National parks charge foreign visitors more, and history gets a harder look

On July 3, 2025, President Trump announced that he would increase fees for international visitors to certain national parks. Over a year later, the policy is still raising questions.

For an American family of four, entrance to the parks by vehicle would cost $35, total. For non-citizens, it would cost $435 because of a $100-per-person surcharge. Those fees also increase the price of a year-long America the Beautiful pass from $80 to $250.

The increase applies to some of the nation’s most popular spots: Acadia, Bryce Canyon, Everglades, Glacier, Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, Rocky Mountain, Sequoia and Kings Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite and Zion.

This fee more than triples the price of visiting these parks, and how the policy will be enforced remains unclear.

“How implementation should be happening has not been very transparent,” said Emily Thompson, director of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks. “So what does this look like on the ground, and especially as we’re talking about parks who are certainly struggling with staffing already? It seems that this is an added burden to already overworked park staff.”

Some park rangers have been instructed to ask visitors for proof of residence. For parks plagued by long lines and understaffing, that could be a difficult process.

“These are park employees who are collecting fees at entrance gates,” Thompson said. “Park employees shouldn’t be in a position of having to validate or confirm citizenship in any way, shape or form.”

Rangers have reportedly been instructed to ask either “Is everybody in the car a U.S. citizen?” or “Is there anybody in the vehicle that is a foreign national?” Some full tour buses have had to disembark so passengers can show ID, while other cars have driven through without any questions or identification checks. Some rangers have expressed confusion and dismay about the policy change.

Thompson said the Coalition supports entrance fees, and even supports increasing them, but if these dramatic changes drive visitors away, that’s a threat to the park system. It’s also a threat to “gateway communities,” towns directly outside of national parks that rely on park tourism for much of their revenue.

Supporters of the policy argue that foreign visitors should contribute more to maintaining the public lands they enjoy, and that U.S. taxpayers already support the parks through federal taxes. They suggest that for international travelers, the additional fee is minor compared to the total trip cost, including airfare and lodging.

Opponents contend that reduced tourism could offset much of the additional fee revenue while creating new burdens for park employees, and staff worry about alienating international visitors.

In 2024, the National Park Service reported that 332 million park visitors spent an estimated $29 billion in local gateway regions. Minnesota saw 1.1 million park visitors spend around $69.4 million.

No Minnesota national parks were included in the $100 surcharge, but the America the Beautiful pass includes admission to Voyageurs National Park.

The fee changes arrived alongside other shifts to how the parks operate. The administration also removed Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth from the list of fee-free days, replacing them with Trump’s birthday and Constitution Day.

The America the Beautiful pass itself has also drawn scrutiny. Since 2004, the pass has featured a winning image from an annual public lands photo contest. For 2026, that contest was won by a photo of Glacier National Park, but NPR reported that the image was moved to the pass sold to nonresidents, while the pass sold to U.S. residents instead features a portrait of Trump alongside George Washington. The National Park Service confirmed that if that portrait is covered with a sticker, the card will be invalidated, a policy that has drawn its own backlash and at least one lawsuit.

The Trump administration has also attempted to restrict signage and educational material. In March 2025, Trump signed an executive order directing parks staff to remove signs “disparaging Americans past or living” in order to “Restore truth and sanity to American History.

National Park Service crews removed a slavery exhibit at Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park following the executive order. Additional signs referencing climate change, women’s rights and Indigenous history have also been removed from park sites nationwide, according to AP News.

The Equal Justice Initiative reported that Interior Secretary Doug Burgum ordered NPS staff to post QR code signs at NPS properties asking visitors to identify “any signs or other information that are negative about either past or living Americans or that fail to emphasize the beauty, grandeur, and abundance of landscapes and other natural features.”

An analysis by the Center for Western Priorities found less than 1% of 35,700 comments submitted used the form as intended. Most either disparaged the policy itself, were advocacy letters from coordinated campaigns or were requests for more inclusive history.

For more information on National Park Service updates, visit www.nps.gov/planyourvisit/passes.htm.

Anya Armentrout is a freelance journalist, a student at Macalester College and a contributing writer for the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder. She welcomes reader responses at anyaarmentrout@gmail.com.