The National Park Service will offer free admission to almost 150 national parks for three weekends this summer to promote tourism and give families an affordable vacation option this summer. That is in addition to more than 200 parks that never charge admission.

"During these tough economic times, our national parks provide opportunities for affordable vacations for families," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said at a press conference at Cuyahoga Valley National Park. "I encourage everyone to visit one of our nation's crown jewels this summer and especially to take advantage of the three free-admission weekends."

The 147 National Park Service sites across the country that charge fees for entry will waive these entrance fees during these weekends:

June 20-21
July 18-19
August 15-16

The sites include the Grand Canyon and Yosemite out West, as well as seven sites in New York, two in New Jersey, and six in Pennsylvania. Connecticut has none.

Visitors to these 147 sites will save admission fees that usually range from $3 to $25, the NPS said. The 244 other parks in the NPS system do not charge entrance fees.

However, some parks have additional fees charged for camping, reservations, tours and use of concessions; these fees will not be waived.

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Just moving this to the top so that it gives everyone a chance to see it.
We have a Golden Age Pass that gets us into National Parks free anyway so we don't need to take advantage of the free weekends, We are sure going to take advantage of that pass this summer! We are taking a 6 week vacation from Kentucky to Long Beach, CA to Oregon and back home again. We will be attending the National Square Dance Convention, visiting DH's brother, my cousin, and a friend of DH's who he hasn't seen since high school about 50 years ago! We will also be visiting the four states that we have not seen yet and we will have seen 49 states. DH says he doesn't care to go to Hawaii, but we'll see!

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Square dancing is friendship set to music!

this is a great deal, thanks for posting.

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

There are so many parks that are participating. It is a great deal, although it might be a little more crowded on those days.

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