About this permit
A wilderness permit is required to camp overnight anywhere in the wilderness of Rocky Mountain National Park, and the park states plainly that to minimize impact the number of permits issued is limited. There is no dispersed camping. The park is a designated site wilderness.
The fee is a $36 Wilderness Administrative Fee for each trip reservation, not each night and not each person, non-refundable, from May 1 through October 31. Winter reservations from November 1 to April 30 cost $10. Walk-ins pay the same $36. Reservations for summer 2026 opened March 1 at 8:00 am MST and must be made at least three days before your first camping date; between November 1 and April 30 the park does not accept reservation requests at all, so winter trips are arranged directly with the Wilderness Office.
Party size is 1 to 7 at individual sites and 8 to 12 at group sites, and the park closes the obvious loophole: groups over seven persons may not camp in neighbouring individual sites and must either use group sites or split up and camp at least one mile apart. Stay limits are seven nights June through September, fourteen October through May with no more than 21 per year, and no more than three consecutive nights in one camp area.
Bear canisters are required between April 1 and October 31 (hard-sided, commercially made, carry-in/carry-out) for park wilderness areas below tree line and in the Boulder Field of Longs Peak, with no other food storage method permitted, stored 200 feet from your campsite. Campfires are prohibited in the wilderness; portable stoves only.
Permits and dashtags must be picked up in person at a Wilderness Office, open 7 am to 3:30 pm daily, and are cancelled and reissued if not collected by noon on your first day. A wilderness permit serves as your timed entry reservation. You still need a valid park entrance fee or pass, and you must collect the physical permit first. There is one accessible site at Sprague Lake that takes up to 12 campers including a maximum of five wheelchairs, for up to three consecutive nights, available year-round and reserved by phone on (970) 586-1242.
The route
The system has three parts. Designated sites are the default and cover most of the park. Group sites take parties of 8 to 12 and are separate bookings. Cross-country zones (which the park calls the least travelled and least accessible places in Rocky Mountain National Park, with no developed campsites, no developed trails and no pit toilets, all below treeline) cannot be booked online at all; you contact the Wilderness Office to check availability, and the same applies to stock and bivy sites.
The stay limits are seasonal: seven nights June through September, fourteen nights October through May with a 21-night annual cap, and never more than three consecutive nights in one camp area.
Why it matters
Rocky Mountain is a designated-site wilderness. There is no dispersed camping anywhere in it, which means the permit is not a formality: it is the assignment of a specific place on specific nights. The park limits the number of permits issued precisely so that the sites stay worth having.
