Tips and Tricks

Every Kid in a Park Annual Pass Offer for Grade 4 Students

And so, another school year begins.  

There is a wonderful opportunity that we want to be sure it on your radar, if there is a fourth grade student in your family! As of September 1st, all students entering fourth grade have access to their own Every Kid in a Park pass at www.everykidinapark.gov. The “Every Kid in a Park” promotion is offered by the Department of the Interior and the White House, and brings with it tremendous value, providing free access to fee based federal lands for the student as well as the family.

Free entry is not only to all National Parks Service units, but other fee-based federal lands like national forests, national wildlife refuges, and land overseen by the Bureau of Land Management, for example Red Rock Canyon outside of Las Vegas or Chincoteague Island in Virginia. The pass is good for a full year, from the date of issue to Aug 31, 2017.  

This pass is nearly identical in benefits to the America the Beautiful pass (which is $80/year) and exists to encourage the entire family to tour our varied publics lands. These passes eliminate the cost of NPS sites like Yellowstone, Zion and Grand Canyon, where entry is between $25 and $30/car. If you visit a site that charges entrance fees per person, the pass admits all children under 16 and up to three adults for free. If your group visits a site that charges vehicle entrance fees, the pass admits all children under 16 and all adults in one passenger vehicle.

At www.everykidinapark.gov, children take a short fun quiz, and the pass is available for printout. The paper pass can later be exchanged at NPS fee sites for a plastic version, based on availability.

We are thrilled that the Department of Interior is nurturing the next generation’s enthusiasm for our protected lands, and as always appreciative of the great value of the annual passes; we bought our America the Beautiful pass in February of this year, and by April it had paid for itself park fees. As of August, six month later, it had essentially tripled its value! And we have more parks on our list for this year…how about you?

Saving Time and Money on Car Rentals

UPDATE!

Hertz is now live with their fall rental promo. One way car rentals to Florida (from points north) at $9 a day. This year you can also drop off in Atlanta in addition to the usual Florida cities, see this link for more info.

Note that more northern cities come into the promo on Oct 9, and then even more on Nov 27. You have until Dec. 10 to drop off the car in Florida or Atlanta.

We have distilled our top money-saving strategies for saving significantly on car rentals in a reference list for our readers in our Tips and Tricks page. Do let us know what tips you have used to get a great deal on car rentals, as well !

10 Tips for Touring National Parks Sites During Peak Season

Mesa Arch, Canyonlands National Park.

America’s national parks system is the focus of a profound celebration in its centennial year, and increases in tourism to all NPS sites — parks, memorials, historic sites, monuments, recreation areas, and seashores — are marked. Acadia National Park saw 198,549 visits in May of 2016 — an increase of 13% compared to May of 2015. Yosemite National Park has already seen 1,433,428 visits since the start of 2016. By comparison, consider that the first data that tracked tourism to nationally protected sites was collected in 1904, and recorded 120,690 visits to six national parks.  

During National Park Birthday week, August 25-28, 2016, all NPS sites will be fee-free. When we visited Utah’s mighty five national parks in April, we considered some strategies for touring during what is sure to be a busy summer season.

1. Check the local school calendar.

By the time of the National Park Service’s 100th birthday in August, many public schools in the U.S. will already be back in session. We visited Zion during the New York City public school break, but locals with children, who value time in the parks just as much as visitors, were not on spring vacation. East Coast school districts tend to end the school year in late June, and many districts throughout the country are back in session in August.
 

2. Consider a range of national sites, not just parks.

Canaveral National Seashore.

Yellowstone National Park is number five on the NPS’s list of visited national park sites, while Zion, a park that is only 7% the size of Yellowstone, is right behind at six. Selecting less visited NPS sites to complement your itinerary can be very keen logistically, with less crowds. Cedar Breaks National Monument is approximately one hour’s drive from both Bryce and Zion and has similar geologic features to both; Dixie National Forest is a unique concentration of hoodoos in a range of desert pinks and oranges with a fraction of the number of visitors. Consider starting the day at a less populous site and arriving at a busier one in the later afternoon. For NPS Visitor Use statistics, click here.

3.  Consider lodging within the park.

The Bryce Canyon Lodge, Bryce Canyon National Park.

This tip involves planning ahead, as many of the park lodges sell out months in advance. Also, in terms of a points earning strategy, maximize by booking your stay with a points earning credit card, as you won't be staying at a points earning chain hotel. This option supports beginning the day early and affords more natural wonder after dark, when the stars emerge, become infinitesimal and discernible, and glisten like sugar.  

4. Use the America the Beautiful Parks pass.

The annual NPS visitors pass is a time saver at the entry gate, and an asset for the budget as well. Read more about the benefits here.

While There…

5. Emphasize an early start.

Landscape Arch, Arches National Park.

Our itineraries encourage an early start to the day. We arrived at Arches at eight in the morning, and were of the first visitors on the Devils’ Garden trail; by ten in the morning we already been to Tunnel and Pine Tree Arches, Landscape Arch, and the Navajo and Partition Arches. Several arriving cars were interested in our parking spot when we completed our hike.

6. Begin at the end.

With our early start at Arches we cruised past the Courthouse Towers, The Windows, Rock Pinnacles, and Fiery Furnace, and parked in the empty lot at the Devil’s Garden trailhead, at the north end of the park. We worked our way back toward the entry after lunch, finding parking more advantageous.  

Park shuttle, Zion National Park.

7. Avail yourself of park shuttles, when available.

It might mean relinquishing some autonomy, but the tradeoff is a greater immersion in the extraordinary environment and infrastructure of the park, and less concern over parking throughout the day.

8. Linger, or return, in early evening.

Especially if you are touring several parks in one trip, we recommend building in some early evening time, when the dusk works magic. We spontaneously decided to stop at Arches when we first arrived in Moab, at 6:30 p.m. The sun began to set as we, and a few lone photographers, studied Balanced Rock. The clouds were silvery satin pillows, the blue sky intensified by contrast, underneath. Isolate juniper trees became multitudes of silhouettes. Our next day was that much more leisurely, as we were ahead of schedule. And, there was no line for entry!

9. Study the sunset.

Cadillac Mountain, Acadia National Park.

We watched the sunset atop Cadillac Mountain at Acadia National Park with a sizable group of visitors, yet all seemed to intuitively inhabit their own isolation pods, entranced by the changing light. Thoughts clarify during the sunset hour. Introspection is intuitive, and even when they are nearby and great in number, the tourists seem to disperse organically.

10. Loosen the itinerary.

At any point on our itinerary, if we couldn’t park, or felt the trail too crowded for comfort, we had alternatives in mind. We were prepared to let things go. Ranger Frank Barrows is quoted, “It’s okay if you don’t make it to a summit or get the perfect Instagram photo, just being outside and exploring can be the memory your child cherishes.” For adults as well, it can be liberating to just be there, keeping the itinerary loose. It seems unimaginable, but we did not see Delicate Arch when we went to Arches!   

An Easy and Free 700 American Airlines Miles

American Airlines is running a contest to celebrate 35 years of their AAdvantage program.  Thirty-five lucky people will win 350,000 miles! While your odds of winning are slim, you can earn 700 miles by just entering the contest.

Click through here or the picture above, to enter, and automatically get 350 miles deposited to your account in 6-8 weeks. From there, the site will invite you to post about a trip you are saving up miles for on social media; you can choose to email AAdvantage instead. This second step gets you another 350 miles, and 700 miles is almost 10% of the way to an AA Reduced Mileage free one way flight. Figuring these miles to be worth $0.02 per mile, that's $14 of free travel for 2 minutes of work, it doesn't come easier than this.

The contest officially runs until June 1st, but the terms and conditions for this contest state that there are a finite amount of free miles to be handed out...so enter soon!

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