No more free Park Service parks on MLK Day and Juneteenth.

[hardcorestitch]

In its place, the free days will be June 14 (the current president’s birthday), July 4, and the NPS’ 110th anniversary.

 

[jdb in AZ]

Is Trump going to change Flag Day into Trump Day? shudder. He already changed the Army's b-day into Trump's b-day parade earlier this year. He has to make everything about himself.

If he still plans to charge international visitors does that mean everyone will have to show I.D. when they drive up to a National Park entrance?

 

[Nayan]

From what I've read it's more about annual passes than day passes, so who knows how those are going to be handled or if ID will need to be shown for everyone buying a day/week pass.

 

[irlandaise]

From what I've read it's more about annual passes than day passes, so who knows how those are going to be handled or if ID will need to be shown for everyone buying a day/week pass.

It's both. Yes, non-resident annual passes are going up a lot to $250, but also: "Nonresidents without an annual pass will pay a $100 per person fee to enter 11 of the most visited national parks, in addition to the standard entrance fee."

https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/d...dernized-more-affordable-national-park-access

Those parks are: Acadia, Bryce Canyon, Everglades , Glacier, Grand Canyon , Grand Teton, Rocky Mountain , Sequoia & Kings Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Zion.

Note that unlike many national park entrance fees, which are charged per car, that $100 is per person. So if a non-resident family wanted to visit, for example, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, and Yellowstone—a very popular combination for people doing a one-time trip to the American West—they're going to have to get annual passes or end up paying $300/person just for those three parks.

Local tourist officials near Yosemite estimate that about 25% of that park's visitors are not U.S. residents, and there's a high percentage at many other popular parks, too, so it's a big question what these fees might do to the local economies if they discourage non-U.S. visitors.

 

[hardcorestitch]

It's both. Yes, non-resident annual passes are going up a lot to $250, but also: "Nonresidents without an annual pass will pay a $100 per person fee to enter 11 of the most visited national parks, in addition to the standard entrance fee."

https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/d...dernized-more-affordable-national-park-access

Those parks are: Acadia, Bryce Canyon, Everglades , Glacier, Grand Canyon , Grand Teton, Rocky Mountain , Sequoia & Kings Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Zion.

Note that unlike many national park entrance fees, which are charged per car, that $100 is per person. So if a non-resident family wanted to visit, for example, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, and Yellowstone—a very popular combination for people doing a one-time trip to the American West—they're going to have to get annual passes or end up paying $300/person just for those three parks.

Local tourist officials near Yosemite estimate that about 25% of that park's visitors are not U.S. residents, and there's a high percentage at many other popular parks, too, so it's a big question what these fees might do to the local economies if they discourage non-U.S. visitors.

Yup, 2026 is gonna be another lobby for local tourism around the world, even in the US. This is definitely not the decade to do international travel unless it’s a dire emergency. Thank goodness the nonresident fees don’t apply to me as a US citizen.

 

[irlandaise]

In its place, the free days will be June 14 (the current president’s birthday), July 4, and the NPS’ 110th anniversary.

For reference, here were the 2024 and 2025 free days:

https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1207/national-park-service-announces-entrance-fee-free-days-for-2024.htm

https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1207/start-planning-your-2025-national-park-trip.htm

So there will actually be more free days in 2026...

I'm actually surprised that NPS's anniversary (August 25th) hasn't been on the schedule recently. They had a four-day celebration of their 100th anniversary in 2016 and kept a one-day free day for a while after that, but I guess they dropped it at some point. So the number of free days has fluctuated from year to year.

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

I love the US National Parks, but I'm not going to risk planning any major travel around them anytime soon. There could be another shutdown coming up since they have only until January something to pass a budget. And then with the recent park service firings, they're likely going to be less maintained or have sporadic closures, since they were understaffed already even before all of that.

In contrast, this past year, Canada's national parks were fee-free for everyone ... citizens and foreign visitors. We really enjoyed Prince Edward Island National Park. I'm not sure if they are continuing the fee-free policy, but it sounded like it was very good for tourism dollars last year.

 

[Nayan]

I love the US National Parks, but I'm not going to risk planning any major travel around them anytime soon. There could be another shutdown coming up since they have only until January something to pass a budget. And then with the recent park service firings, they're likely going to be less maintained or have sporadic closures, since they were understaffed already even before all of that.

I had been planning to visit a few National Parks, but too much uncertainty with what may happen has made us switch to State Parks and other natural attractions (botanical gardens, zoos/aquariums, etc.).

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

Kind of odd that MLK/Juneteenth were free days prior as they really didn't have anything to do with the NPS. The list of free days is fairly short and those didn't seem like dates that should be put ahead of some others.

I really like that Teddy Roosevelt's birthday (October 27th) was added in 2026. He deserves recognition for his contributions to the park service.