On August 25, 2026, every National Park Service site that charges an entrance fee lets you in free. That is the entire offer. It is the agency’s 110th anniversary, and the waiver covers the gate, not the campground.
The NPS fee-free days page, last updated January 5, 2026 and checked August 5, 2026, puts it in one line: “All National Park Service sites that charge an entrance fee will offer free admission to everyone (other fees, including timed entry or reservation fees, may apply).”
What the waiver is worth
One entrance fee. At Yellowstone that is $35 for a private vehicle and everyone in it, good for seven consecutive days, or $30 for a motorcycle and $20 per person on foot or bicycle (Yellowstone fees page, last updated June 16, 2026, checked August 5, 2026). Skipping that on August 25 buys you a week of entries at a park you were going to visit anyway.
The parenthesis in the NPS line is the part that catches people. Timed entry and reservation fees are not waived. Neither is camping. Yellowstone’s campground page, last updated February 25, 2026 and checked August 5, 2026, lists $20 a night at Indian Creek, Lewis Lake, Slough Creek and Tower Fall, $25 at Mammoth, and $38 to $94 plus taxes at the five campgrounds booked through the park lodges. You pay those on a fee-free day like any other day.
There is one change worth knowing before you plan a car full of people. The same NPS page states: “Beginning in 2026, free entrance on these days will be for US citizens and residents only. Nonresidents will pay the regular entrance fee and any applicable nonresident fees.”
Who this actually helps
If you are already camping outside a park on national forest or BLM land and driving in for the day, this is a straightforward saving and the trip needs no other change. If you were planning to camp inside the park, the fee-free day changes nothing about your bill.
The other thing it changes is traffic. A free gate on a Tuesday in late August moves people, and the parks that have capacity controls keep them. Glacier is a useful example of both halves: the park’s vehicle reservations page, last updated June 22, 2026 and checked August 5, 2026, states “Vehicle reservations will not be required in 2026,” and the park is instead running a ticketed shuttle and three-hour timed parking at Logan Pass. We covered how that works in our piece on the Logan Pass parking limit. No entrance fee that day still does not get you a parking space at noon.
What to do with this
If August 25 is close to a park you will pass, move the visit onto it and arrive early. Then check the individual park page for timed entry, shuttle tickets, or road construction, because those are the things the waiver does not touch and they are set park by park.
For the free camping you will be doing the other nights, our free camping states directory is the place to start on what each state’s public land actually allows. As always, the posted sign and the current guidance from whoever manages the ground beat any website, this one included.
After August 25 the remaining 2026 fee-free days are September 17, October 27, and November 11. File those away now, because none of them are announced again with much notice.