The entrance fee at Denali National Park is changing for 2012. Effective immediately, the National Park service will only collect a $10 per person entry fee. The pass is good for 7 days. The agency is eliminating a former $20 vehicle fee. Denali National Park spokeswoman Kris Fister says the change resulted from a national audit.
Fister says the entrance fee is also collected through campground reservations, but that people just stopping by the park won’t be accosted to pay.
Denali is the only Alaska National Park that collects an entrance fee. Fister says a 1987 law instituted the charge as a way to pay for maintenance of Denali’s substantial infrastructure, including the 90 mile park road. She says Denali entrance fees brought in $2.3 million in 2010. 80 percent of the money is withheld for use in Denali.
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Dan Bross is a reporter at KUAC in Fairbanks.
