Binnie and I are huge fans of the national parks. We love visiting the national parks and spending time away from all the hustle bustle. If you are like us and many others and love visiting the national parks every year, then read on!!
National Parks in the US
The United States has 59 protected areas known as National Parks that are operated by the National Park Service. Yellowstone was the first national park to be established in the year 1872. The National Park Service website has a wealth of information about the national parks. Every year millions of people from all around the globe visit the national parks. The year 2016 saw a staggering 331 Million visits to the national parks. For more information on visitor statistics visit this link.
Every park has an entry fee. The fee varies from one park to another and it can vary from $15 – $30 per vehicle depending on the park you are visiting. The entry fee is waived during certain designated days in a year. You can find the list of fee-free days here.
If possible visit the national parks when it is not a long weekend. You will get more time to spend at the park. Accommodations will be chaper as well. You might even get lodging inside the national park which will save a lot of travel time.
Park Passes
If you are like many others, you will be visiting multiple national parks, state parks and national monuments in a year. NPS issues passes that can help you save on the park entry fees. The following passes are available:
- Annual Pass
- Senior Pass
- Access Pass
- Volunteer Pass
Read more about the pass on NPS website.
The Annual Pass costs $80 at the time of writing this article. And it is worth every penny. To top it off, if you visit 3 -4 parks in a year, you even end up saving money. The last time we went on vacation, we visited 5 national parks and you can see how it helped us to save money on the entry fee.
The normal Annual Pass can be used by two designated users. So you and one of your relatives or friends can share the cost of the pass as well.
We hope you like this money saving tip. Read more about different types of passes available. There are passes that do not cost anything, like the Annual 4th Grade Pass.
So you might end up saving a lot more money.
I find this list on Wikipedia to be very useful. So check it out.
