Massive National Park Fee Hike Proposed

[Midwest Michael]

Well, it's nice to see that there are at least a few things where public outrage can actually have an impact on government decisions.

The Trump Administration has abandoned this plan to double (or more) park entry fees, which would have set the entry fee at $70 for 17 popular parks, and instead will go with a more reasonable across the board $5 increase at all parks that charge an entry fee.

[DonnaR57]

Whew! I was so glad to have read that. There are folks that would pay it, but there are folks with the attitude "if I'm going to pay $70 to a national park, I may as well pay $100 and go to the theme park instead".

Senior passes (age 62) went up already, though. It's $80 for a lifetime pass.


Donna

[Midwest Michael]

I have a hard time arguing against the Senior Pass increase that took effect last year. Charging seniors the same price for a lifetime pass as the regular rate for an annual pass seems very reasonable to me. The previous $10 fee was an insane bargain, and hadn't seen a price increase in nearly 25 years.

If anything the one thing that mildly annoys me about the $5 across the board increase is that a large number of parks just saw a fee increase a couple years ago, and of course, there still is no real plan or funding to address the significant maintenance and infrastructure issues that remain within the parks....