America’s roster of nationwide parks is magnificent. With 63 whole locations with full-fledged nationwide park standing, you can spend your complete life visiting each and by no means expertise the identical scene twice. There are mountains, deserts, swamps, coral reefs, and islands, plus a wide selection of wildlife — from the elk and pronghorn in Grand Teton Nationwide Park to the tortoises and bighorn sheep in Joshua Tree.
Whereas most nationwide parks require guests to pay an entry payment — a number of the hottest parks cost as much as $35 for every automobile — a choose few are utterly free to go to all yr spherical. It’s necessary to notice, nevertheless, that you could be be required to pay for parking or further actions inside every park.
In 2025, the next nationwide parks are free to all guests:
If the park you had in thoughts isn’t listed above, there are just a few different cost-conscious methods to plan your go to. All nationwide parks (and all federal recreation websites, for that matter) may be accessed with the $80 America the Lovely Nationwide Parks and Federal Leisure Lands Move. The move is sweet for a complete yr and covers one non-public automobile payment — or 4 per-person charges. For these vacationers planning to go to a couple of or two parks in a yr, the preliminary funding will rapidly pay for itself.
Should you’re questioning why the Nationwide Park Service prices entry charges on the whole, needless to say, in line with the park service, at the least 80 p.c of the leisure payment funding stays on the park the place it was initially collected. This cash goes towards enhancing the customer expertise. The opposite 20 p.c is allotted to the free-to-enter parks or people who solely obtain a minute quantity of income.