How much would you be OK with paying to visit national parks?/Canyonlands National Park vista, Rebecca Latson
How much is a national park visit worth to you? It's a question that floats to the surface from time to time when talk turns to the National Park Service's funding woes and nearly $12 billion maintenance backlog.
So, how much is too much? Instead of paying $25 or $30 per carload for a week in a park, would you be willing to pay, say, $25 or $35 per person in your car? Would you be OK with being charged a flat $100 per carload for seven days?
One-hundred-dollars per carload might seem expensive, but it also might still be a bargain, if you consider that in 1916 it cost $10 to enter Yellowstone National Park. If that $10 fee continued to rise annually with the rate of inflation, today the fee would be $244.
So, travelers, what maximum price would you place on visiting a national park? At what price point would you say, "Whoa, that's more than I can comfortably afford with my budget"?
Comments
I Agree. Busses should be much more heavily charged. They contribute greatly to the damaging hordes of visitors in Old Faithful, Canyon and Mammoth.
the $25 weekly fee can go up to $40. I am ok with that. But then there should be option for a cheaper 2-day passes too for people visiting over weekend or a day.
it's about Time to raise the price for annual pass .and please only one Signature .german People sell the pass for half price for the 2 Signatur .
Wsince foreign visitors do not pay federal taxes that in theory should be helping to fund the maintenance costs, they should pay a higher fee To visit the parks before increasing the fees for every American that already pays taxes.
$25.00 a day and $150.00 for a seven day pass would be fair. The parks are beautiful national treasures. They need to be staffed and maintained for future generations.
I would definitely pay more ($100) to help with getting the parks in shape. Smokey Mountains National Park charges nothing and it's the most visited park there is. They should charge a modest fee at least. We purchased a pass last year to visit several western parks and many didn't have anyone collecting fees or checking passes at the gates. Not enough money to pay them I suppose. Our parks are our greatest treasure and we should be willing to pay a little more to take care of them.
If the rationale for charging international visitors more is that they don't pay income taxes, then what about the 44 percent of Americans who don't pay income taxes? By your own rationale, shouldn't they also pay more? As for calls to provide low-income discounts -- how would this be handled? At the entrance gate to Yellowstone, how do you determine if someone is low income?
That's not going to change. When Tennessee ceded some of its land to the National Park Service, it was under the condition that there couldn't be an entrance fee.