Climbing in a National Park in 2026? You Might Be Charged an Extra $100 Per Day.

Non-U.S. residents will pay up to $100 extra to enter some national parks and $250 for an annual pass in 2026 under a new pricing structure announced by the Department of the Interior this week.

According to DOI, 11 of the most popular U.S. national parks will begin to charge non-residents the new $100 fee on top of the standard entry fee starting on January 1. The new fee will apply to Acadia, Bryce Canyon, Everglades, Glacier, Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, Rocky Mountain, Sequoia and Kings Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Zion National Parks. Visitors buying an annual pass will need to input their ZIP code and provide a photo ID to get the U.S. resident price.

Fees for U.S. residents will stay the same, with an annual pass running $80. In addition, U.S. residents will be able to get into the parks for free on eight different “patriotic fee-free days” in 2026, which include Flag Day/President Trump’s Birthday on June 14. In the past, fee-free days have allowed all visitors free entry regardless of whether they were residents or not.

The policy changes follow a July 3 executive order by Trump, titled “Making America Beautiful Again by Improving Our National Parks,” which directed the Secretary of the Interior to raise national park entry fees for international visitors.

“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,” Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum wrote in the release.

In a press release, Gerry Seavo James, deputy director for Sierra Club’s Outdoors for All campaign, said that “Donald Trump is setting the Park Service up to fail.”

“For nearly a year, the Trump administration has worked to undermine the National Park Service, slashing its budget and firing its dedicated staff,” he said. “Gouging foreign tourists at the entrance gate won’t provide the financial support these crown jewels of our public lands need. Without that support, we run the risk of our true common grounds becoming nothing more than playgrounds for the super-rich.”

Others have celebrated the decision. The Bozeman-based Property and Environment Research Center (PERC), which describes itself as “the national leader in market solutions for conservation” has in the past advocated for raising entry fees to national parks and selling some public lands to fix the NPS’s aged infrastructure. In a statement, PERC CEO Brian Yablonski hailed the decision as a step towards addressing the park system’s maintenance backlog.

“This is a big win for everyone who loves America’s parks,” he wrote. “A $100 international visitor surcharge could generate $55 million annually at Yellowstone National Park alone, more than quadrupling that park’s revenue to address deteriorating trails, failing wastewater systems, and crumbling bridges. PERC has long led an effort to adopt this smart pricing approach, already common abroad, as a way to steward America’s best idea.”

In 2018, during Trump’s first term, then-Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke proposed steeply raising entry fees in a handful of popular national parks, including Zion and Arches. Under Zinke’s plan, entrance fees to those units would have more than doubled, rising from $25 per car to $70 for any visitor without an annual pass. DOI backtracked on that plan in the face of strong public opposition.

In addition to the fee hikes, DOI announced that all annual passes would now allow entry to two motorcycles instead of one. The agency also announced a new digital America the Beautiful Pass and unveiled a new design for physical cards featuring Trump and George Washington’s faces.

This year has seen a notable drop in international visitation to the United States, with Tourism Economics projecting that it will decline 8.2 percent in 2025.

This story was originally published to Backpacker.

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