The U.S. Park Service is considering steep increases to 17 of its most popular national parks, including Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, a side trip for many Route 66 travelers.
The Associated Press reported Tuesday:
Visitors to the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Yellowstone, Zion and other national parks would be charged $70 per vehicle, up from the fee of $30 for a weekly pass. At others, the hike is nearly triple, from $25 to $70.
A 30-day public comment period opened Tuesday. The Park Service says it expects to raise $70 million a year with the proposal at a time when national parks repeatedly have been breaking visitation records and putting a strain on park resources. Nearly 6 million people visited the Grand Canyon last year.
“We need to have a vision to look at the future of our parks and take action in order to ensure that our grandkids’ grandkids will have the same if not better experience than we have today,” Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said in a statement. “Shoring up our parks’ aging infrastructure will do that.”
The increase would not affect the park system’s $80 annual passes, though fees would rise for pedestrians and motorcyclists. Also, the higher fees would apply only during the five busiest contiguous months, generally from May through September. The plan also would not affect the park system’s periodic free weekends or holidays.
The Grand Canyon is the second most-popular national park in the United States, with almost 6 million visits in 2016. Great Smoky Mountains National Park is No. 1, with more than 11 million; it’s not affected by the proposal because it charges no entry fee.
Other parks potentially affected by the proposal are:
- Rocky Mountain in Colorado
- Arches in Utah
- Bryce Canyon in Utah
- Canyonlands in Utah
- Zion in Utah
- Yosemite in California
- Sequoia in California
- Kings Canyon in California
- Joshua Tree in California
- Grand Teton in Wyoming
- Yellowstone in Wyoming
- Mount Rainier in Washington state
- Olympic in Washington state
- Shenandoah in Virginia
- Acadia in Maine
- Denali in Alaska
Petrified Forest National Park in eastern Arizona, which includes an original stretch of Route 66, would not be affected by the plan. It received more than 600,000 visits in 2016.
You can comment about the park service’s proposed fee increases here until Nov. 23.
The AP reported mixed reaction from officials and park users. The system contains more than $11 billion in deferred maintenance that needs to be addressed soon, or else it will get a lot more expensive in the coming years.
But others question an increase that will make it more expensive for middle-class families.
If enacted, I suspect there might be a lot more car-pooling to the Grand Canyon. That would cut the number of vehicles going into the already-congested park, which might be one of the things the Park Service has in mind.
(Image of Yaki Point at Grand Canyon National Park by Grand Canyon National Park via Flickr)