There are few better excuses to trade the city for a trail, a mountain view or a quiet stretch of wilderness than a day when national parks waive their usual entrance fees.
That opportunity is coming up this week, when the National Park Service will offer free admission at national park sites that normally charge an entrance fee for Constitution Day. The fee-free day applies across the country, giving visitors a chance to explore everything from enormous mountain ranges to desert landscapes and remote islands without paying the usual entrance fee.
The National Park Service says the fee-free admission applies to U.S. citizens and residents. Other costs, including camping, reservations and certain activities, can still apply. For Angelenos, that also happens to be a great excuse to explore some of the extraordinary national parks within California — including several that make for memorable road trips.
Joshua Tree is one of the easiest escapes from L.A.
For a relatively easy desert getaway, Joshua Tree National Park is hard to beat. The park sits where the Mojave and Colorado deserts meet, creating a landscape filled with its strange, spiky namesake trees, enormous boulder formations and wide-open desert views. The National Park Service also highlights the area’s dark night skies, making it particularly rewarding to stay until sunset and beyond. The Hidden Valley area is a good introduction for first-time visitors, while the boulder fields around Jumbo Rocks offer some of the park’s most recognizable scenery.
Yosemite is the classic California road trip
If you want the full-scale national park experience, Yosemite is the obvious contender. The park encompasses nearly 1,200 square miles, with towering granite formations, waterfalls, meadows, wilderness and ancient giant sequoias. Yosemite Valley provides the iconic views most people associate with the park, but the surrounding wilderness makes it possible to spend several days exploring rather than simply checking off the famous sights.
See the world’s largest trees at Sequoia and Kings Canyon
Southern California road-trippers can head north into the Sierra Nevada for an entirely different landscape. Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks are home to enormous mountains, deep canyons and some of the world’s largest trees. The giant trees alone make this a worthwhile destination, particularly if you’ve somehow lived in California for years without making the trip.
Channel Islands feels like another world
Just off the Southern California coast, Channel Islands National Park protects five islands and the surrounding ocean environment. Because of their isolation, the islands are home to plants, animals and archaeological resources found nowhere else on Earth.
This one requires more planning than a typical drive-up national park. You’ll need to arrange transportation to the islands, and the free entrance day doesn’t eliminate those separate transportation or activity costs. But if you’re looking for something genuinely different from a mountain or desert road trip, it’s hard to beat.
And California has plenty more to explore
The state’s national-park lineup doesn’t stop there. There’s Lassen Volcanic National Park, where volcanic peaks, steaming fumaroles, mountain lakes and meadows create a landscape unlike California’s better-known coastal and Sierra destinations. There’s Pinnacles National Park, known for dramatic rock formations and talus caves, and Death Valley National Park, a vast landscape of salt flats, mountains, dunes and other extreme desert scenery.
Before leaving, check the National Park Service website for your chosen destination. Free entrance does not necessarily mean everything at the park is free, and conditions, reservations and other requirements can vary by location.
