Free entry to national parks on three weekends

You’ll get free entry to Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and 144 other national parks on three weekends this summer:  June 20-21, July 18-19 and Aug. 15-16. At Yosemite, for instance, that can save you $20 per car, or  $10 per person if you arrive by foot, bicycle or motorcycle.

The offer was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, who cited “these tough economic times.”

Besides free entry, some concessionaires will give away $5 vouchers and free tours, boat rides, shopping bags and other extras.  But don’t expect to camp for free; the regular fees apply there.

The National Park Service typically waives entry fees for everyone on National Public Lands Day (the last Saturday in September) and for military service people and veterans on Veterans Day, Nov. 11, said spokeswoman Kathy Kupper. But this is the first time in her 20-plus years with the parks, she said, that she could recall fees being waived for entire weekends for the public.

Many of the system’s 391 parks never charge an entry fee. For details, visit the National Park Service website.

— Jane Engle, assistant Los Angeles Times Travel editor

[Photo: The Grand Canyon; credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times]

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 2, 2009 at 2:29 pm by Jane Engle and is filed under Alaska, Arizona, California, Deals, East Coast, Eco-Travel, Family & Kids, Midwestern States, National Parks, New Mexico, News, Tips & Advice, Outdoors & Adventure, Pacific Northwest, Rocky Mountain States, Sierra Nevada, Southern States, Summer, Weekend Getaways, Yosemite National Park. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.