Vehicle entrance fees at Yosemite National Park will remain at $20 until at least 2009. A waiver to Yosemite was issued by the director of the National Park Service last week that will keep the fees from rising to $25 dollars. The waiver will remain in effect for at least one year. Yosemite National Park escaped a nationwide increase in national park fees slated for January 2009. The National Park Service previously announced a $5 fee hike in May, as part of a national plan to raise rates for annual park passes and fees for vehicles at nearly one-third of the areas managed by the agency.
Yosemite was spared the rate hike due to public outcry from merchants, tourism officials and county politicians. Scott Gediman, a spokesman for the park, said that when the park solicited public comment about the proposed fee increase earlier this year, "we heard overwhelmingly that people were opposed to it." Superintendent Michael Tollefson asked the agency to grant Yosemite a fee waiver.
The park has suffered a 20 percent drop in visits to the park since 1997, when the entrance fee went from $5 to $20 a car.
