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September 26, 2023
RMNP - Governmental Cluster Fuck
So today, I tried (unsuccessfully) to ride through RMNP.
My route looked something like this.
I rode up Peak-to-Peak Highway 119 to Nederland, then continued north on Highway 72 to Highway 7 to Estes Park.
And after I'd ridden approximately 100 miles, I made it to the east entrance to RMNP at roughly 3:00 p.m. My understanding was that, if you get there after 2:00 p.m., you don't have to do their "Timed Entry" pass, whatever the fvck that is. But the woman in the booth indicated that I still needed some sort of pass, which is hard to grasp. Like...let's make this a little bit more confusing, why don't we? So, I turned around and left without going into the park. Rode home, stopping in Idaho Springs for dinner at Carl's Jr.
So, I rode roughly 200 miles today, and was denied access to the park. Now, only a governmental bureaucracy would create a cluster fuck this bad. But I figured I'd at least try to figure out WTF is going on. Like, how do they expect this to work?
https://www.nps.gov/romo/planyourvisit/timed-entry-permit-system.htm
Apparently, they require you to have 2 passes to get into the park before 2:00 p.m. The first pass is the "Timed-Entry Pass" which is only required up until 2:00 p.m. But the other pass which appears to be required also, is Park Entrance Pass. So, I'll call them tomorrow and try to sort out this governmental cluster-fvck. I'd like to ride over Trail Ridge Road before the snows come, but I'm not going to try it again without talking to the bureaucrats first to see how in the world they expect this system to work.
Posted by Rob Kiser on September 26, 2023 at 10:01 PM
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