ESTES PARK — The wisdom on the street in this tourist mecca is that the true unofficial start to summer 2020 won’t be the Memorial Day holiday just passed but, rather, the weekend straight ahead.

“This coming weekend will be busier,” Amy Hamrick, owner of Kind Coffee on East Elkhorn Avenue in Estes Park, said this week as she got ready to let customers order drinks inside her shop for the first time since the coronavirus began raging through Colorado in March.

The singular reason for that one-week shift to summertime play in this town 66 miles northwest of Denver? The re-opening of Rocky Mountain National Park, which saw visitors Wednesday for the first time since the park was closed more than two months ago in response to the pandemic.

In 2019, a record 4.6 million people visited the park, which features majestic peaks and an abundance of wildlife.

“For us, it’s the key to Estes Park,” said Pat Murphy, who owns Murphy’s River Lodge and Murphy’s Resort, which have nearly 100 rooms for rent between them. “For Rocky Mountain National Park to be opening — that’s the draw.”

Kyle Patterson, spokeswoman for the 105-year-old park that covers more than 400 square miles in Boulder, Larimer and Grand counties, said lines of cars formed at all three of the park’s entrances as early as 6 a.m. Wednesday. It never got chaotic, though, she said.

“We’ve not had to meter any cars today; we’ve not had to turn anyone away,” she said. “Visitors were just really excited and really eager to come back to their national park.”

But that doesn’t mean the experience was the same that people are used to. Visitor centers remain closed, the Hiker Shuttle from Estes Park is not running, and masks are required for anyone riding on shuttle buses inside the park.

“Park operations and services will be much different this year,” Patterson said.

Starting at 8 a.m. Thursday, visitors can start making reservations at recreation.gov for a timed entry permit, which will be required to enter Rocky Mountain National Park beginning June 4. But that traffic-control measure won’t be in place this weekend, when Patterson said there is the possibility that cars could be turned away at the gates if crowds descend on the park.

“Our expectation is that we would have significantly higher visitation this weekend than today,” she said Wednesday, noting the nice weather forecast ahead.

She advised visitors to follow the park’s Twitter account for any announcements about entry issues.

Meanwhile, Estes Park businesses continue to grapple with the broadside economic hit the coronavirus delivered to this tourist-dependent town as both local and state health orders were handed down that closed many shops, restaurants and accommodations throughout Colorado.

Ben Ferguson, who owns the downtown Hyk mountain apparel shop with his wife, said he expects a 60% drop in business this summer as people gradually get used to traveling and being around others again.

Hyk had to close for about six weeks beginning in March, and Ferguson picked up some construction work to make ends meet. His wife began doing grocery delivery runs for Instacart.

He said he mostly supports what the town has done to manage the health crisis but he felt an ordinance that town leaders passed requiring the use of face masks not only inside shops, but also outside in the downtown shopping district, went too far.

Ferguson and other opponents of that measure got a reprieve Tuesday night when the Estes Park board of trustees voted 4-3 to strike it down. The town will now follow Larimer County rules that only require use of face coverings inside businesses.

Bob Fixter would like even a little more leeway inside his Fall River Antiques, Jewelry and Coins store on East Elkhorn Avenue. He has installed hanging plexiglass dividers over his jewelry displays in hopes town officials will allow him and a customer to remove their masks in order to negotiate a sale of a rare gemstone or vintage necklace.

“In this business, when you’re looking at a diamond ring, it’s a lot about trust,” he said. “I’m big on common sense.”

Donna Carlson, executive director of the Estes Chamber of Commerce, said the town is doing what it can to open things back up safely. She said no businesses have had to permanently shut as a result of the pandemic but that many are barely getting by.

“This could the weekend we turn the corner and show we’re going to have the momentum that will take us through the summer,” she said. “The next few months carry the year for a lot of our businesses.”

More than half a dozen events have already been canceled this summer, including Bigfoot Days, Jazz Fest and the Rooftop Rodeo. Town leaders are looking at various ways to help, from opening up more sidewalk and street space for restaurant seating to providing money to businesses that couldn’t get Small Business Administration loans.

“The business community needs to recover,” Carlson said.

Mayor Wendy Koenig, who took office a month ago in the midst of the pandemic following an April election, said it’s monumentally difficult to achieve the right balance between easing restrictions and ensuring there isn’t a second outbreak of COVID-19 in the town of 6,300.

“We don’t want to spike because then we have to close our doors again,” she said.

Estes Park has a disproportionately larger population of older people, she said — an age group coronavirus has not been kind to.

“I want to support the businesses, but I also need to support the people who are not in business,” Koenig said. “So there are a lot of balls in the air.”

One of the biggest of those balls is lodging. There are 62 hotels in the Estes Valley and around 800 vacation homes, which have been closed until this week.

“We’re way behind last year as far as bookings,” said Murphy, the hotel owner who also oversees a half dozen vacation home in Estes Valley. “We’ve done a tremendous number of refunds during the shutdown.”

But Murphy said with the reopening of Rocky Mountain National Park this week, the light at the end of what has been a very dark tunnel gives him hope that not all is lost in 2020.

“Our phones are starting to ring, and it looks like people will be coming back,” he said.

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