Active duty military personnel and their dependents tend to highly value cheap airplane tickets, discount hotel rooms, and cheap vacation packages as means of making their trips more affordable. Soon military families will be able to enter every national park for free.
As of June 9th, which is Armed Forces Day, free annual passes will be available to members of the military. The America the Beautiful National Parks and Federal Recreation lands Annual Pass costs the general public $80. This pass makes access possible to over 2,000 national parks, wildlife refuges and other public lands.
The pass is good at National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Army Corps sites that charge entrance fees.
The free passes are an effort to thank service members and their families for the sacrifices they make, according to the Interior Department.
Providing free passes to service members and their families will result in an annual revenue loss estimated between $2 million and $6 million. The pass allows the owner and passengers in a single private auto access to sites that charge per vehicle. At sites that charge per person entrance fees, it covers the pass owner and three people over the age of 15.
The national Park Service does not expect the decrease in fees to impact the overall operations of the service given that it collects about $150 million in fees nationwide annually.
Military personnel can acquire free passes at any national park or wildlife refuge that charges an entrance fee by showing their military ID. Any family member can also obtain their own pass even if the service member is deployed or traveling separately.
The free pass is also available to activated members of the National Guard and Reserves, but not to military veterans or retirees. www.cheapfares.com