Community Forums

Hoverbug · 02-03-2007, 06:06 AM

AS OF 1Jan07 the National Park Service began phasing in new park passes. See the below link for information.

http://www.nps.gov/fees_passes.htm

Hoverbug · 02-03-2007, 06:06 AM

AS OF 1Jan07 the National Park Service began phasing in new park passes. See the below link for information.

http://www.nps.gov/fees_passes.htm

Rich & Zara · 02-03-2007, 05:30 PM

We did not know of these important changes ...definitely good information. We will be changing our cards soon.

Thanks,

Rich and Zara

Curtis F. · 02-03-2007, 05:54 PM

Keep the old cards. They are good until you lose them.

Curt

Joe-K · 02-04-2007, 07:01 AM

Thanks for posting the information.

Last year we took a trip out West and bought a National Park Pass for the Badlands, Devils Tower, Yellowstone and Grand Tetons National Parks. The $50.00 pass saved admission fees for those parks.

It does look now that the $80.00 fee for the new interagency pass will have to be evaluated each year to see if enough parks will be visited to make the pass make sense.

This year our plans only include 1 National Park (Acadia) but because of timing, our pass from last year will still be good for the time we are there.

Cruzer · 02-05-2007, 05:52 AM

We've had the National Parks Pass every year, even when they were still called Golden Eagles. Last year the Golden Eagle is a $15 add-on sticker to the $50 NP Pass and we needed it for Mount St Helens. Now that $65 fee is going up to $80 plus they are dropping the $50 NP Pass so it can be a big jump for those previous pass holders.

Still, the per day rates are going up at the parks too. If you travel enough it can be worth it. Yellowstone is $25 for a minimum (7 day) pass, which also includes Grand Teton. If you hit enough of the big name parks in a year the savings will be worth it. But if you're just going to hit a few of them you'll need to do the math. While I hate to see them go up, I guess when you compare it to a day ticket at Disney World it's a pretty good deal. Also, the previous passes expired on the last day of the month in the year after purchase. If you began your trip say in early June and took another trip the following year and were done with the parks before that June was out you'd actually get two years of vacation pass fees for the cost of one. That worked out twice for us in the past.

Teach · 02-05-2007, 06:36 AM

Guess I'll be exchanging my paper Golden Age pass for a new plastic Senior Pass. One of the few advantages of being an "old f**t."

SeeTheUSA · 02-05-2007, 06:51 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Cruzer: (in part)
While I hate to see them go up, I guess when you compare it to a day ticket at Disney World it's a pretty good deal. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I think it's a VERY good deal . . . our pass got us into Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Arches, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Grand Canyon National Parks and some other locations last fall. That's about $.03 per wonderful sight!