National Park Entrance Fee Finder: Fee, Best Pass and Nonresident Cost

How national park entrance fees work in 2026

Most big national parks sell a seven-day pass. A private vehicle pays one price for everyone inside, a motorcycle pays a lower price, and a person on foot or bicycle pays per head from age 16. Children under 16 walk in free. The table below lists all 20 parks on this site, so it works even with JavaScript off. Fees were last checked on 2026-09-30, so confirm at nps.gov before you travel.

Eleven of the major parks add a $100 surcharge for each visitor aged 16 and up who lives outside the U.S.: Acadia, Bryce Canyon, Everglades, Glacier, Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, Rocky Mountain, Sequoia and Kings Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite and Zion. The surcharge is charged per person, not per car, so a family of four adults in one vehicle pays $35 plus $400 at a park with a $35 fee. An America the Beautiful annual pass for nonresidents costs $250 and waives the surcharge, so it wins once three or more nonresident adults share a car. Great Smoky Mountains charges no entrance fee at all, only a parking tag.

To pick the best pass, this finder multiplies the gate fee by your visits and compares it with the passes open to you. A U.S. resident can buy an annual pass for one park ($55 or $70, depending on the park) or the $80 America the Beautiful pass that works at every fee-charging federal site. Worked example: two residents visit Zion twice in a year in one car. Gate fees are 2 x $35 = $70, the Zion pass is $70, and the $80 card costs $10 more. The tool shows a tie, and the park pass is the better buy if a third trip is possible.

Use the Other park option for a park not in the list. The fees in those boxes are example defaults ($30 vehicle, $25 motorcycle, $15 per person, $55 pass) that match the lower tier in the table; replace them with the real numbers from the park page. Extra reservation fees, such as the $2 Rocky Mountain timed entry or the $6 Cadillac Summit Road reservation at Acadia, are separate from the entrance fee. For a full year of trips, try the national park pass break-even calculator. The tool is an estimate and does not include lodging, camping or tour fees.

Where these numbers come from

The formulas and default values in this calculator are based on:

• NPS America the Beautiful passes (nps.gov/planyourvisit/passes.htm)
• NPS nonresident fees page (nps.gov/aboutus/nonresident-fees.htm)
• NPS fee pages for each of the 20 parks as recorded on this site's park pages, as of 2026-09-30

This is a planning estimate, not medical, legal or immigration advice. Fees, allowances, limits and entry rules change, so confirm the figures with your airline, cruise line, customs agency or the official government source before you book or travel, and follow their rules if they differ from this page.