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I wrote a few months ago about the start of the Every Kid in a Park program, which aimed to give free National Park entry to all US 4th graders and their families. I have a 4th grader (with 6 kids, the odds were good, right?!?), so I was definitely excited about the program. The Every Kid in a Park program officially went live on September 1st, and I wrote about how to get your free Every Kid in a Park pass
Planning our National Park adventure
Free National Park entry would have been super helpful on our recent Amtrak trip to Yellowstone and Mt. Rushmore – where, because we’re a 2 rental car family, we paid $60 to enter Yellowstone and another $24 to enter Mt. Rushmore
(SEE ALSO: Why I didn’t spend $9,144.92 on my vacation)
(SEE ALSO: How I spent 350,401 points)
Living in Cincinnati, as we do, the amount of federal National Parks is slightly limited compared to what they might be if we lived in, say, Utah or Wyoming. I mean the William Howard Taft historical site is nice and all but…. 🙂 So we looked through some of the options and one that we were interested in was Mammoth Cave, which is a few hours drive away in Kentucky.
I’ve been to Mammoth Cave before as a kid, and while I don’t remember a ton about it (because let’s face it, when you’re a kid, all you do is complain about places your parents drag you to, right? 😀 ), I knew it would be a good site for a family trip. It IS a UNESCO World Heritage Site, after all!
(SEE ALSO: Tracking UNESCO World Heritage Sites)
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Calling up Mammoth Cave
So I went over to the Mammoth Cave fees and passes page, and found
I wasn’t sure if the Every Kid in a Park discount would apply here, so I called up and got the bad news. Every Kid in a Park just waives “entrance fees”, and because Mammoth Cave has no entry fees, there’s nothing to waive. You’ll still have to pay the full price to take a tour to actually go INTO the cave (and of course, that’s the whole point, right?)
I do understand that they have these fees to help support the parks, but it is a bit frustrating to have a program touting free access to National Parks, only to find that the closest big attraction will actually cost our family somewhere around $50.
In any case – now you know if you were planning an Every Kid in a Park fueled National Park trip! ONLY the Entrance fees will be free – everything else you’ll still need to pay for! Have you used your Every Kid in a Park pass yet?
Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
In reality, the users of the park so should pay to run the park. Why should some users get freebies? I don’t remotely get it.
Sure, users should help support the parks, but citizens who do not use resources should also help pay for them as a common good. It would be hard, for instance, to levy an individual tariff for my part of the space program’s costs, but we all derive benefit, collectively and individually. I believe the same is true of keeping wild places wild and of educating our youth about nature and geology through national park visits.
Sure – I get that and generally I approve. But my point is that the National Park Service introduced a program called “Every Kid in a Park”, which claims “This pass provides free access to national parks, national forests, national wildlife refuges, and more”. So I was just sharing my experiences about how the National Park I wanted to attend wasn’t exactly free
More frustrating than the exclusion of the “free” pass is the $80 annual pass that you can buy from the NPS. Many places, such as Mt Rushmore offer free access but require a fee to park.
Right – same basic principle. Mt. Rushmore is “free”….. if you want to hike there 🙂
I think you would run into a similar problem at Mount Rushmore unless it’s changed since we were there. Your National Park Pass doesn’t cover the parking fees as it is run separately. There isn’t actually an entrance fee.
SCAMMERS! 🙂
Yup – you are right – I looked on the Mt. Rushmore Fees and Passes page and it specifically says:
“There is no entrance fee for Mount Rushmore National Memorial. However, fees are required to park at the memorial”
and
“The National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Annual Pass, the Annual Pass – Military, the Senior Pass, the Access Pass and the Every Kid in a Park Pass cannot be used for parking fees at Mount Rushmore National Memorial. “
Can’t use it at smoky mountain np either.
Well Smoky Mountains National Park has no entrance fee either but there is a fee if you want to camp overnight. I guess in my mind that’s a little bit different. I think that what galls me about the Mammoth Cave situation is that THE WHOLE POINT OF THE PARK is to explore the caves, right? With the Smoky Mountains park, you can experience the park without camping, so I guess that doesn’t bother me as much that you are charged a fee if you want to camp overnight