Adventure Travel Wilderness And Hiking Trails Fees Continue To Rise

Is adventure travel getting expensive for the family? The good news for
adventure travel and wilderness hiking trails is that the USA has some
of the most unique and incredible places to see on earth. Our National,
State Parks, Monuments and Wilderness Areas are awesome, but for years
there have been reduced number of visitors. Many citizens have said that
a four-year program to increase national parks entrance fees to make
them more uniform may discourage some Americans from visiting their
national parks such as the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Zion and Yellowstone.



The National Parks have been faced with a budget crisis. The parks are
struggling to protect the historic, cultural and natural resources that
the parks were created for. The parks are short of funds for operating
facilities, repairs to roads, bridges, trails and buildings. There was
an 814 million dollar shortfall in 2006. There are almost 400 areas of
protection covered by the National Parks Service. Almost every park has
fewer full time employees now than in 2001, while there were over
273,000,000 visitors to the parks in 2005. The park service needs more
funding to provide education, interpretive and for the safety
requirements of their visitors. This is a time of controversy about park
fees, current plans for oil, gas and mineral exploration in our parks
and of course removing the O'Shaughnessy Dam to restore the Hetch Hetchy
Valley in Yosemite.

Recently the federal government has moved to replace the National Park
Service's $50 annual pass with a new $80 multi-agency pass. Some people
think that the fee increases are getting out of line. The park service
raised entrance fees at 34 parks over the past two years and plans to
raise them at another 124 parks in 2008 and 2009. At Glacier National
Park in Montana and Joshua Tree National Park in California, the fees
will go up twice, and beginning in 2011, park officials plan to increase
fees every three years, based on inflation. There is a proposal to
double entrance fees next year at Crater Lake National Park, now $10 per
car. Will it drive the local visitors away? In 1997, when the park
service began raising fees, the number of national parks visitors has
fallen 1% while entrance fee revenue has gone up almost 16%. Many of
them are from outside the United States and love to visit the American
protected lands.

Will the National Park Centennial Act to rescue our parks before 2016 –
the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service? The acts purpose is
to eliminate the annual operating deficit and maintenance backlog in the
national parks. If it passed, it was to create a check off box on
American tax returns to fund the parks. As H.R. 1124 and S 886 it did
not get passed in 2006. In spring of 2006 the Government Accountability
Office (GAO) issued a report about our National Parks based on research,
to the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee that found that
funding had not kept pace with need, requiring park managers to reduce
services including, reducing visitor center hours, educational programs,
basic custodial duties, and law enforcement operations, such as
back-country patrolling. Additionally, the park system has been forced
to close campgrounds, shorten operating hours, eliminate many
interpretive programs, lay off many seasonal rangers, and eliminate many
of the parks' scientific studies programs.

So where's the good news about our public lands? Being an outdoor writer
and avid traveler to our parks and wilderness areas Bob Therrien,
President of TrainingPASS Sales, Inc. has created an outdoor recreation
message board, he commented "As I've visited the outdoors, the hardest
part over the years, for me has been the research about which parks,
hikes, climbs, locations and activities I want to visit with my family
and friends. Exploring federal then state website after site, then
mapping the distance from each area of interest is inefficient and many
times lacking in information. To solve that inefficiency we have
collected all the basic information about our parks, wilderness areas
and national monuments and put them into one website. I don't personally
have a problem with the new park fees. It costs me more to take my
family to the movies. I'd rather enjoy a full day or two at a place like
Denali National Park, the Arches or Canyonlands.

The USA has incredible adventure travel wilderness and hiking trails. To
promote these areas AdventureZoneTOURS created a forum for sharing trip
reports on National Parks, State Parks, National Monuments and
Wilderness Areas.

The Outdoor Adventure Message Board opens up to reveal a listing of U.S.
States, separated into travel regions. Click on any state region and
there are sub forums for all the parks, monuments and wilderness areas
in that region. Many times there are several interesting choices to pick
from of federal or state lands, within a state region. For the
activity-specific minded, AdventureZoneTOURS.com encourages users to
share trip reports for a variety of outdoor activities from hiking,
climbing, canyoneering, geo exploring, photography, ghost towns, mines,
and cave to water sports such as boating, fishing, jet and water skiing,
tubing, rafting, and scuba. Winter travel sports such as snowmobiling,
skiing and snowboarding are featured. Hunting locations, ATV and
horseback trails as well as the most scenic areas for outdoor
photography are also available as individual topic posts. To research or
share your favorite adventure travel location, you're invited to sign up
and share today.