The Offer
- The National Park’s Service has a number of entrance fee-free dates, allowing you to access national parks for free. The dates are as follows for 2020:
- January 20: Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.
- April 18: First day of National Park Week
- August 25: National Park Service Birthday
- September 26: National Public Lands Day
- November 11: Veterans Day
The Fine Print
- In total there are more than 400 parks available, only 120 national parks normally charge a fee.
- Fee waiver includes entrance fees, commercial tour fees, and transportation entrance fees
- Excludes reservation, camping, tours, concession and fees collected by third parties
Our Verdict
If you can I’d recommend actually visiting outside of these free days purely because there is always a lot more people during these days. That being said if you can’t afford to do that then these free days are a great way to explore somewhere you might not normally explore (or you can use the free day to ‘sample’ a particular park before going back another time). Bank of America has a Museums On Us program as well that offers free access to select museums that might be of interest to some readers as well.
These are the days to avoid the parks if you can help it, thanks.
I already have free, lifetime admission to all national parks and national monuments, having bought my Golden Age Passport years ago, for TEN whole dollars(now eighty bucks). Greatest bargain of my life, not having to pay $30-$40 just to enter a park, but then having to pay outrageous prices for lodging and food, courtesy of the concessionaire that operates everything within the parks. I feel sorry for the many who are priced out of visiting our parks, who can’t afford those high prices.
$80 for lifetime is not too bad, esp comparing to the annual’s
FYI, one can buy a $20/year annual pass for each of three years, and then in the fourth year trade up to a lifetime $80 pass.
If you have a 4th grade child you can get in free also until Aug 31. https://www.nationalparks.org/our-work/campaigns-initiatives/every-kid-park