If 3 adults and 1 child are going to Bryce, Zion, Grand Canyon, Lake Powell and Mesa Verde by car in June would it be to our benefit to buy the Pass for $50. I wasn't sure if the parks charge a vehicle entrance fee or a per person entrance fee.

All national parks charge a per car entrance fee. Most of these passes are good for 7 days. I believe the last time I was at a national park, the fee was about $10 a car.

Dawn your comment makes it sound as thoug it would be more economical to pay as you go rather than pay the $50. Am I correct?

its been a couple of years, but we purchased a "gold" pass good for 12 months at all national parks. we visited gc, b, z and saved $10 each park if i remember correctly.

You might want to check with each individual park. We bought a pass at Volcano NP in Hawaii, thinking we would use it on a trip to South Dakota later in the year. There was a parking fee at Mt. Rushmore that wasn't covered by the pass, and at Wind Cave NP we still had to pay to visit the cave. In summary, we thought we were saving lots of money because we were planning to visit many of the parks, but we would have been better off just paying by the park because so much wasn't included in the pass. Good luck!

We did the same trip with 2 adults and 2 kids, and bought the pass. I think if you visit 3 or more parks, it is economical. Go to the national parks website and do the math, I believe the fees are listed.

The parks charge a per vehicle fee. I agree that it depends on the number of parks you are visiting and the cost of each. Plus, since it last for twelve months, you may find you use it more than you think. We bought one for a trip to Yellowstone, etc. last summer. I have sinced used it twice more on short trips and will be using it in Hawaii in March.

I know that Yellowstone charges $20 for a 7 day pass. If that fee is standard throughout the national park system, then it would certainly be worthwhile to pay $50 for the one-year pass, if you will be visiting more than 2 parks. And yes, the fee is per car, not per visitor.

I bought an annual pass and rarely ever had to use it because I always got to the park before the rangers. Maybe I lucked out, but I'm still glad I got the pass because it's for a good cause.

Unfortunately the official NPS websites are off-line for the near future. The following info was gleaned from various unofficial websites. I'm making no claims of accuracy, but I doubt that any of the fees have gone down.

Grand Canyon NP: $20
http://www.kaibab.org/gc/misc/gc_gen.htm

Zion NP: $20
http://www.desertusa.com/zion/du_znpmain.html

Bryce Canyon NP: $5
http://www.infowest.com/Utah/colorcountry/Nationalparks/Bryce/bryce.html

Mesa Verde NP: $10
http://www.desertusa.com/ver/

Lake Powell (Glen Canyon NRA): $10
http://www.canyon-country.com/lakepowell/boats.htm

Hi,
This does not relate to the pass you buy for admission to the parks but I just found out about the "passport" to the national parks which is the coolest thing I've ever heard of. You buy this national park passport at www.eparks.com for $6.95 and there are spots in the book just like a real passport for all of the national parks. When you go to the park, you get it cancelled with a stamp for that park. I bought 2, 1 for each child, and am intending to start mine off in Washington DC this summer. What a great idea this passport is. The money(6.95) goes to the national park service.

Just thought someone else might find this as interesting as I did.

We buy a National Park pass every year. It always pays. Even if you don't save money it will probably save you time. I know that the Grand Canyon had a pass holders entrance so we were able to bypass a long line of cars. Other parks may have the same. On our way to the Grand Canyon we stopped at an interesting site not on our itinerary and found that it also was a National Park so we saved money there too.