Free National Park Days 2011: No Admission Fee Schedule Announced

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has officially announced the 2011 free days for all U.S. national parks, according to a Wednesday press release. They will be the weekend of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (January 15-17), National Park Week (April 16-24), the first day of summer (June 21), National Public Lands Day (September 24), and the weekend of Veterans Day (November 11-13).

"Many people have made resolutions to spend more quality time with loved ones and to get outdoors and unplug in 2011," said Secretary Salazar. "There's no better place than a national park to help keep those resolutions. Parks offer superb recreational opportunities, making them perfect places to enjoy our beautiful land, history and culture, and nurture a healthy lifestyle."

Normally, The Washington Post notes, about 147 of the 394 parks/historic sites charge admission fees that range in prices from 3 to 25 dollars.

The U.S. National Park Service can even help you plan your visit by letting you know which national park concessioners are discounted and also which events will be taking place on waived fee days.

Comments

[realitytrumpsbull]

03:28 PM on 01/09/2011

I'd like to go and see the Big Ditch before I die, which hopefully won't be anytime soon, but you never know, the Big Comet might hit tomorrow. Or, the Big Cheeseburger-Induced Heart Attack. So, maybe it's time to get some fresh batteries for the camera, and venture forth. Well, maybe in March, when it's warmer.

[PartyOfMaybe]

06:36 PM on 01/07/2011

Don't be surprised to find closed gates and lots of padlocks in the coming years. You'll be allowed on the "nature trail" and maybe a shuttle will tour you around the "motor nature loop." Visit your local (and free) National Forest instead and tell the NPS that you're tired of nature being closed to the public, tired of being charged admission to enjoy nature, and tired of being tired of both of the first two.

[17andlife]

05:22 PM on 01/07/2011

this is awesome!! i had planned on my vacation this year to include staying at one of our fantastic national parks. with these dates, i can start planning!!!

[Laddy McFaddy]

12:24 PM on 01/07/2011

I hope they raise the rates and buy MORE park space after this little freebie.
The National Parks are hurting and being plundered for lumber and minerals.

[Connie Markley Boppre]

10:31 PM on 01/06/2011

time to get back to what's real

[Dots]

02:05 PM on 01/06/2011

Best bargain in America.

[doubtingdavid]

01:40 PM on 01/06/2011

Just stay out of Utah, it's a conservative mecca after all, bad place for liberals. That way the rest of us can actually enjoy Utah's fabulous parks without all of you limousine liberal greeniess trashing the place.

[donttreez]

12:26 AM on 01/06/2011

It's OUR parks. We pay for it. IT SHOULD ALWAYS BE FREE. Except of course the vender booths, animal and guide services, etc etc.

[GeorgeBurnsWasRight]

08:18 AM on 01/06/2011

The parks could be free if we actually paid for it. But the government cuts their budgets to save money. Deferred maintenance is slowly destroying the park system, and future generations won't be able to enjoy what we can today.

[palainausa]

01:19 PM on 01/06/2011

I recall something about a $2 million outhouse on Bright Angel Trail.

[arabianway]

11:26 PM on 01/05/2011

Salazar and cronies are right now considering allowing aerial wolf shooting on PUBLIC LANDS in Alaska. Where is the article on that Huffpo? www.ida.org

[arabianway]

11:37 PM on 01/05/2011

Make that www.idausa.org

also: www.biologicaldiversity.org

action alerts

[PartyOfMaybe]

06:38 PM on 01/07/2011

there are too many of them and the Canadians are going to invade if the wolves kill any more of the trans-national caribou herd

[purpulpumpkin]

07:59 PM on 01/05/2011

National Parks have admissions fees to keep them from being degraded by too many guests. Think Hardin's Tragedy of the Commons.

[Mik McAllister]

07:56 PM on 01/05/2011

Yes! It's about time our national parks were freed. They've been in Gitmo for too long. I'm glad that all those petitions I signed, to free our national parks, has not been in vain.

Now if we can only prosecute James Watt for unlawful imprisonment and false arrest of our national parks.

[TruelyFedUp]

04:43 PM on 01/05/2011

So, my question is "WHY IS ANYBODY HOMELESS IN THIS COUNTRY?"

We don't even need to answer the question of private ownership, we simply need to move people in need onto viable land and give them the tools to set up communities wherein they share resources, responsibility for growing their own food, and let them live on the land until they are able to move off of it. We don't need food stamps or unending unemployment insurance. People need a place to live and to take care of themselves.

Truly

[timeforachangenow]

06:01 PM on 01/05/2011

have you EVER tried to set up house in a National Park...???

it has severe limitations...8)

not the least of which is sharing your belongings with all.....hehehehehehe...8)

[TruelyFedUp]

06:46 PM on 01/05/2011

Silly! ;-)

We are working on creating our OWN community starting with our 35 acre launch base in Arkansas. See details on our website www.the-communal-solution.us

[janie@atthelake]

07:09 PM on 01/05/2011

I understand what you are writing. National Parks. Hello? Not motel 6 for humans, just trying to be a safe, safe place for wildlife.

[TruelyFedUp]

04:39 PM on 01/05/2011

Continued "This is one of the things that we need to do. We desperately need to make people aware of how much land there is in the country, and who owns it. You can’t have a free society, you can’t have individual liberty, you can’t have a productive society, you can’t even protect the environment well without private ownership of land. One of the things that some of us have been disappointed about in the Bush Administration is that we wish they had not shown so much restraint in halting land acquisition and so on. We wish somebody somewhere had acted like Reagan had done when he came in. He zero-budgeted the Land and Water Conservation Fund and said that we have too much government land already. Let’s take care of what we have. You remember that was also Secretary Watt’s plan. So that is certainly one thing we want to do. It would be wonderful to get back to find someone who could lead us by bringing up legislation again and think it out carefully this time to see what we can do in starting to move a bill for no net loss of private lands. There is too much government land. [ ]"

[TruelyFedUp]

04:36 PM on 01/05/2011

continued "There was a most interesting observation on land ownership in America. A noted economist wrote, “The public lands of the United States exceed the combined areas of Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Denmark, Hungry, and Albania.” He concluded, “Where socialized ownership of land is concerned, only the USSR and China can claim company with the U.S.” Now does anyone want to guess as to who that economist might have been? It is not Milton Friedman. I guess nobody knows. It turns out that what makes this such an interesting observation is that it was a liberal economist, John Kenneth Galbraith, whose work many of you may know or have read. The other interesting thing about that quote is that he said, “The only two countries on the planet that can claim company with the U.S. when it comes to socialized land are USSR and China. That quote was written in 1981. Guess what! The USSR is gone. Chinese collective farms are gone. It is likely the United States of American, the shining city on the hill, now has the most socialist land system of any country on the planet.

"[ ]the socialization of our land is growing. It is not even slowing. It is still continuing to grow and the question is what is the purpose? Where are we going? What is the end? What is the goal? Congress neither seems to know how much land is owned by the government nor even care.

[TruelyFedUp]

04:33 PM on 01/05/2011

continued "Consider that amount of land, whether it is 42 percent or 44 percent or slightly higher. That is a staggeringly high percentage of government ownership of land and resources in a free society supposedly based on the beliefs of the founding fathers that the cornerstone of our freedom depends upon the widest possible distribution of land securely protected under a system of private ownership of property. Whether it was Jefferson or Hamilton, who were probably on opposite sides of some of the government debate of the founding fathers, they agreed on this. Jefferson wanted to give it away because he believed he needed everybody living on the land. Hamilton wanted to sell it all off to pay for the national debt, but they all wanted to get rid of it. The 1862 Homestead Act provided to give everybody homesteads. One of the problems there was that, since they still didn’t understand the climate of the West at that time, they made the homesteads 160 acres, and that turned out to be a big problem when people got settled in the West, because they couldn’t live where there was no rain. Then that began to confuse the whole issue of who should use the land or could people use the land properly. But they could have used the land properly if they had been allowed to own enough for a homestead large enough to live on and have a successful ranch or farm."