by Mark Albert
Hazel Mountain Overlook Sunrise at Shenandoah National Park; courtesy: NPS
WASHINGTON (TVR) – The National Park Service is about to make America’s national parks — both the famous and the less well attended — more expensive, as fees rise for families and vehicles next month.
The Park Service’s individual parks are announcing the fee hikes, which vary by location and type.
Some fees will rise by a dollar, like the per person seven-day pass, or four dollars like the camping per night charge at Cedar Breaks National Monument in Utah, to a five dollar increase for vehicles and individuals on foot, bicycle, and ski at Yellowstone National Park.
“Thirty dollars to get a carload of friends or family into a spectacular national park for seven days remains an excellent value for vacationing families,” NPS spokesman Jeremy Barnum told CNBC.
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Fees Rise for Popular National Parks
About 300 national parks, monuments, and other public lands are already free year-round.
When fees rise June 1, it will affect 117 parks, including the most visited ones, such as the Grand Canyon and Yosemite.
The fee hikes are much less than Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke had told Congress, when he explained a plan for some fees to double in cost.
“When you give discounted or free passes to elderly, fourth graders, veterans, disabled, and you do it by the carload, there’s not a whole lot of people who actually pay at our front door,” Zinke had said. “So, we’re looking at ways to make sure we have more revenue in the front door of our parks themselves.”
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NPS Fee-Free Days, Discounts Cut
In another move to raise money for a backlog of projects, the Park Service also cut its annual fee-free days from 10 to four this year, hiked the cost of a senior lifetime pass by 700%, and reduced its list of discounts.
“The greatest bargain in America is the $80-a-year pass,” said Zinke, who according to his financial disclosure statements has personal assets worth between $1.8 million and $2.8 million, VOA News reported. “I just took my kids to the theater, and after paying the ticket to the theater and having popcorn, it’s more than $80.”
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