Hikers planning to tackle the popular Old Rag hike in Shenandoah National Park will soon need something more than water and snacks: a ticket.

Starting in March, visitors to Old Rag will need a $1 day-use ticket to the area as well as a general Shenandoah entrance pass. Tickets will be available up to 30 days in advance. The first batch goes on sale on Tuesday on the park website.

The hike, which boasts a jungle gym of granite boulders on the way up and panoramic views at the top, is one of the park’s most-used. But the crowds are damaging the surrounding area.

“The number of people climbing Old Rag Mountain continues to grow and congestion on the mountain is impacting resources,” said Shenandoah Superintendent Patrick Kenney, in a news release. “This pilot project will allow us an opportunity to test a strategy for managing this area to ensure Old Rag is preserved and everyone has a high-quality trip.”

On peak days, there have been as many as 1,200 hikers on the trail. The new system will limit the number of visitors on Old Rag to 800 per day, with 400 tickets for each day released 30 days in advance and the remaining 400 released 5 days in advance.  There is little internet service available at the Old Rag trailhead parking lot, so visitors should purchase tickets in advance. A ticket does not guarantee a parking spot.

The new rules are the result of a study from Shenandoah park management, which found that a majority of visitors said their experience of and safety on the trail would be improved by restricting crowds. Park officials plan to see how the pilot system works and eventually design and implement a more permanent one.

Old Rag is widely regarded as the most popular destination in Shenandoah National Park. Early in the pandemic, excessive crowding on the trail led the Park Service to close it — along with the nearby Whiteoak Canyon trail — entirely.

High visitor numbers — and the negative environmental impacts that often come with them — have been a challenge for park officials at Shenandoah and in park systems across the D.C. region, as locals found solace and fun outside in the pandemic. There are some signs the pandemic bump in visitation may have started to taper off in Shenandoah in 2021 compared to the explosion of enthusiasm in 2020: for much of the summer and for September and October, monthly visits were down by 20% or more year over year. But in November and December, visits were again up by about 11% and 4%, respectively.