All National Parks admission fees are temporarily waived

[B the Hiker]

All national park admission fees have been temporarily waived. While the claim is that this helps Americans get outside, I suspect the larger reason is to protect the folks who manned the booths. In any event, free is still my favorite price!

https://www.outsideonline.com/24106...t&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social#close

Brian

 

[Tom Rankin]

Hmmm, I've seen people debating staying home (somewhat rude language here), vs going out and getting exercise, (NY state parks are free right now). I hiked 14 miles yesterday and met 0 people. You have to pick the right places to go. The Vanderbilt mansion in NY is a National Park, but it's a small place and gets hundreds of visitors a day. I see it's actually closed. Gates of the Arctic might be nice this time of year!

 

[iAmKrzys]

I had a 5-day backpacking trip in Grand Canyon scheduled for next week with a couple of friends. Between airline cancellations and the possibility that one of us might get sick at the bottom of the canyon our trip is off. Oh well, maybe another day.

 

[weatherman]

Rocky Mountain NP is closed because of the hordes descending on Estes Park at the end of their day. And yesterday the CO Governor issued basically a lockdown for the entire state through 4/12. So, no CO parks for a bit. Too bad- one of the best times of year to be there. We had friends who went backcountry camping in Great Sand Dunes last weekend, and the nights were cold but the stars were glorious.

 

[Mike P.]

As more bad actors do dumb things the trails may get busier. I've been walking around a 3.4 mile block that also includes a couple of miles of trails. Half way around the block, I walk the trails twice, once in each direction and then finish the road walk. Because people at the dog park and sport participants can't socialize and keep their distance, or play basketball and LAX vs doing running and drills at a distance, they've closed the recreation fields and dog park in town yesterday.

While the snow, Monday & rain Wednesday, helped keep numbers down on my hiking portion, today their were several dogs and owners and more people than the three other days combined. I may have to start going out more on bad days....

 

[DayTrip]

So NH State Parks are closing but National Parks are waiving fees and encouraging use? Could that be more confusing?

 

[David Metsky]

So NH State Parks are closing but National Parks are waiving fees and encouraging use? Could that be more confusing?

The majority of National Parks have closed - https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2020/03/coronavirus-and-national-parks-whats-closed

The remaining parks have lots of closed services and visitors centers, and there's a lot of pressure to close them completely.

 

[una_dogger]

Keeping Nat park and monuments open as long as they did was the absolutely worst idea possible, case in point Northern AZ Hospital in Flagstaff AZ, a 200 bed hospital, the largest between Grand Canyon, Pheonix and Salt Lake City is AT capacity with COVID-19 patients...Moab critical access hospital is 17 beds and has 1 ventilator. VERY same issue for small hospitals in the Whites, Maine, Vermont. Its mind boggling to me that anyone would think that traveling anywhere outside of their local bubble right now is socially responsible.

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