If your vacation plans in 2012 include a trip to a national park, this might help you decide when to travel. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar last week announced that the National Park Service will waive admission fees on 17 days in 2012.
The fee free dates for 2012 are:
Jan. 14-16: Martin Luther King Jr. weekend
April 21-29: National Park Week
June 9: Get Outdoors Day
Sept. 29: National Public Lands Day
Nov. 10-12: Veterans Day weekend
In addition, the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the U.S. Forest Service will waive their entrance and standard amenity fees Jan. 14-16, June 9, Sept. 29 and Nov. 10-12. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will also have a fee-free day on Oct. 14 in recognition of National Wildlife Refuge Week. The Bureau of Reclamation will waive standard amenity fees on Sept. 29 and Nov. 12.
That means admission to places like Mount Rainier and Olympic national parks, Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge and Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument will be free those days.
More information is available at nps.gov/findapark /feefreeparks.htm.
Compiled by Jeffrey P. Mayor, staff writer
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