Mount Rainier Park prices increasing

PARKS — Today is the last day for the $15 per vehicle access fee to visit Mount Rainier National Park.

The park will start increasing camping fees on Friday, May 22.

Annual passes, which are good for one year, will rise, first to $40 Friday, then to $50 in May 2016.

Single vehicle fees will rise to $20 this month, then to $25 next May.

Walk-ins or bicyclists will pay $10 this year.

Motorcyclists will pay $10 this May and $20 for admission next May.

Single site campgrounds will cost $20 per night as of this month.

Group sites will cost $60 per night starting this month.

The fees will support over $1 million in projects each year that directly benefit the park’s visitors, according to a press release.

If you visit national parks and refuges more than once a year — or if you’re a senior or disabled park visitor — check out the screaming deals in the The America the Beautiful National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass Program :

• Free lifetime passes are available for people with disabilities,
• A $10 lifetime senior pass is for citizens age 62 and older.
• An $80 annual pass for the general public gets a carload of visitors into a park, refuge or Forest Service trailhead as many times as desired.

Many other national parks also are increasing fees this year.

With the exception of a few of the national parks, entrance fees have not increased since 2006.

Mount Rainier was made the nation’s fifth national park in 1899 and was the first to have a vehicle fee in 1907