National Parks: These are the free days to visit in 2024
It is time to start planning your 2024 vacations and for the occasion, the National Park Service announced free days when it waives entrance fees.
Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park is America's second-oldest national park.
The National Park Service is giving you an early holiday gift: Six days of free national park visits. The service announced the 2024 free entrance days.
- January 15 - Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
- April 20 - First day of National Park Week
- June 19 - Juneteenth
- August 4 - Great American Outdoors Day
- September 28 - National Public Lands Day
- November 11 - Veterans Day
FILE - A Grizzly bear mother and her cub walk near Pelican Creek October 8, 2012, in the Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. Yellowstone National Park is America's first national park. It was established in 1872. Yellowstone extends through Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho.
(KAREN BLEIER / AFP / Getty Images)
"The entrance fee-free days expand opportunities for people to visit their national parks and experience the beauty and history of our country," National Park Service Director Chuck Sams said in a statement. "National parks are places that awaken the senses, inspire curiosity, encourage reflection, and foster joy."
Plus, more than 300 of the nation's more than 400 national parks are free to enter every day. Find a park here.
"The cost to enter parks with entrance fees ranges from $10 to $35. The funds remain in the National Park Service and 80-100% stays in the park where collected," Sams continued. "The revenue supports visitor services, including enhancing accessibility, restoring wildlife habitat, and providing ranger programs, and adding or upgrading restrooms, campgrounds, trails, and other facilities."
7 WEATHER EXTREMES EXPERIENCED AT NATIONAL PARKS
FILE - The evening sun lights the Watchman Tower formation at the entrance to Zion National Park on May 14, 2020 in Springdale, Utah.
(George Frey / Getty Images)
The fee-free days only apply to National Park Service entrance fees and do not cover any user fees for camping, boat launches, transportation or tours.
Holiday gift idea
A gift option for the adventurer in your life is the annual America the Beautiful National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass. The $80 pass covers entry to all national parks and more than 2,000 federal recreation areas.
The NPS also offers discounted tickets to military and veterans (including family), seniors, those with permanent disabilities and fourth-grade students.
Sequoia trees rise into the sky at Sequoia National Park in California during the spring of 2023.
(Robert Ray / FOX Weather)
More free days in U.S. wildlands
National Wildlife Refuges, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lands, Bureau of Land Management lands and lands managed by the Department of the Interior, also offer free entrance fees on the following days with exceptions:
- January 15 - Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (no U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)
- February 19 - Washington's Birthday (no NPS or U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)
- June 8 - National Get Outdoors Day (Forest Service only)
- June 19 - Juneteenth (no Bureau of Reclamation or Army Corps of Engineers)
- August 4 - Great American Outdoors Day (no US Fish and Wildlife or Army Corp of Engineers)
- September 28 - National Public Lands Day
- First Sunday of National Wildlife Refuge Week - generally the second week of October (U.S. Fish and Wildlife lands only)
- November 11 - Veterans Day