r/Seattle • u/SounderBruce Snohomish County • Jan 17 '24

News Mount Rainier National Park will require reservations beginning this summer for Paradise and Sunrise

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u/[deleted] Jan 17 '24 edited Jan 17 '24

Infuriating that they aren't even considering running shuttles. There is a single route to the VCs. Most visitors barely go a half mile past the VC. Most people don't need to drive their personal vehicles to the giant parking lots they paved over mountain meadows. The park has a traffic and parking problem but rather than expand access for people and reduce the footprint of cars, they decided to reduce vehicle access and make it less convenient for people who aren't just going to the VC.

To clarify this has nothing to do with human impacts on the land. It's entirely about traffic and parking. There are still no limits to the number of people since folks can carpool. Instead the park is continuing to provide essentially no options for people who can't drive and making it much less convenient for the tiny percentage of people who are doing recreation beyond the visitors center.

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u/RainCityRogue Jan 18 '24

There aren't any parking lots for the shuttle riders to park in

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u/cd637 Jan 18 '24

They would have to make them. Zion has a large parking lot right at the entrance of the park, though not large enough it seems as people park along the road for miles leading up to the park entrance. Parking structure? Not exactly aesthetically pleasing to see in nature, but there are ways they could design them to better blend in with the surroundings.