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Best Travel Deal in America
The National Park Pass costs just $50 and gets you into 462 National Parks, from the Grand Canyon to the Great Smokies
This summer I watched Old Faithful spout four times, hiked around Jenny Lake under the craggy peaks of the Tetons, and drove into the sunset on the Going-to-the-Sun Road through Glacier National Park.
I also climbed the weird rock flutes of Devils Tower, scrambled the endless arroyos of the Badlands, and dodged buffalo, antelope, coyote, and prairie dogs along the road through Wind Cave National Park.
And I did all of it for free.
I got into all these public lands without paying a nickel because I was crossing the country with Boy Scout Troop 116, and the $50 National Parks Pass [2009 note: teh price has since spiked to $80] they picked up in Colorado at the start of their summer odyssey had already paid for itself in saved admissions by the time the troop got to Oregon.
From the Grand Canyon to the Grand Tetons and the volcanoes of Hawaii to the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, America's National Parks are its greatest treasures, and the paltry sum of $80 gets you into all 462 National Parks and Monuments for a full year—actually a bit longer, since a pass expires one year from the last day of the first month it is used.
While general admission at our National Parks ranges from hefty-but-fair ($25 each for the Grand Canyon, Glacier, and Yellowstone/Grand Tetons; $20 for Acadia, Bryce, Zion, and Yosemite) to downright inexpensive (Arches is $10, the Great Sand Dunes $3, and the Great Smokey Mountains are free), if you plan to visit more than two or three over the course of a year, the pass is a terrific bargain.
In Colorado, the boys of Troop 116 surfed down the Great Sand Dunes, a miniature Sahara of 750-foot dunes set incongruously against the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. In Utah they scrambled around the delicate stone spans at Arches, explored the checkerboard mesa in Zion, and hiked among the striped rock pinnacles of Bryce. The troop reached the Pacific Ocean in the same spot Lewis and Clark did: Fort Clatsop, Oregon at the mouth of the mighty Columbia River.
By the time they'd clambered around moss-clad giant spruce trees in the Hoh Rain Forest then awoke in a campsite above the clouds in Olympic National Park, the troop had gotten far more than its money's worth out of that pass.
I say "the troop" because a National Parks Pass covers not just the passholder himself, but everyone he can cram into his vehicle—and we had a 15-passenger van. A few parks do charge per person, in which case up to 3 other people in the same vehicle can get in plus the pass holder can get in—but luckily, kids under 16 get in for free, so the pass should still cover most types of family trips just fine.
Unlike in past years, when you had to spring an extra $15 for a little Golden Eagle Pass hologram sticker in order to get entry to all lands managed the Fish & Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, and the Forest Service—the standard annual pass (which now comes with a treacly, jingositsic new name: the "America the Beautiful" Pass) actually covers all federal lands now. Most of those don't charge admission to begin with—just usage fees for boat launches and the like—but some do, and all are terribly useful since they usually offer free camping.
Buying the Pass
Sunset at Glacier National Park in Montana.
You can purchase a National Parks Pass at any National Park (bring cash), or order one before you leave at 888-GOPARKS or www.nps.gov (allow 12-15 business days for delivery). The pass costs $80 and is valid for one year.
The pass does not cover any additional park fees such as camping, swimming, parking, ferries, and sundry activities (most ranger-led programs are free, but some, such as the guided tours at Wind Cave, do cost extra).
Anyone over age 62 needs merely pay a one-time processing fee of $10 for a Senior Pass that's valid for life, covers park admission, and grants a 50% discount on all other park fees—note that you can only buy it at a park, not via email or the phone. The Access Pass (no processing fee) is the same deal for the disabled.
All versions of the pass cover anything designated a National Park plus most other federal public lands set aside for reasons of historic importance, natural beauty, or recreational purposes, no matter what the nomenclature.
That includes national monuments (Devils Tower, Fort Sumter, the Lincoln Memorial, the Muir Woods, White Sands, the USS Arizona), national recreation areas (San Francisco's Golden Gate, Lake Mead, the Delaware Water Gap), national historic sites (Alcatraz Island, Harper's Ferry, Jamestown, Valley Forge), national seashores (Cape Cod, the Apostle Islands, Padre Island, Point Reyes), and national battlefields (Antietam, Gettysburg, Little Bighorn, Manassas).
One caveat: our federal government, in its infinite greed, has sold off the parking concession at Mount Rushmore National Monument, and the parks pass does not cover that $8 fee. Let's hope this isn't a harbinger of things to come at our more popular national lands.
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This article was last updated in December 2006 All information was accurate at the time.
Copyright © 1998–2010 by Reid Bramblett. All rights reserved.
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