If you will visit more than about three fee-charging federal sites in a year, the annual America the Beautiful pass is the one to get. If you are 62 or over, a US veteran or Gold Star family member, currently serving, have a permanent disability, or have a fourth grader in the house, there is a cheaper or free version you qualify for. Everything below is what we read on nps.gov on July 18, 2026. Prices move, so check the page before you buy.
What the pass actually covers
This is the part people undersell. The America the Beautiful pass, formally the National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass, covers entrance fees and standard amenity (day-use) fees at lands managed by six agencies: the National Park Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, and the US Army Corps of Engineers.
Six agencies, one card. If your travel is a mix of national forest trailheads with day-use fees, Corps of Engineers lakes, and the occasional park, the pass earns out faster than the park entrance math suggests.
Depending on how a site charges, the pass covers one private vehicle fee or four per-person fees.
The prices, as of July 18, 2026
| Pass | Who it is for | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Resident Annual | US citizens and residents | $80.00 |
| Non-Resident Annual | Non-US residents | $250.00 |
| Senior Annual | US citizens and residents 62+ | $20.00 |
| Senior Lifetime | US citizens and residents 62+ | $80.00 |
| Military Annual | Current US military and dependents | Free |
| Military Lifetime | Gold Star Family members and veterans | Free |
| Access | US citizens and residents with a permanent disability | Free |
| 4th Grade | US fourth graders | Free |
| Volunteer | Federal recreation site volunteers with 250 service hours | Free |
The senior math is worth a second look. At the prices above, the lifetime version costs the same as four years of the annual one. If you are 62 and expect to keep traveling, the lifetime pass is the obvious buy.
The rules attached to every pass
All America the Beautiful passes are non-refundable, non-transferable, and cannot be replaced if lost or stolen. You must show valid photo ID with the pass every time you use it. Practically, that means the pass belongs to a person, not to a vehicle, and lending it to a friend for their trip does not work.
Passes cannot be bought as gifts for the discounted and free categories, because the recipient has to show proof of eligibility. Senior applicants have to document age and residency or citizenship.
Where to buy one without a mistake
In person is the recommended route: physical passes are sold or picked up at over 1,000 federal recreation sites, which includes plenty of entrance stations and visitor centers you would drive past anyway.
If you order online through the USGS store, order early. The nps.gov page says mail orders may take up to three weeks to process and deliver, that online orders are for physical passes rather than digital ones, and that an order receipt may not be used in place of a physical pass. A receipt on your phone at the gate is not a pass.
Holding an old Golden Age or Golden Access Passport? They are no longer sold but are still honored, and the Park Service will exchange one for a current Senior Lifetime Pass for free, in person, with your old pass and photo ID.
Park-specific annual passes
A single park’s annual pass can beat the national one if you only ever visit that park. Some cover a group of parks: there is a Hawaii Tri-Park Pass, a Southeast Utah Parks pass covering Arches and Canyonlands among others, a Flagstaff area pass, a Northern California and Southern Oregon four-park arrangement, an Oregon Coast Passport that also covers state fee sites, and reciprocal passes at Assateague Island and Chincoteague.
Only one park-specific price was printed on the page we read: the Montezuma Castle and Tuzigoot Annual Pass at $35, good for one year and covering entrance at both monuments. The rest list no price on that page, so check the individual park’s fees page rather than trusting a number from anywhere else.
Nonresident fees, which are new enough to catch people out
If you are not a US resident, two things apply beyond the standard entrance fee. The Non-Resident Annual Pass costs $250 and covers the entire vehicle, or 2 motorcycles, or the passholder plus three additional adults where per-person fees are charged.
Separately, at eleven named parks, nonresidents aged 16 and older must pay a $100 nonresident fee on top of the regular entrance fee unless they are admitted with an Annual or America the Beautiful pass. Those parks are Acadia, Bryce Canyon, Everglades, Glacier, Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, Rocky Mountain, Sequoia and Kings Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Zion. The same fee applies to nonresidents in commercial tour and concessionaire tour groups unless they hold the Non-Resident Annual Pass.
Free entrance days apply only to US citizens and permanent residents.
What a pass does not do
It does not reserve anything. Rocky Mountain National Park states that a valid entrance pass is required in addition to a timed entry reservation, and the reservation is what decides whether you get through the gate between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. in season. See the reservation system for how those work.
It does not pay for a campsite, except for the Senior Pass’s partial discount described above, and it does not cover special recreation permit fees or concessioner charges.
And it is not required at all for the kind of camping most people reading this site do. The BLM’s own camping page states that most areas do not require permits or reservations for dispersed camping, and dispersed camping is free. A pass buys you day-use access and entrance gates, not a place to sleep. For where that free ground is, see camping near a national park.
One last thing that holds everywhere: fee structures and pass prices change by act of Congress and by agency decision, sometimes mid-year. What is printed at the entrance station and on the park’s current fees page is the real price. If it disagrees with this page, it is right and we are stale.