Contributed Photo
SOUTH COUNTY — Entrance fees for Pinnacles National Park near Paicines have increased for 2018 in order to fund services and maintenance that park staff says will directly benefit visitors.
Effective Jan. 1, a seven-day entrance pass for single vehicles is now $25 (up from $15), while the seven-day motorcycle pass has increased from $15 to now $20. A seven-day individual pass for pedestrians or bicyclists is $12 (up from $10), and the Pinnacles Annual Pass has doubled in price, from $25 to now $50. Camping fees have not changed.
Entrance fees are not charged to anyone under 16 years of age or holders of the America the Beautiful — National Parks and Federal Recreational Annual, Senior, Access, Military or Volunteer passes.
The entrance fee increase was derived from a standard pricing model developed for all parks.
“Entrance fees are crucial to funding facility improvement projects, visitor services and resource protection efforts,” said Pinnacles National Park Superintendent Karen Beppler-Dorn. “After carefully considering the impact of this increase to our visitors and our gateway communities, we decided that this was the best course of action for the park.”
Pinnacles conducted a civic engagement campaign surrounding the fee increase from August to September 2017. During this time, the public was encouraged to comment on the proposal. Based on public input and nationwide goals to standardize park entrance fees, the park decided to move forward with the increases in January.
Beppler-Dorn said the current National Park Service fee program allows parks to retain 80 percent of monies collected. The remaining 20 percent goes into a fund to support park units where fees are not charged.
Additional revenue generated by this fee increase will be used to enhance visitor services by funding such projects as the rehabilitation of the Bear Valley School, the construction of vault toilets to replace portable facilities and the building of a new entrance station on the east side of the park. For more information, visit the park’s website www.nps.gov/pinn.
