Start your new year with a free visit to a national park!
You can literally walk in Dr. King's footsteps at Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site in Georgia, the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail in Alabama, or the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC – just a few of the many national parks that have direct ties to Dr. King or the Civil Rights movement.
Other parks include the new Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington, DC, Morristown National Historical Park in New Jersey, Fort Donelson National Battlefield in Tennessee, and Frederick Douglass National Historic Site in Washington, DC.
I hope every American can take advantage of the upcoming fee free weekend and visit their parks to experience their history firsthand.
Your nearest national park can also help you keep that New Year’s resolution, whether it is to get more exercise, spend quality time with family and friends, try a new sport, learn some history, expand your horizons, or enjoy the natural world.
There’s something for everyone at a national park, even in the middle of winter. Choices include snow shoe hikes, canoe trips, campfire programs, film festivals, battle reenactments, and music jams. It is also a great time of year to view wildlife such as bison in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming or grey whales at Point Reyes National Seashore in California. A list of activities can be found at www.nps.gov.
The National Park Service will waive admission fees on 14 other days in 2012 – National Park Week (April 21 to 29), Get Outdoors Day (June 9), National Public Lands Day (September 29), and the weekend of Veterans Day (November 10 to 12).
*Fee waiver includes: entrance fees, commercial tour fees, and transportation entrance fees. Other fees such as reservation, camping, tours, concession and fees collected by third parties are not included unless stated otherwise.
Bestfares Tip: The deal's value kicks in when you have multiple people/cars going to parks that have fees. So if you're having a group retreat or family reunion, you'll see the real savings then.
Here are the Top Ten visited National Parks in the country: (Source: nps.gov):
| Rank | Park Name |
Visitation
|
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Great Smoky Mountains, Tennessee and North Carolina |
9,289,215
|
| 2 | Grand Canyon, Arizona |
4,279,439
|
| 3 | Yosemite, California |
3,242,644
|
| 4 | Yellowstone, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho |
2,870,295
|
| 5 | Olympic Washington |
2,749,197
|
| 6 | Rocky Mountain, Colorado |
2,743,676
|
| 7 | Zion, Utah |
2,567,350
|
| 8 | Cuyahoga Valley, Ohio |
2,468,816
|
| 9 | Grand Teton, Wyoming |
2,406,476
|
| 10 | Acadia, Maine |
2,083,588
|
Here are the 10 least visited National Parks based on the number of annual visitors.
| Rank | Park Name | Visitation |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | Noatak, Alaska | 3,272 |
| 9 | Kobuk Valley, Alaska | 3,005 |
| 8 | Cape Krusenstern, Alaska | 2,598 |
| 7 | Salt River Bay, St. Croix Virgin Islands | 2,526 |
| 6 | Alibates Flint Quarries, Texas | 1,882 |
| 5 | Frederick Law Olmsted, Massachusetts | 1,559 |
| 4 | Bering Land Bridge, Alaska | 1,265 |
| 3 | National Park of American Samoa, Samoa | 1,239 |
| 2 | Rio Grande, Texas | 135 |
| 1 | Aniakchak, Alaska | 60 |
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