 parking spaces. Before the timed-entry system, traffic frequently backed up into the town of Eldorado Springs, according to park staff.
“We have one entrance and one exit…it can create a bottleneck really fast,” park ranger Tony Scigliano said.
Eldorado Canyon is the only state park in Colorado to require timed-entry reservations. Last year, roughly 600,000 people visited the park, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
Five national parks — Acadia, Carlsbad Caverns, Haleakalā, Rocky Mountain National Park and Shenandoah National Park — require vehicle reservations in 2026. Arches, Glacier and Yosemite National Parks are doing away with their timed-entry system this year, citing a desire to keep parks “open and accessible.”
Eldorado Canyon reservations open 30 days in advance at cpwshop.com. They're free to make, but visitors must create an account.
CPW releases 20% of reservations 24 hours in advance. It’s not possible to make a reservation in person, nor is there reliable cell phone service to make a reservation at the park entrance.
Entering its sixth summer, Scigliano described the system as a “cautious success.”
It’s helped to reduce congestion and eliminate the need for staff to count available parking spaces, Stephanie Sisnroy, an administrative assistant at the park, said.
The biggest challenge has been spreading the word.
“We still have to turn around quite a few vehicles that weren’t aware [of the system],” Scigliano said.
The second most common complaint park staff hear is the difficulty of making a booking at cpwshop.com.
It takes more than “a couple clicks,” Sisnroy said. Users must create an account to ensure reservations are distributed fairly. Park staff said they are continuing to work with CPW’s technology team to refine the user experience.
On a Friday afternoon, a day before the permit season started, climber Evan Gallegos of Boston visited the park. It’s one of his favorite places to climb. With a kid at CU Boulder, he comes to Eldo five to six times a year.
But Gallegos prefers the park’s rock to its red tape.
“It’s kind of a hassle,” he said, before starting up the Northcutt Start climbing route on the Bastille.
“It’s nothing specific to the way they do it here. It’s just any reservation system you gotta plan ahead, hope there’s spots available and have an internet connection, but I trust them to manage the park how they see fit,” he said.
Visitors Alex Guirguis and Ashley Washburn of Honolulu, Hawaii researched whether they would need a reservation ahead of time. Guirguis said he likes the idea of a reservation system so that you know there will be a parking spot when you arrive.
“I don’t mind paying higher ticket prices, but this seems more fair,” Guirguis said.
Users can bypass the reservation system by visiting the park on weekdays, weekends after 3:30 p.m. or by riding the free Eldo Shuttle. Starting Memorial Day, the shuttle runs weekends and holidays every 20 minutes. It makes multiple stops in Boulder, and along the Boulder Turnpike. Dogs are welcome on the shuttle.
Despite encouraging more visitors to use public transit, the vast majority of visitors still travel to the park in personal vehicles, Sisnroy said.
Visitation to the park declined slightly in 2022 after a surge during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the timed-entry system does not appear to have impacted on the park’s overall popularity. More than 600,000 people visited Eldorado Canyon in 2025, more than any year on record, according to CPW.
“We know, and the public knows, that it’s not a perfect solution. We’re really doing this so that visitors can have an enjoyable experience,” Scigliano said.
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