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Badlands National Park won't accept cash for entrance fees or permits as of March 1/NPS file
Beginning March 1, Badlands National Park in South Dakota will not accept cash for park entrance fees or permit fees and will only accept mobile or electronic payments for them.
Visitors can also purchase Badlands National Park entrance passes in advance by going to Recreation.gov or through the Recreation.gov application. Visitors purchasing from Recreation.gov will have a digital pass they can store on a mobile device or print out, saving time when they arrive at the park. America the Beautiful annual and lifetime passes do still cover the cost of entry into the park, and must be shown in conjunction with proper ID.
Entrance fees are an important source of revenue used to improve the visitor experience in national parks, including road and facility repairs and maintenance, trail improvements, installation of accessible exhibits, visitor and resource protection services, and more.
According to a park release, moving to a cashless system allows parks to be better stewards of visitor dollars by reducing the amount of time park staff spend managing cash, increasing the amount of fee revenue available to support critical projects and visitor services, and improving accountability and reducing risk.