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All U.S. National Parks Are Free to Enter on Sunday
- dogecoinbase 8y agoNot Alcatraz! From https://www.nps.gov/goga/planyourvisit/fees.htm https://www.nps.gov/goga/planyourvisit/fees.htm : The cost of the ferry ticket is not an entrance fee—there is no charge to visit the grounds of Alcatraz Island. ... All private vessels are prohibited from docking on the island. I guess you could swim.
- toomuchtodo 8y agoOr parachute in!
- djsumdog 8y agoLike in that movie from the 90s, "The Rock" *sadly, not actually staring Dwayne Johnson
- nostrademons 8y agoThe Rock didn't feature any parachute drops. Hummel came over by ordinary ferry, the mercenaries landed via helicopter, and the SEALs arrived underwater.
- spiznnx 8y agohmmm, I wonder if you can purchase a one way ticket back...
- ben_w 8y agoDo hovercraft count?
- TwiztidK 8y agoAnd Isle Royale which is currently closed for the winter. The park is free to enter two days a season but that wouldn't include the $136 ferry ticket (unless you take your own boat).
- carapace 8y agoI knew I remembered that island... > Siskiwit Lake is the largest lake on the island. ... Siskiwit Lake contains several islands, including Ryan Island, the largest, which contains Moose Flats, a seasonal pond, which contains Moose Boulder. When Moose Flats is a pond, Moose Boulder becomes the largest island in the largest lake on the largest island in the largest lake on the largest island in the largest lake in the world. ~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_Royale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_Royale (Emphasis added.)
- tranchms 8y agoIf it’s gonna be more crowded than peak season, I’d rather not, unfortunately.
- kibwen 8y agoDepending on where you live, I imagine plenty of folks will be kept away by the cold.
- djsumdog 8y agoIt's really crazy how crowded national parks are. In a lot of ways, I feel like charging a fee to enter adds to the problem. Sure they need the money to help maintain all of that area, but they also use that money to advertise so more people buy passes. They use that money to advertise their volunteer programs to get volunteers to work on trails. It's be interesting to look at visitor data for parks that went from free to paid (if they even collected such data years ago) and see if charging for parks and the business around them has actually made them more crowded. Personally, I don't think there should be a fee for entering a National Park. It should be paid for by our taxes. Just skim off a tiny bit from those billions used for defence and parks could be fully funded for years.
- ghaff 8y ago>It's really crazy how crowded national parks are. On the one hand national parks are usually national parks for a reason. They're often at least somewhat unique compared to other areas. It's also often possible to avoid the worst of the crowds. That said, in a lot of the country there are often wilderness areas/national forests nearby national parks that have a lot of the same natural beauty with a fraction of the people. They may not have the singular attraction(s) that define the national park but they still have a lot going for them.
- jessewmc 8y agoThis is pretty backwards. If you want fewer people to visit, charge more. Charge extra to non locals if you’re so inclined. Don’t allow advertising, sure. But making parks free doesn’t make the problem better.
- shshhdhs 8y agoRemember folks: pack it in, pack it out. Let’s keep our Parks clean, especially when the Park Service has had budget cuts.
- LanceH 8y agoThanks, I just don't get enough lecturing in real life or on the internet.
- iscrewyou 8y agoRemember folks: pack it in, pack it out. Let’s keep our Parks clean, especially when the Park Service has had budget cuts.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- npsbackcountry 8y agoHeh. For serious, as a private citizen i carry garbage bags to haul out the shocking amount of trash i encounter on the rare occassion i go fishing in NP land.
- MastrChefRocks 8y agoRemember LanceH: pack it in, pack it out. Let’s keep our Parks clean, especially when the Park Service has had budget cuts.
- Waterluvian 8y agoPack it. Pack it good.
- wcarron 8y agoDon't forget: Pack it in, Pack it out. Keep our parks clean.
- seattle_spring 8y agoJudging from the amount of trash and bad behavior I see on trails everytime I go: no, there haven't been enough lectures.
- phjesusthatguy3 8y agoI wonder how that works for something like the MotorCities National Heritage Area (that I learned about just now). One of the things they list are the Diego Rivera murals in the Detroit Institute of Arts[0]; is the DIA going to waive their entrance fee Sunday? [0]https://www.motorcities.org/locations/diego-rivera-murals-at-the-detroit-institute-of-arts https://www.motorcities.org/locations/diego-rivera-murals-at...
- janzer 8y agoNational Heritage Areas (NHAs), while administered by the National Park Service, are not National Parks. To quote from the NPS website[0]: NHAs are not national park units. Rather, NPS partners with, provides technical assistance, and distributes matching federal funds from Congress to NHA entities. NPS does not assume ownership of land inside heritage areas or impose land use controls. [0] https://www.nps.gov/articles/what-is-a-national-heritage-area.htm https://www.nps.gov/articles/what-is-a-national-heritage-are...
- romed 8y agoIf you've got a kid in 4th grade, all national parks are free all year long.
- drivers99 8y agoNice! https://www.everykidinapark.gov/ https://www.everykidinapark.gov/
- Emma_Goldman 8y agoSpeaking as someone from the UK, I'm a little alarmed that you have to pay to enter national parks in the first place. Are they all that busy?
- tcdent 8y agoI live near Joshua Tree National Park. We pull upwards of 3 million visitors each year and growing. Expecting this weekend will be extremely busy around town.
- newman8r 8y agoI've got a 5 acre parcel in that area as well, wonder valley. I've talked to at least one other HN user who lives out there too. Perfect time of year to be out there, it's like beach weather.
- Rebelgecko 8y agoI would not have guessed that there would be any HN users in Wonder Valley. Do you have any sort of structure on the property, or just a lot? What (if anything) do you do for water/electricity?
- newman8r 8y agoI brought my trailer out there but it was vandalized. There's a small existing cement foundation where a building used to be (which is common for the parcels out there). I started basic work on some outbuildings using dry stone masonry (there's a rocky outcropping on about half of the property so there's an unlimited supply of big rocks) I started working on a well, but for water I mostly filled up my tanks at the Joshua Tree visitors center once a week (the water is free for the public). For power, I used a generator and a battery bank. I purchased some solar panels, but I decided not to put them in until I build a real cabin. For internet, I used cellular. Since there's a 100 foot outcropping on the property, I was able to get a great signal by setting that up on top of the hill.
- 8y ago
- buboard 8y agoWhat a wonderful thing the US national parks are. They are remarkably cheap, with a single pass you can visit all of them, which is a perfect way for tourists to roadtrip the US.
- vibrolax 8y agoIndeed, the "America the Beautiful" $80 annual pass, good for vehicle + occupants admission to all Federal fee areas is an incredible value. You can buy it right at the gate as you visit your first park, instead of the standard entry fee. No need to do anything in advance of your visit.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- devmunchies 8y agoAre entrance fees for cars only? Can backpackers walk through a park without paying?
- MastrChefRocks 8y agoMost parks, yes. Some parks may require an additional permit, and I'm not sure if that's waived.
- oscar_wong67 8y agoI'm not 100% sure but I think something along these lines applies
- npsbackcountry 8y agoI cant answer this exactly but suspect “no” since backcountry permits serve to limit human presence more than to generate revenue
- glup 8y agoYep. In CA this means they make sure you aren't going to do something with fire and are prepared for bears. Many places don't charge for the permit — they just fine you a handsome sum if you don't have one.
- outworlder 8y agoIn many (most?) cases you can. But you may need a permit to enter some areas, which may or may not require a fee (if it does require a fee, it's usually pretty small). For instance https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/wpres.htm https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/wpres.htm Usually these fees are for multiple days. For Yosemite: car fee is valid for a week(there are other deals if you want to stay for longer or visit multiple times an year). The wilderness permit... I don't really know. You do have to submit start and end dates for each trip, but the fee covers the duration. EDIT: Also Yosemite: it appears that foot traffic is charged too. https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/fees.htm https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/fees.htm That highly depends on the park.
- shawnbaden 8y agoWallace Stegner, 1983: "National parks are the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst." Source: https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/hisnps/npsthinking/famousquotes.htm https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/hisnps/npsthinking/famousquo...
- scarejunba 8y agoWhat does 'democratic' mean in this context? Accessible, free to all?
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- jandrese 8y agoEgalitarian.
- carrja99 8y agoReflecting the best of us.
- FiveSquared 8y agoDon’t make HN a political flame war
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- nerdponx 8y agoFor an interesting contrast to this sentiment, read Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey. He is writing from a somewhat unique perspective from his position as a park ranger in Arches, way back in the 1930s when it was still mostly undeveloped. It's also a great book in general.
- 8y ago
- Park_Worker 8y agoA general comment on public lands: Use them. Stakeholder usage determines regulation. Yes, NP’s are ludicrously crowded, sometimes; but not actually always. The fed land system is something the US has mainly done right, IMHO. Could improve? Of course. But, having spent solid time in another three dozen countries, what we have is pretty, pretty OK. Support your local wilds.
- eBombzor 8y ago"National" parks should only be free to the sovereign tribes that were forced out of there by colonizers. In fact all of that land should be given back to the tribal nations who previously did a great job managing those lands before the US National Park/Forest service and Smokey the terrorist came along and decided they knew more about the land than the people who previously spent thousands of years carefully tending the land.
- hueving 8y agoAnd what about the tribes that those tribes forced out? This notion that everything was peaceful without territory wars before "colonizers" is a joke. There is no single tribe that has carefully tended the land for thousands of years. Additionally, since they lacked a meaningful method of keeping knowledge beyond word of mouth, any non-common technique would have to be rediscovered every 100 years. They weren't carefully tending to the land, they were just struggling to get by with their crap agricultural skills.
- zeebeecee 8y agoWhat you are saying is not really correct. A good book on this topic is "Tending the Wild" by M. Kat Anderson https://baynature.org/article/book-review-tending-the-wild/ https://baynature.org/article/book-review-tending-the-wild/
- eBombzor 8y agoWhat a poorly educated reply. No one mentioned any notion of peace before colonizers. How is that relevant? Nearly everything you said is just plain wrong. > no single tribe that has carefully tended the land for thousands of years Yes you are right, there were MULTIPLE soveriegn tribes that did that. And yes they did tend the land for thousands of years. Look up Tending the wild by Kat Anderson. > since they lacked a meaningful method of keeping knowledge beyond word of mouth, any non-common technique would have to be rediscovered every 100 years Huh? So I guess there was not a chance that one of those millions of native Americans still living on reservation lands in the 1900s passed down any knowledge of how they lived. Interesting assumption there chap. >crap agricultural skills "Crap agricultural skills"? Good lord. Americans are the ones with "crap agricultural skills." It's not normal for soil to be unusable for half a decade after farming FYI. Ever heard of soil erosion? Look up Three Sisters, https://milkweed.org/book/braiding-sweetgrass https://milkweed.org/book/braiding-sweetgrass, Karletta Chief's field work, Indigenous Environmental Perspectives:NAP.