In a sweeping shift, the U.S. Department of the Interior has announced new entry fees for international visitors across the national park system that will go into effect next year.
Starting on January 1, 2026, non-U.S. residents without an annual national park pass will have to pay $100 per person to enter 11 of the most-visited parks—on top of the standard entrance fee. Additionally, national park annual passes for non-U.S. residents will cost $250, compared to $80 for U.S. residents.
“These policies ensure that U.S. taxpayers, who already support the National Park System, continue to enjoy affordable access, while international visitors contribute their fair share to maintaining and improving our parks for future generations,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a press release.
At which U.S. parks will international visitors have to pay the $100 entrance fee?
The national parks that will have a $100 surcharge for each non-U.S. resident will be:
- Acadia National Park
- Bryce Canyon National Park
- Everglades National Park
- Glacier National Park
- Grand Canyon National Park
- Grand Teton National Park
- Rocky Mountain National Park
- Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks
- Yellowstone National Park
- Yosemite National Park
- Zion National Park
Currently, roughly 100 national parks charge entry fees—typically up to $20 per person or $35 per vehicle. Annual passes for individual parks can run as high as $70, while the nationwide pass that covers all national parks and federal recreation sites costs $80. How rangers will assess who pays the elevated fees (whether by checking passports or through other means) wasn’t immediately clear.
How this will impact national parks and visitation rates
According to a 2018 study from the U.S. Travel Association, an organization that represents the country’s travel industry, a reported 36.7 percent of overseas visitors (about 14.6 million foreign tourists annually) visit at least one national park or monument each year.
The Interior Department stated that revenue generated from the surcharge “will be invested directly back into America’s national parks, supporting upgrades to visitor facilities, essential maintenance, and improved services nationwide.”
Whether the increased fee will deter international visitors remains to be seen. According to a recent analysis commissioned by the conservation marketing solutions group Property and Environment Research Center, a $100 surcharge on international visitors at Yellowstone could yield about $55 million in annual revenue, surpassing the park’s $43 million maintenance costs. The trade-off, the report notes, would be a loss of about 57,000 international visitors—1.3 percent of total visitation.
What caused the decision?
The move comes five months after President Donald Trump signed an executive order on July 3 aimed at altering entry-fee and reservation-system policies across the national park system.
At the heart of that original order was a fee hike; however, the Department of the Interior was also tasked with identifying new surcharges for daily park access as well as for multipark and annual passes like the America the Beautiful pass, a program that offers annual and lifetime access to more than 2,000 federal recreation areas across the United States.
Additional changes: Passes and free days
So far, the only other changes to entrance policies and passes include the creation of a single America the Beautiful pass covering entrance fees for up to two motorcycles and a new series of what the Department of the Interior called “resident-only patriotic fee-free days for 2026,” when U.S. residents can visit the national parks for free.
The national park fee-free days in 2026 will be:
- President’s Day (February 16, 2026)
- Memorial Day (May 25, 2026)
- Flag Day/President Trump’s birthday (June 14, 2026)
- Independence Day weekend (July 3–5, 2026)
- 110th Birthday of the National Park Service (August 25, 2026)
- Constitution Day (September 17, 2026)
- Theodore Roosevelt’s birthday (October 27, 2026)
- Veteran’s Day (November 11, 2026)
“The national parks will be about America first,” President Trump said during a rally in Iowa on July 3 following his signing of the original executive order.
Impact on the U.S. National Park System, and beyond
The revenue, Trump said at the rally, will go directly toward much-needed improvements to aging park infrastructure and will help close the system’s growing maintenance backlog. According to a budget document published by the Department of the Interior in May, the increased visitor fees could raise as much as $90 million for national parks and other federally managed public lands.
While the United States has always charged residents and nonresidents the same rate, other countries have long had different fee structures for citizens and non-citizens entering their national parks. The Galapágos National Park in Ecuador, for example, requires $200 from visitors, while locals pay $30 to enter.
The July order also mandated a revamp of the reservation and permitting systems used in high-demand parks like Yosemite and Glacier (which has yet to manifest). In a marked shift, U.S. residents will be given priority access in lotteries and reservation queues for campsites, wilderness permits, and limited-entry scenic drives.
Beyond the logistical changes, the July order also repealed an Obama-era initiative aimed at expanding access to public lands among underserved and underrepresented communities and increasing the diversity of the National Park Service (NPS) staff.
While the executive order took effect immediately, the full implementation of fee hikes and reservation changes is expected to roll out over the coming year.
The timing of the announced changes comes as the NPS continues to struggle with deep staffing shortages tied to the year’s earlier widespread budget cuts. According to the National Parks Conservation Association, an independent advocacy group, the NPS has lost more than 24 percent of its permanent staff since January. The staffing shortfalls have resulted in reduced visitor-center hours, scaled-back ranger programs, closed or unstaffed facilities, and mounting delays on trail, road, and infrastructure repairs heading into the winter season.
This story was originally published in July 2025 and was updated on December 2, 2025, to include current information.
