Valles Caldera Proposes Entrance Fees for January 2025

The National Park Service at the Valles Caldera proposes charging entrance fees to the Caldera starting in January 2025. You can comment on their proposed fees by clicking here.

The Valles Caldera did not charge fees after the National Park Service assumed management of the Preserve. The managers felt that the Preserve had so few public services and amenities that charging fees would be inappropriate. Now, with development of visitor management programs, interpretation programs, roads and visitor centers, the NPS managers think charging fees is justified.

The fees that the NPS charges at a place like the VCNP or Bandelier are kept in the park to supplement appropriations the park receives from Congress. National parks and preserves are grossly underfunded by Congress and many largely depend on grants, entrance fees, and private donations.

  The fees the VCNP proposes are very similar to fees charged at other NPS facilities like Bandelier National Monument or Yosemite National Park. Most parks charge about the same for public entrance. The good news for people who like to fish, the NPS will eliminate federal fees for fishing. Hunting and fishing license fees with the New Mexico Game and Fish department are not affected by these proposed NPS fees.

The NPS proposes to charge:

Annual Park Entrance Pass – $45.00 – Per private vehicle with passengers; motorcycle with passengers, or family group on bicycles. (Valid for 1 year from date of purchase.)

Park Entrance Pass – $25.00 – Per private vehicle including passengers. (Valid for 1-7 days from date of purchase.)

Park Entrance Pass – $20.00 – Per motorcycle including passengers. (Valid for 1-7 days from date of purchase.)

Per Person Entrance Pass – $15.00 – Visitors 16 years of age or older who enter on foot, bicycle, or boat; maximum fee of $25 for family group. (Valid for 1-7 days from date of purchase.)

Note that the per car fee includes all the people in the car. The proposed per person fee is less than many other parks charge. The $45 annual pass roughly half what Yosemite National Park charges for the same thing. Commercial fees for tour groups are higher than the fees above and only apply for one day. Commercial fees are lower than those at Bandelier.

   At the same time, parks like Pecos National Historic Park near Santa Fe or Great Basin National Park in Nevada charge no fees though they have fine facilities and public programs.

   Caldera Action supports funding our parks and we support charging reasonable fees given that Congress does not fund the parks adequately. At the same time, we think that lower-income people should not be preventing from enjoying their Preserve because of fees. Ideally the parks would be free like national forests in New Mexico (which are also underfunded). (In some heavily populated states like California, visiting national forests requires a paid permit.) But NPS lands are the premier public lands in the US and the National Park Service provides more visitor services that other federal land agencies. We can expect to pay for a visit to a National Park Service site in hopes that the NPS will protect the place for generations to come.

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