Here is a little bad new for you U.S. National Park lovers out there.
Visiting a national park is a pretty budget-friendly activity. With only 131 of 401 public properties under NPS management charing a fee, we’re talking about over 60% of the parks being absolutely free to visit!
However, for those 131 parks which do charge a fee, there is a good chance that the entry fee will be increasing in the near future.
With the Parks Service’s 100th anniversary coming up in 2016, they would like to complete improvements before then according to Outside Magazine. (Outside got its information from an article in the Denver Post.)
The fee increases will vary from park to park and even with prices tripling in some locations, the fees are still pretty reasonable.
Some examples given are:
- Glacier National Park- raising the cost of a vehicle pass by 50% (from $20 to $30)
- Great Sand Dunes NP- tripling the individual entrance fee (from $3 to $10)
If the new fees seem a bit extreme, you could always wait to visit National Parks which require a fee during one of the NPS Free Entrance Days.
How do you feel about fees potentially going up to visit some National Parks? I think that if its necessary to maintain and improve the facilities, then maybe it isn’t so bad.
Find out more from Outside Magazine here and the Denver Post here.
