Senior Pass Price Hike

My wife and I already have ours, but thanks for posting the reminder! I urge anyone of age that's interested to get their America the Beautiful Senior Pass now, even if you have to pay the extra $10 to use the online service instead of going to one of the facilities that sell them. The online mail order service is experiencing delays due to the current high demand, but as long as your request beats the increase date, you'll still get it at the current $10 price plus a $10 handling/mailing fee.

America the Beautiful Senior Pass

Got mine a couple of weeks ago, fortunately GSMNP is right out my front door. I had to go to two different places to get one however, so they are running out of their current inventory.

I did the online thing. It was cheaper than the gas to drive anywhere to get one. The $10 handling fee is about 5 gallons of gas, or about 100 miles, which would be 50 miles each way. I'm not within 50 miles of a site selling them.

Don't know about all COE parks, but a local COE park we often go to gives half off nightly rates with the America the Beautiful senior pass, $12/nt for a very nice 50 amp FHU site with large concrete pad and patio rather than the normal $24/nt. One night more than paid for the $10 fee. I am guessing COE, being a government entity, offers the same discount at all their parks.

I 21 days too young but my wife has had hears for a few years. Still at the new price it's a bargain

BB_TX wrote:
I am guessing COE, being a government entity, offers the same discount at all their parks.

Yes, except if the park is leased out, the operator doesn't have to honor the pass for camping or day use.

Some COE built parks in the north Texas area which do not honor the pass - Collin Park on Lake Lavon, The Vineyards on Lake Grapevine, Eisenhower State Park on Lake Texoma, Hidden Cove Park on Lake Lewisville.

There are some parks which are owned by the government but operated by contractors. Those discount the base camping fee, but not the utility hookups fee. The end result is about 1/3 off the regular rate for the Senior Pass. I don't know of any COE parks in Texas or Oklahoma or Arkansas operated that way, but the USFS park Double Lake north of Houston is operated that way.

Most parks have run out of cards due to the huge increase in demand, however, show your proof of age, pay your $10 and receive a voucher. The voucher works until more cards are available.

Anyone know 'why' the increase? Did they gov cut funding for it when we weren't looking?

rockhillmanor wrote:
Anyone know 'why' the increase? Did they gov cut funding for it when we weren't looking?

You're way behind, the fee was increased by Congress last December.

rockhillmanor wrote:
Anyone know 'why' the increase? Did they gov cut funding for it when we weren't looking?

The increase is part of a large group of "corrections" for several things about the National Parks.

Introduced in March 2016, one small part of the law "equalizes" the fee charged for the Senior Pass to be the same as the fee charged those under age 62 for the Annual Pass. The set dollar figure for the Senior Pass was eliminated.

The full bill is available . Here

EDIT

Here is a discussion from when the increase was first proposed Senior Pass Price Increase

A part of the discussion is that the National Parks need more money. Costs of running the parks have gone up, like everything else. Setting the Senior Pass cost the same as the regular access pass enables the parks to deal with increased costs.

Seniors still get a huge break in the revised law in that we do not have to buy our pass again each year. It is still s lifetime pass. Also we get discounted camping and other fees, most of which do not apply to the Annual pass