This weekend is an opportunity for free visits at more than 100 National Parks where there is a daily fee. The National Parks are normally uncommonly inexpensive with the highest rates going at $5 per person entry fee or a select few major parks like Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and Grand Teton at $25 per vehicle.
Yosemite National Park is $20.
Most of the nearly 400 National Parks do not charge an entrance fee. Many parks are only $5 to $15 per car entry with no additional fee per individual. That means you pay for one car regardless of the number of people in the car. That type of ticket reminds me of drive-in movies when I was a kid in the 60s for the poor family’s night out.
National Parks are physically entertaining nature. You can bring your own food and let informational displays and social-sensory activity with the environment describe the world around you.
Some of the parks even offer upscale dining and lodging.
2012 Fee-Free Dates for National Parks
- January 14-16
Martin Luther King Jr. weekend
- April 21-29
National Park Week
- June 9
Get Outdoors Day
- September 29
National Public Lands Day
- November 10-12
Veterans Day weekend
This photo is actually taken from the road side of what I consider to be one of the great drives in California, miles into the dead end road on the western slopes of the rocky Sierra Nevada Mountains of Kings Canyon National Park.
Unfortunately, we have a rain storm coming into California this weekend which likely means snow in the Sierra Nevada.
Related Loyalty Traveler posts:
Earth’s Oldest Trees in Great Basin National Park, Nevada – July 17, 2011
Yosemite’s Tioga Pass Road across the Sierra Nevada Mountains – July 13, 2011
Deep Blue Water Under a Mirror Sky – Crater Lake National Park, Oregon – June 25, 2011
Yosemite Valley (Ahwahnee Lodge) – May 17, 2011
Yosemite Lodging South Entrance along Highway 41 – May 16, 2011
The Mountains are Calling and I must go (Kings Canyon National Park: Highway 180 drive) – May 15, 2011
