#LuvYourNPs
Again in 2020, the National Park Service is offering free admission to any national park unit on several “entrance fee free” days! The dates are scattered throughout the year — the anniversary of the creation of the National Park Service, Veterans Day, National Public Lands Day, the first day of National Parks Week (also designated as National Junior Ranger Day) and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!
All of 2020’s entrance fee-free dates are detailed in this press release. What great opportunities to explore your national parks! In addition, special NPS events in your area are posted on a searchable calendar.
Here’s a quick look at the entrance fee-free dates for 2020:
- Monday, January 20 – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
- Saturday, April 18 – First Day of National Park Week / National Junior Ranger Day
- Tuesday, August 25 – National Park Service Anniversary
- Saturday, September 26 – National Public Lands Day
- Tuesday, November 11 – Veterans Day
You may have read our National Parks – America’s Best Idea post, or you may have seen our link to the national parks we’ve visited, or you may have just noticed that we have a lot of posts about national parks. It’s because we have a goal: to visit all 62 US national parks. We’re making progress, too: we’ve visited 50 of them so far! Each park that we’ve been to is spectacular, and we’re sure you won’t be disappointed if you visit one. And you can’t really go wrong with free entry!
Some of the ones left on our list are easily accessible, like Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains. But we also have four backcountry parks in Alaska that are going to take a little more effort (and a little more cash!) to get to. But we’re going to do it!
Here are the parks left on our to-visit list:
Congaree
Gateway Arch (America’s newest, despite some controversy about its new name)
Gates of the Arctic
Great Smoky Mountains
Isle Royale
Katmai
Kobuk Valley
Lake Clark
Pinnacles (the newest national park!)
Shenandoah
Voyageurs
White Sands
We highly recommend setting travel goals for yourself and your family. Goals get you motivated and give you a focus. It’s fun to plan and make steps toward a goal as well, and goal setting and taking the steps to complete a goal are great lessons for kids.
We realize that setting a goal to visit all 62 national parks might be a little too much for some people, but you can start small. Maybe you could set a goal to visit one new place each year, or to try a new kind of vacation: maybe a home exchange or a camping trip. Or maybe your goal could be to accumulate enough frequent flyer miles to take a trip to your dream destination in five years. Once you’ve got your goal, start taking the steps to make your goals a reality. If you’ve already got a goal, evaluate how well you’re doing on getting there! And please, share your goals in the comments section.
Our passport to the national parks!
We hope that you get a chance to get out and enjoy a week or a weekend in one of your national parks soon!
A Week or a Weekend 
I love National Parks and I really hope to get to visit all of them! Visiting them for free would be a dream come true!
There’s a fee free day coming up on September 30 — be sure to take advantage of it!