Editor's note: This updates with Grand Teton's proposed fee increases.
Yellowstone National Park officials, seeking to cover more of their bills, are proposing sweeping changes in their fees, from higher entrance fees to backcountry user fees. If all the proposals were instituted, it would generate roughly $3 million for the park, which currently spends about $4 million a year in existing fees on projects ranging from campground upgrades to road repairs.
At the same time, Grand Teton National Park a short distance down the road also is proposing to boost its fees, with a week-long pass proposed to cost $30 (up from $25).
Yellowstone, though, is proposing the most significant changes in fees.
Under current legislation, 80 percent of the revenue from entrance fees is allowed to remain in the park and used on projects which benefit park visitors. Currently, visitors pay $25 for a 7-day pass for a single, non-commercial vehicle entry into both Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, with the current cost of an annual two-park pass at $50.
Yellowstone officials are proposing to offer a 3-day Yellowstone-only pass for $30. A 7-day pass good for both Yellowstone and Grand Teton would be available for $50. An annual pass to Yellowstone only will be $60. Those entering the park by motorcycle or snowmobile are currently charged $20 for a 7-day pass honored at both parks. The proposal is to offer a 3-day Yellowstone only pass for $25 and a 7-day pass for $40 honored at both parks.
Individuals who enter the park on foot, bicycle, skis, or as snowcoach passengers currently pay $12 for a 7-day pass. That would be increased to $15 for 1-3 days in Yellowstone, or $25 for 7 days at both parks.
The Interagency Pass rates will remain the same: Annual ($80), Senior ($10), Access and Military ($0).
These proposed changes would result in additional annual revenue of approximately $3 million for Yellowstone, where officials say the money would be used to continue or enhance projects such as Yellowstone cutthroat trout restoration, maintenance for the park’s seven campgrounds, preservation maintenance on park roads, improved restroom facilities, reconstruction and rehabilitation of trails including Tower Falls, and a new North Entrance Station facility.
Additionally, the park is proposing to institute a fee for overnight backcountry permits to help recover costs associated with the park’s backcountry program. In the past, Yellowstone has not charged an overnight backcountry permit fee, but a reservation fee, currently $25, has been charged since 1996.
The proposed backcountry camping permit fee would be $3 per person (age 9 and older) per night with a maximum party limit of $15 per night for backpackers. Stock groups would be charged $5 per person per night with no maximum fee limit. The current $25 fee for trips reserved more than 48 hours in advance would remain the same.
Users would be able to purchase an Annual Backcountry Pass for $25 which would exempt that individual from the per-person per-night fee.
Additional revenue from overnight backcountry permit fees would be used to help to sustain the current level of service that visitors expect and ensure that Yellowstone can continue to provide service at multiple locations throughout the park.
The current revenue stream from advance reservations covers 17 percent of the cost to operate all backcountry offices, while the proposed fee is expected to raise backcountry fee revenue to approximately 43 percent of the cost to operate backcountry offices.
The public is encouraged to attend one of the following public meetings to learn more about the proposed fee changes:
- Tuesday, November 11 in Cody, Wyo.: Holiday Inn at Buffalo Bill Village 6:30-8:00 pm
- Wednesday, November 12 in Jackson, Wyo.: The Lexington 6:30-8:00 pm
- Tuesday, November 18 in Bozeman, Mont.: Hilton Garden Inn 6:30-8:00 pm
Comments may also be hand-delivered during normal business hours to the mailroom in the park’s Administration Building in Mammoth Hot Springs, Wyoming, at one of the public scoping meetings, or mailed to: Management Assistant Office, Attn: Entrance Fee Proposal, P.O. Box 168, Yellowstone National Park, WY, 82190.
Comments will not be accepted by fax, e-mail, or in any other way than those specified above. All comments must be received by midnight MST on Friday, December 5th, 2014.
Grand Teton officials say the proposed increases are part of a larger National Park Service initiative to update entry fees that have been in place since 2006 in national parks across the country. As a first step toward potential fee changes, Yellowstone and Grand Teton will conduct a public open house on Wednesday, November 12, at the Lexington Inn on North Cache in Jackson, Wyoming from 6:30 p.m.–8 p.m. Public comments will help determine how, or if, fee changes would be implemented at Grand Teton. The comment period will be open for 30 days from November 5 through midnight December 5, 2014.
The current Grand Teton fee structure, in place since 2006, includes:
- $25 for a 7-day pass to enter both Grand Teton & Yellowstone National Park by private vehicle
- $50 for a Grand Teton/Yellowstone Annual Pass valid for one-year entry into both national parks
- $80 for an Interagency Annual Pass valid for one year entry to all fee areas on federal lands
- $12 for a 7-day pass to enter both Grand Teton & Yellowstone National Park by foot/bicycle
- $20 for a 7-day pass to both Grand Teton & Yellowstone National Park by motorcycle
Proposed fee changes would include:
- $30 for a 7-day pass to enter only Grand Teton National Park by private vehicle
- $50 for a 7-day pass to enter both Grand Teton & Yellowstone National Park by private vehicle
- $60 for a Grand Teton National Park Annual Pass valid for one-year entry into Grand Teton only
- $80 for an Interagency Annual Pass valid for one year entry to all fee areas on federal lands
- $15 for a 7-day pass to enter only Grand Teton National Park by foot/bicycle
- $25 for a 7-day pass to enter only Grand Teton National Park by motorcycle
Entrance fees are not charged to persons under 16 years of age, or to holders of the following interagency passes: Interagency Annual Pass ($80), Senior Pass ($10), Access Pass or Military Pass ($0).
“National parks have historically provided an affordable and memorable vacation experience for individuals and families. When compared to other vacation or recreation areas, national parks offer a bargain for many travelers,” said Grand Teton National Superintendent David Vela. “National parks have also struggled to keep pace with increasing costs of providing the best possible visitor experience and therefore, we are looking at a modest fee change that will address the expense of providing important visitor services while keeping pace with the cost of doing business.
"Revenues from entrance fees are used for a variety of critical needs at Grand Teton, including trail improvement, road and pathway resurfacing, restoration of wildlife habitat, and stabilization of historic buildings.”
In the past, entrance fee revenues have supported the multi-phase restoration of the Kelly hayfields to improve wildlife habitat for bison and elk, the printing and distribution of park brochures for visitor information and education, road improvement and trail renewal projects.
Anyone wishing to provide public comment about the proposed restructure of park entrance fees should send written comments to: Superintendent, Grand Teton National Park, P.O. Box 170, Moose, Wyoming 83012, or submit comments online at http://parkplanning.nps.gov/GRTEchangestofees. Comments will not be accepted by fax, e-mail, or in any other way than those specified.
Changes to the fee structure are proposed to become effective May 1, 2015.
Comments
The reason there are not entrance fees in the Smokies is because the Tennessee legislature had the foresight to put a deed restriction on Newfound Gap road before giving it to the NPS. That deed says no toll can ever be enacted on this former state road. And I want to clear up another gross, overblown, NPS misrepresentation about the Smokies. The NPS claims 9 million visitors which is absolute, unmitigated bs. That aforementioned road is THE main thoroughfare between North Carolina and Tennessee. It was and still is a critical commercial route between the buffets at Pigeon Forge and the Casino in Cherokee. When the NPS puts their car counters out, they may well capture several million cars. However, most folks never leave their vehicles or step foot in the park. They are not driving the road to enjoy the scenery, hike a trail or fly fish. And many of those purported 9 million visitors are folks who drive that road every day. How do we know this? Well just look at the number of those 9 million who use the backcountry in one year. 79,000. That's it. And how many dayhike trails? How many go into a visitor center at Luftee or Sugarlands? Perhaps a few more.
So to answer questions about padding numbers and why Smokies has no entrance fee, they do now. It's called a backcountry fee. Since they are deed restricted, the one place that garbage law known as FLREA can permit these crooks to back door a tax is in the backcountry. Please note that the NPS provides NO services in the backcountry but in order to justify the fee in the eyes of FLREA they provided us with a wonderful new registration system for previously empty campsites. Now we have the privilege of going to a website that works about half the darn time and requires us to use computer printers to print off the permit and makes us check boxes promising that we will not burn any wood larger than wrist size or burn any paper to start a fire. All this checked a box for FLREA.
As a trail volunteer in the Smokies, I resent being taxed when the work in the backcountry is done by volunteers. There is a story on NPT today about trail work on the Chimneys. The money for that was DONATED, 100% by the Aslan foundation. Not the NPS. So if folks who use services aren't getting taxed, like equestrians who rip up trails to no end and innertubers who dam up the rivers and creeks for their little whitewater enhancement projects don't have to pay, the NPS will just go through FLREA and start charging people to view fireflies. Nickel and dime stuff. What do you think Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir would think of this? How about Mather and Kephart and the Rockefellers who donated a huge chunk for the Smokies. FDR said, upon dedication of the Smokies, "I hope the use of it will not be confined to people who come hither on Government specified days and on Government directed tours." " I hope that roads and paths and trails will still be built in the cause of the liberty of recreation."
"What shall we be defending? The good earth of this land. our homes, our families-yes, and far more. We shall be defending a way of life which has given more freedom to the soul and body of man than ever has been realized in the world before, a way of life that has let men scale whatever heights they could scale without hurting their fellows, a way of life that has let men hold up their heads and admit no master but God".
The NPS has assumed the role of God in this country's public lands. They have lost their way and FDR, like the TN legislature, must have seen it coming.
Brace yourselves folks. This is likely just the beginning of fees for many things in many places besides the national parks. There are growing pushes in several states for making new (and sometimes existing) highways into toll roads. Texas is considering tolls for a new highway. So are legislators in south Florida, Virginia, Michigan and Indiana. There are some rumblings in Utah.
A couple of major highways in San Diego have been turned into toll roads where there are no toll booths. Instead, license plates are photographed and drivers who fail to remit a fee via internet are slapped with serious fines. Many out of state drivers, unaware of what they had gotten into, have had some rude awakenings when slapped with collections action.
https://www.facebook.com/kslcom/posts/10152764957034172
If those who partake of a favorite English beverage have their way, we may all be paying fees for virtually everything we've come to accept as privileges of citizenship. But at least we won't be paying those awful taxes.
Oh, you mean the great American entitlement mentality that you rail against? I guess that mentality is OK if it is something YOU feel entitled to.
Reality is that Yellowstone has a lot of roads and trails that constantly need repair. I know that the rim trail along the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone has erosion issues, and is becoming a potential hazard. There was an article, I believe posted on this site a while back showing that part of the trail is about to slide off into the canyon. That takes money, crews, and time to repair. And countless thousands hike that trail every year to get up close and personal to those falls.
I remember when Tower Falls closed because of erosion due to a massive flooding event around 2005. I don't believe that has opened again because the repair costs were too high. Now you can only walk about half that old trail. And let's not forget the geothermal activity that ate the roadway surface along the firehole drive. That occurred just this year. Those are just a few frontcountry features that are in need of repair and cost money. The trail crews there have to also constantly maintain blow downs in the park. Anyone that has hiked the trails leading through the burn areas can see the trail crews work year after year. And yes, there are trail crews, and very much backcountry rangers in Yellowstone that should earn a wage to do their work. Yellowstones trails are in a lot better shape, and better maintained than the USFS trails found outside of the region. I know that for a fact, because i've hiked many countless miles in both areas. Hence, the difference between a National Park that has a gate fee, and a protected wilderness area that does not is quite noticable. The wilderenss areas that don't have subsidiary funding through fees don't have the infrastructure in place to rehab trails year after year. The NPS at least can support those services better. But then again, Yellowstone gets roughly 4 million visitors a year, while places like the Absoraka wilderness recieves thousands of visitors.
Lots of great comment, but again $30 for 7 days is really not that much. And in constant dollars, it's exactly the same as $25 when it first came into being. I'm a cheap bastid, but those entrance fees are really not that much for what you're getting, and are certainly a tiny amount in the overall vacation budget.
Now, it'd be great if it were free, but it does no seem realistic these days.
One doesn't have to be a local to comment. NPS provides online comment ability for any of their projects here: http://parkplanning.nps.gov/.
For the Teton Fees, which are currently in comment period, try here: http://parkplanning.nps.gov/document.cfm?parkID=68&projectID=55302&docum...
or at Kurt's link in the article. There is still 25 days to comment.
As for fees, many state park systems charge fees, many of them greater than the National Parks. Texas charges up to $5/day/person; a couple would pay $70 for a week. Wisconsin charges $10/car/day; a couple would pay $70 for a week. Florida charges around $5/car/day; a couple would pay $35 for a week. The National Parks are cheap by comparison.
I generally don't have a problem with the fees but don't know that it is fair to compare fees on a weekly basis. I would guess most people are only staying in a park for a few days and many for only a single day.
I don't think the state vs NPS comparison is a fair one. In Wisconsin a couple could purchase an annual pass for $25 and both (or an entire family) enjoy all of the state parks for the entire year. In TX they could purchase an individual annual pass for $70 with additional passes available for $25 for residents of the same household. The annual state pass gets you into all of the state parks vs a single National Park. The other thing missing from the comparison is the portion of taxes paid to support both state and national parks which would be interesting. I too am a fan of user fees vs a tax. In the case of the parks (both state and federal) I get the bennefit of all those paying to support the parks but do not use them.