Your National Park Vacation Has Gotten More Expensive

Above, Old Faithful Inn at Yellowstone National Park. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Remember when the senior national parks lifetime pass jumped from $10 to $80 four years ago? Well, that's not the only thing connected with the National Park Service that has jumped in price. Luckily, I got my senior pass a year before at $10. Still, even at $80, it is still a bargain, provided that it is used.

Entry fees and other things have risen in cost and National Parks Traveler has posted an article on what has risen in price and where.

They begin it with:

You’re not mistaken. A national park vacation is more expensive than it was 20 years ago. Considerably more expensive in some costs once you get to the entrance gate.

Not all units within the National Park System collect admission fees, but for those that do the cost to visit the taxpayers’ treasures has outpaced inflation – as much as sixfold - over the past two decades. But entrance fees weren’t alone in their increases, as the cost of camping, climbing lighthouse stairs, and even paddling a boat is also more expensive (see table below).

Based on data provided by the National Park Service and using the Consumer Price Index at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to account for inflation, we reviewed park admission rates for individuals, vehicles, and annual passes from 2000 through today (see PDF attached below). Of the 126 park units surveyed, entrance fees increased above the rate of inflation (2.07 percent/year) at 83 parks.

The largest increase occurred at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in southern Utah and northern Arizona, where the vehicle entrance fee jumped 500 percent from $3 in 2000 to $30 today. During the same time period, the cost of an annual pass at Glen Canyon rose about 244 percent – from $10 to $55.

Records show a 400 percent uptick in entrance fees from $2 in 2000 to $15 in 2021 for individuals visiting Adams National Historical Park in Massachusetts, Colorado and Oregon Pipe Cactus national monuments in Colorado and Arizona, respectively, and Pinnacles National Park in California.

Slightly less, but still high, is the 316 percent price surge from $4 in 2020 to $25 today for automobile entrance fees at Lava Beds National Monument in California and the Wright Brothers National Memorial on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Fees increased 200 percent or more since 2000 at about 27 parks surveyed, including Golden Spike and Harpers Ferry national historic parks, Lake Mead National Recreation Area, and Saguaro National Park.

A survey of Traveler’s Facebook audience found a variety of opinions on the costs of a national park visit, from those who considered things getting too expensive to those who thought higher fees should be charged. Most thought entrance fees were reasonable, but a few took issue with the cost of lodging and quality of dining in the parks.

To read more, go here.