The National Park Service will cut Martin Luther King’s Birthday and Juneteenth, two holidays honoring Black history, from its list of free entrance days next year.
Visitors will instead get free entry on June 14, which is both Flag Day and President Trump’s birthday.
The changes follow previous moves by the Trump administration to take down materials mentioning slavery at national parks and come as part of a broader effort by the White House to erase or play down Black history at government sites.
The Interior Department, which oversees the park service, said in a news release that the changes reflected the administration’s “commitment to making national parks more accessible, more affordable and more efficient for the American people.”
Derrick Johnson, the chief executive of the N.A.A.C.P., said in a statement that removing dates recognizing Black history was part of an effort “to distract and divide us by undermining progress attributed to the Black community.”
Kristen Brengel, senior vice president of government affairs for the National Parks Conservation Association, called the moves “extremely disappointing” and said the holidays “commemorate people and stories that are essential to understanding the history of our country.”
There will be 10 free entrance days at national parks in 2026 — including Memorial Day, Independence Day weekend and Veterans Day — up from six this year. Juneteenth, which commemorates the end of slavery in the United States and became a federal holiday in 2021, was added as a free entrance day last year. Not all free days are federal holidays: Also being honored are the National Park Service’s 110th birthday (Aug. 25), Constitution Day (Sept. 17) and Theodore Roosevelt’s birthday (Oct. 27).
The park service will limit free entrance on those dates to U.S. citizens and permanent residents. “Nonresidents will pay the regular entrance fee and any applicable nonresident fees,” the agency’s website says. Previously, anyone could visit national parks at no charge on free entrance days.
The changes are part of the administration’s “America-first pricing” model announced in November. That initiative includes charging nonresidents $250 for an annual national parks pass (compared with $80 for U.S. citizens and permanent residents) and a fee of $100 per person for nonresidents without a parks pass at 11 of the nation’s most popular parks, including the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and Yosemite.
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Gabe Castro-Root is a travel reporter and a member of the 2025-26 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their careers.
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