All American national parks free to enter Friday for National Great American Outdoors Day
All of America’s national parks are free to enter Friday, which is National Great American Outdoors Day. About 100 of the nation’s more than 400 national parks normally have entry fees.
Only entrance fees are being waived Friday, with parking and activity fees still applying to visitors in the park.
National Great American Outdoors Day marks the yearly anniversary of the Aug. 4, 2020, passage of the Great American Outdoors Act.
The act established a new National Parks and Public Lands Legacy Restoration Fund, which receives up to $1.3 billion in new funding for five years starting in 2021. The funds are used for upgrades and preservation work in national parks.
The Great American Outdoors Act also established permanent funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Under the law, up to $900 million in royalties from offshore oil and natural gas goes into the fund yearly, helping to pay for acquisition of new land by national parks and for local recreation and conservation efforts by the states.
After Friday, there will be two more entrance-free days this year at America’s national parks — National Public Lands Day on Sept. 23, and Veterans Day on Nov. 11.
