The $80 price tag for a Senior Pass to the National Park System won't take effect until October 1.
Lose your Senior Pass to the National Park System and need a new one? Turning 62 soon and hope to buy your lifetime Senior Pass before the $10 fee jumps to $80? Relax, you all have time.
Thomas Crosson, the chief spokesman for the National Park Service, said Monday that the higher fee won't take effect until October 1, the start of Fiscal 2018 for the federal government.
The $80 fee was included in the National Park Service Centennial Act that Congress passed late last year. In the long run the increase in cost is being counted on to greatly help the Park Service address its estimated $12 billion maintenance backlog.
Seniors who don't want to pay $80 could purchase an annual pass for $20; if they then keep four years' worth of $20 receipts they could exchange them for a lifetime pass.
The National Park Service Centennial Act, drafted by U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, calls for the deposit of up to $10 million generated from all Park Service sales of America The Beautiful - The National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Passes into a Second Century Endowment for the Park Service to be managed by the National Park Foundation. Any revenues above $10 million would be deposited into a Centennial Challenge fund for projects in the parks. However, those dollars would need to be matched by private dollars before they could be spent.
To purchase a pass, go to this page.
Comments
Is the disability pass that my wife currently has good forever? Or has that changed?
is my Senior Pass still a life time pass like it says on the back?
Folks,
The NPS website on all the different passes is at: https://www.nps.gov/planyourvisit/passes.htm
[EC pointed to a USGS pdf that has most of the information.]
If you have a lifetime pass, you can keep your lifetime pass, it will continue to be honored. Lifetime really means lifetime. That goes for both Access passes for permanent disabilities and senior passes for 62 and older. If you have an ancient "golden age passport" (NPS-only, predating the interagency Senior Pass), that is still honored at NPS, too.
The free military passes are annual, so do have to be renewed every year, just like the regular $80 annual pass (minus the $80).
The free 4th grade passes are annual (Sept 1 through the following Aug 31) and individuals should not qualify the following year. [I don't know the rules on failing the 4th grade.]
If you do not already have a pass, if you bring the required documentation with you, you can pick up any of these passes at any NPS (BLM, FWS, etc.) site that charges an entrance fee.
so now you have to buy a pass for four years before you can get a lifetime pass??? Can't I just buy a lifetime pass?
Once you have the pass, it's good for the rest of your life.
Your pass is a lifetime pass so as long as you do not lose it, you won't need to buy another. If you do lose it, however, it sounds like you are eligible for a free lifetime Access Pass due to a disability.
No, it is a lifetime pass.
Lisa--
If you don't already have one, you can buy a lifetime pass. Period. Same as before, just $80 instead of $10 starting Oct 1 2017.
Or, if you can't afford or don't want to spend the $80 price of the lifetime pass, you can buy an annual senior pass for $20, then buy another annual pass the next year after your first one expires.
Just so you don't have to gamble on whether you live longer than 3 years, if you buy annual passes for 3 years at $20 per year, you can turn in those receipts (or probably the passes themselves) plus $20 (the equivalent of a 4th annual pass) and receive a lifetime pass instead of just another annual pass.
It sounds much more complicated than it will be in practice.