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THE GREAT OUTDOORS — To celebrate its centennial year, the National Park Service will be waiving entrance fees on 16 days in 2016.
The National Park Service was founded on Aug. 25, 1916, and since then, 84 million acres comprising of 409 sites — 58 of which are national parks — have been established across the U.S., according to the organization's website.
The parks, monuments, recreation areas, battlefields and seashores collectively contain more than 18,000 miles of trails, 27,000 historic and prehistoric structures and 247 species of endangered and threatened wildlife.
Utah is home to five national parks — Bryce Canyon, Zion, Capitol Reef, Arches and Canyonlands — and the National Park Service announced the free dates for 2016 on Wednesday.
"Fee-free days provide an extra incentive to visit a national park, especially during next year's centennial celebration," said National Park Service director Jonathan B. Jarvis. "We added extra fee-free days so that everyone has a chance to join the party. With locations in every state, finding a national park is easy. The hard part might be deciding which ones to visit."
Typically, 127 of the 409 National Park Service sites charge entrance fees that range from $3 to $30, the National Park Service website said. While the entrance fee is waived on the free days, it does not include amenity or user fees for things like camping, boat launches, transportation or special tours.
The free days for 2016 are:
- Jan. 18: Martin Luther King Jr. Day
- April 16-24: National Park Week
- Aug. 25-28: National Park Service's 100th birthday weekend
- Sept. 24: National Public Lands Day
- Nov. 11: Veterans Day
