The trend towards cashless circulation is on the rise in all of the popular US National Parks, with places like Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado and Death Valley National Park in California planning to implement cashless policies in the coming months.
According to the National Park Service, going cashless actually saves parks money by allowing them to forego the cost of armored vehicles to carry cash and saving time on counting money and paperwork. It is estimated that in the case of Death Valley National Park alone, this would save about $40,000 per year.
«Entrance fees — an important source of income that national parks use to improve visitor services,” — says Greg Dudgeon, manager of Mount Rainier National Park, which will transition to cashless payments this month. “The transition to a cashless system helps the park manage visitors' dollars more efficiently. Cashless reduces the time spent by park staff processing cash, increases the amount of commission income available to support critical projects and serve visitors, and improves accountability while reducing risk.
The money received from visitors is used to fund activities such as road repairs, trail improvements, school trips, and more.
Admission fees vary by park, with many parks charging per vehicle or per person. For example, Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in West Virginia charges $20 per vehicle and $10 per person arriving on foot or by bike. But the Redwood National Parks in California and Hot Springs in Arkansas are free all year round and do not charge any entrance fee from visitors.
Here are tourist sites that have already switched or are in the process of switching to cashless calculation:
Badlands National Park, South Dakota;
Old Fort Bent National Historic Site, Colorado;
Chaco Culture National Historic Park, New Mexico;< /p>
Crater Lake National Park, Oregon;
Cumberland Island National Seashore, Georgia;
Death Valley National Park, California, Nevada;
Devil's Tower National Monument, Wyoming;
Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Sanctuary, Maryland;
National Historic Park Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland;
Hawaiian Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii;
Franklin D. Roosevelt House National Historic Site, New York;
< p>Isle Royale National Park, Michigan;
Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, Montana;
Mount Rainier National Park, Washington;
Pipe Spring National Monument, Arizona;
Prince William Forest National Park, Virginia;
Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado;
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park , Michigan;
Thomas Edison National Historical Park, New Jersey;
Vicksburg National Military Park, Mississippi, Louisiana;
Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota;
Wright Brothers National Memorial, North Carolina.
