It doesn’t have to trump national, just coexist with it. eg something like:
5000 annual lottery slots for people within 100 miles
100,000 for veterans, guaranteed entry for active duty
200,000 for seniors
2 million for everyone else
In a scheme like that, the local access carveout isn’t even a rounding error. I don’t know the optimal numbers, but something above zero would be nice.
Not everybody is able to travel long distances. The people who can’t should be entitled to a chance at those local places which can provide it. And the people who are able to travel long distances have a large number of places to choose from.
I was never talking about price differentiation. If it was up to me all the parks would be free at the point of entry (and paid by taxes rather than visitation). Ideally this would include foreigners too, who would have a separate lottery pool too.
I’d expand that to include civil servants, sure, anyone who works for a federal, state, or local government agency. But that’s not really the point. The groupings just mirror the existing NPS pass groupings, which have special discounts for veterans, seniors, the disabled, etc.: Fees & Passes - Yosemite National Park (U.S. National Park Service)
Personally I’d love it if more nurses, firemen, and garbage workers visited our parks! It’s theirs too. If you made me king, I’d give everyone a floating long weekend PTO specifically to go visit whichever National Park they wanted to. It ain’t up to me though
That’s inverting the argument - you’re then effectively punishing those who are able by locking them out of destinations that might be, for instance, a once-in-a-lifetime thing for them. Not everyone who does travel does so willy-nilly - for many of them, a particular NP might be a bucket-list, save-for-years kind of thing (Grand Canyon, Redwoods, Yellowstone and Yosemite are all very much that kind of place, I’d say)
This whole thread is about price differentiation.
I also think parks should be free entry, and it’s the amenities that should fund them (in addition to taxes)
And I have an issue with that, too…
IMO, military veterans shouldn’t receive any special privileges other than those that arise out of having been employed e.g VA and pensions. General civil society should not be granting them any favoured staus.
Next summer- “Welp, the national parks are all losing money- nobody wants to use them. Guess it’s time to privatize ‘em, or sell ‘em off to our friends in the oil industry.”
For the 150th free entrance I (and 3 others) drove to Pukaskwa (pronounced Puck-a-saw) National Park. Day 1 we drove to near Superior, WI. Day 2 we drove to Marathon, where we camped at a city park (allowed, at least for one night) and walked to the nearby Canadian Legion for dinner (I had poutine). We drove to Pukaskwa – it was October so semi-closed. We spent two nights at different backcountry campsites (both very nice) – Definitely thinking about going again.
Wisconsin and Minnesota charge entrance fees – I’m generally OK with this especially since one (or possibly both) you can get a free day pass from a library. Wisconsin charges for bike trails though MN does not. MN does charge for XC ski trails, WI charges for some. The WI legislature is considering charging for hiking (and some other stuff) – IMHO this goes too far. Although I live in MN I do quite a bit of outdoor stuff in WI
The Department of the Interior announced a series of changes Tuesday for America the Beautiful passes, which cover entry and amenity fees at over 2,000 federally managed areas, including the country’s national parks. Among the differences visitors can expect beginning in 2026 are new digital passes, original artwork featuring President Donald Trump and “America-first” prices that will see international visitors paying steeper fares.
The Donald Trump administration has changed which holidays qualify for free entrance to national parks, removing two holidays celebrating Black people and adding the president’s birthday.
You know, on the other hand, I look forward to the graffiti opportunities. It’d be fun to walk by a bunch of parked cars and see how their faces get defaced.
Bolding mine. Seems odd to include seniors in the guaranteed slots. As retirees, we have way more freedom to access parks in less busy times. Seems like most of the general population gets squeezed into holidays or summer (when kids are off school).
I understand these aren’t national parks, but Texas would probably drive him insane. Our “Grand Canyon” has a road* all the way to the bottom. Also, the Gulf Coast beaches are defined as public highways and any licensed vehicle is allowed to drive on them. Access to these attractions (including vehicles) is actually a constitutional right here.
*It’s a nice paved road. We drove our RV all the way to the bottom with no problems.
It just mirrors the existing pass groupings. Was just an example.
I think the underlying point, which I failed to clearly make, is that I wish our parks would not drive away visitors based on ability to pay, be they old, armed, unlegged, or alien. The less popular ones should just be free to all, while the overcrowded ones could be on a lottery system but still free.
Man, I remember a few years ago when California tried to make their state parks free by adding a dollar to vehicle registrations. One freaking dollar. The measure failed and now the parks pass is several hundred dollars, even more than the national one.
The “California Explorer” pass is $195, though. I can’t tell if that is a strict superset of the Poppy Pass or if they are both required… the acceptance map is buggy and doesn’t list some parks that the Explorer pass should allow (they are listed on the PDF list). Still, even at $195, it’s quite a lot of money. When I lived there, it used to be far less expensive.
PS: Up in Oregon, our state parks pass is $50… for two years. And our parks are kept in much, much nicer condition (probably because there’s far fewer users here). It was quite a startling difference when I first moved here after having spent decades in the California parks.
The hack for California State Parks (for residents anyway) is you can check out a pass for 3 weeks from the library. In my area there are enough in circulation that I can get usually one within a day or two.
The annual pass is way too expensive, but I guess it goes along with everything being more expensive in California. The State Park Foundation used to have a perk of 5 free day-use passes for new members, but it was discontinued years ago.
Florida’s annual pass for individuals is $60, which is a deal for someone like me who goes down for 3-4 weeks. Their parks are really nicely maintained. There is a surcharge of a couple of bucks in Monroe county I think, but it’s worth it to visit some of those beautiful beaches.
