US National Parks Are Quietly Going Cashless

For example, in April, 2023, Death Valley National Park in California, announced that they would only receive credit or debit card payments moving forward, per a news release from the National Park Service (NPS). The park claimed it took in $22,000 cash payments in 2022, but cost NPS $40,000 to have it processed.

‘The transition to cashless payments will allow the NPS to redirect the $40,000 previously spent processing cash to directly benefit park visitors,’ NPS explained.

This is just one the increasing list of national parks making this transition, among the 424 officially registered national parks in the U.S.

Travel website Frommer’s listed the current number of national parks going cashless, as of May, 2023:

• • Badlands National Park, South Dakota
• • Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site, Colorado
• • Crater Lake National Park, Oregon
• • Chaco Culture National Historical Park, New Mexico
• • Cumberland Island National Seashore, Georgia
• • Death Valley National Park, California
• • Devils Tower National Monument, Wyoming
• • Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine, Maryland
• • Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, West Virginia
• • Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii
• • Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site, New York
• • Isle Royale National Park, Michigan
• • Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, Montana
• • Mount Rainier National Park, Washington
• • Pipe Spring National Monument, Arizona
• • Prince William Forest Park, Virginia
• • Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
• • Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Michigan
• • Thomas Edison National Historical Park, New Jersey
• • Vicksburg National Military Park, Mississippi
• • Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota
• • Wright Brothers National Memorial, North Carolina

This list, however, maybe incomplete. You can check search for a specific national park and check what the entry fees are on the NPS website.

National Park Service communications representative Ellie Stuckrath told Frommer’s in an email that the reasoning behind this is to “reduce the amount of cash and check deposits across the federal government in order to reduce organizational risk.”

Cashless options reduce transaction times at busy entrance stations, decrease the risk of theft, reduce chances of errors, and maximize the funding available for critical projects and visitor services.

[The decision to move toward fully cashless fee collection] rests with [each] site’s leadership, and we cannot predict which, or if any, sites will go cashless in the future.

Colleen Rawlings of Crater Lake National Park, which only accepts plastic and mobile payment apps for entrance, said in a statement:

Cashless transactions are actually processed faster than cash transactions,” so the former “reduce the time spent waiting in line at the entrance station and afford the visitor more time to enjoy the park.

Moreover, Greg Dudgeon, the park superintendent of Mount Rainier National Park, also said in a statement, cited by Travel + Leisure:

Entrance fees are an important source of revenue national parks use to improve the visitor experience. Moving to a cashless system helps the park manage visitor dollars more effectively. Going cashless reduces the amount of time park staff spend handling cash, increases the amount of fee revenue available to support critical projects and visitor services, and improves accountability while also reducing risk.

---

AUTHOR COMMENTARY

Undoubtably more parks will begin implementing this, as more public and private businesses and services go cashless – as we inch closer and closer to the coming mark of the beast:

[16] And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: [17] And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. [18] Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

Revelation 13:16-18

---

[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).

The WinePress needs your support! If God has laid it on your heart to want to contribute, please prayerfully consider donating to this ministry. If you cannot gift a monetary donation, then please donate your fervent prayers to keep this ministry going! Thank you and may God bless you.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE