Planning to visit our friendly neighborhood volcano this summer? Better start planning in advance. In February Mount Rainier National Park dropped the first batch of timed entry reservations for the summer, part of a brand-new pilot program meant to control the crowds around the park.

Announced in mid-January, the system runs May 24 through September 2 at the Nisqually and Stevens Canyon entrances, though it doesn't start until July 3 at the White River Entrance (because that side of the mountain opens later due to snow melt). You might know the two areas as the Paradise and Sunrise visitor center corridors. A timed entry reservation, good for a two-hour block, will be required between 7am and 3pm every day. Each costs $2, and it doesn't include park admission ($30 per car).

About 1.6 million people visited Mount Rainier National Park in 2022, and the biggest influx of cars comes in the summer months when snow melts from the slopes of Rainier, giving way to meadows and flowers, hiking and sightseeing. In recent years, miles-long backups along the roads entering the park has become the norm, especially on weekends; at some entrances, cars would remain at a standstill until another vehicle left the park, allowing just one more in.

The nonrefundable timed entry slots, meant to spread out that influx of visitors, were released in three batches. Those in May and June for the Paradise Corridor dropped in February at 8am, then dates in July became available in April and remaining dates through September 2 released in May. An additional batch of reservations will release at 7pm the night before each summer day, and entrance is a free-for-all before 7am and after 3pm.

Scoring a campsite or hotel room in the park is hard enough, but overnight visitors within the two controlled corridors will not need to coordinate a timed entry window too; they can get in any time after 1pm on their first booked day. Exceptions also exist for commercial operators with existing permits. Reservations will be available at Reservation.gov, the site already used by the park for campground bookings.

Will this system help control the lahar-sized flow of visitors into Mount Rainier in the summer? We don't know yet—it's a pilot program, though timed entry systems are in place across the national park system, including at Yosemite and Glacier.

Still, reservation systems aren't perfect; they don't allow for last-minute hiking, for example, and sometimes superusers snap up multiple reservations that end up unused. Across the state, more and more outdoor sites are limiting entry and requiring advance booking; the famously popular Enchantments lottery is currently open through mid-March, and camping reservations for state parks open nine months in advance—so much of the summer is already booked.

Superintendent Greg Dudgeon notes that the system isn't meant to decrease visitation to Mount Rainier National Park, just spread it out a little. Will it work? Will bots descend on the reservation website? Will a black market for hiking access emerge across Seattle? Only time will tell.