Entering Rocky Mountain National Park will be more convenient for annual and lifetime passholders this year via dedicated drive-through lanes set aside for visitors who purchase windshield transponder passes that are used to open the gate.
Transponders will cost $15 and will be renewable in subsequent years for $5 annually. There is a transponder lane at the Beaver Meadows entrance, and one is being constructed at the Fall River entrance, which is being remodeled.
Alas, the pass won’t get you around the timed-entry reservation system. Transponder lanes will be closed from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. during the busier months when timed-entry reservations are required (May 24-Oct. 15).
Transponders are available for purchase at the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center on Thursdays and Sundays from 9 a.m. until noon and 1-4 p.m. through May 2. Beginning May 5, they will be available only on Sundays from 8 a.m. to noon at the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center.
The park built a fast-pass lane at the Beaver Meadows Entrance in 2004 and another was added at the Grand Lake Entrance in 2011. Automated access was triggered by a magnetic strip on season and lifetime passes, but the National Park Service removed magnetic strips from the passes in 2019, rendering Rocky’s fast-pass lanes obsolete. This year, park officials came up with the transponder solution.
“We heard from frequent visitors to Rocky Mountain National Park who missed the opportunity to use the lane,” said Kyle Patterson, the park’s public affairs officer. “The park developed and transitioned to this new voluntary transponder for interested annual and lifetime pass holders to access the transponder lane.”
