What do one of the busiest 14ers in Colorado and busiest national parks in the U.S. have in common?
They are both quieter these days. And to thank? Controversial limits on who can visit and when.
For the first time since 2013, Rocky Mountain National Park last year was not one of the five most-popular national parks in the U.S. with 4,171,431 visitors, slipping to No. 6 behind Yosemite with 4,278,413.
“The top five on the list in 2025 was typical of recent years except for the absence of Rocky,” The Denver Post reports. “Great Smoky Mountains National Park was No. 1, as usual, with 11,527,939, accounting for 12% of all visits to national parks. Zion was No. 2 (4,984,525), followed by Yellowstone (4,762,988), Grand Canyon (4,430,653) and Yosemite.”
RMNP peaked in 2019 at No. 3. That was the final year with no timed-entry reservations at RMNP. When first introduced, some visitors grumbled about limited access to the park. Then-superintendent Darla Sidles argued it was “not only feasible but also necessary for the long-term protection of the park.”
It was the same story at Quandary Peak south of Breckenridge, where mandatory paid parking launched in 2021 after debilitating, and sometimes dangerous, overcrowding during the pandemic. It was the busiest year ever on 14ers and Quandary was the busiest: Colorado Fourteeners Initiative estimates 12% of all hikers went to Quandary in the summer of 2020.
Since then, crowding at Quandary has fallen dramatically:
Quandary hiker days
2020… 49,000
2021… 39,000
2022… 24,000
2023… 29,000
2024… 28,500
Like timed-entry at RMNP some people fought the parking system at Quandary, where you could spend over $50 in the middle of summer. This past year was the final summer of paid parking through Summit County and town of Breckenridge.
Today, the U.S. Forest Service has big plans for Quandary and neighboring trails, which are the new southern gateway to Colorado’s newest National Monument. Paid parking is most likely part of those plans, although the Forest Service has not confirmed paid Quandary parking for the 2026 summer hiking season.
Learn more about the Southern Tenmile Recreation Access project beginning this summer.