NPS photo
Park Ranger Travis Fudge sells a park entrance pass in Furnace Creek Visitor Center.
Death Valley National Park to move to cashless fee collection starting June 1
DEATH VALLEY, Calif. – The National Park Service (NPS) will only accept credit or debit card payments for camping and entrance fees in Death Valley National Park starting June 1.
Last year the park collected $22,000 in cash, which cost over $40,000 to process. Cash handling costs include an armored car contract to transport cash and park rangers’ time counting money and processing paperwork.
The transition to cashless payments will allow the NPS to redirect the $40,000 previously spent processing cash to directly benefit park visitors.
Entrance and camping fees are used to improve visitor experiences in national parks. In Death Valley National Park, these funds are currently used to clean public restrooms, lead school field trips, host distance learning classroom sessions, provide emergency medical services, repair flood damage at Scotty’s Castle, and more.
Visitors can use cash to purchase the $30 per vehicle park entrance 7-day pass at several partner locations:
- Charles Brown General Store (Shoshone, CA)
- Death Valley Natural History Association (Furnace Creek Visitor Center)
- Eastern Sierra Interpretive Association (Lone Pine Visitor Center)
- Panamint Springs Resort
Visitors can also purchase entrance passes ahead of time online at recreation.gov/sitepass/deathvalley.
More information about visiting the park can be found at nps.gov/deva.
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Death Valley National Park is the homeland of the Timbisha Shoshone and preserves natural resources, cultural resources, exceptional wilderness, scenery, and learning experiences within the nation’s largest conserved desert landscape and some of the most extreme climate and topographic conditions on the planet. Learn more at www.nps.gov/deva.
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Cash is legal tender for all debts public and private. It is illegal for the Park Service to make this decision.
{Section 31 U.S.C. 5103, entitled “Legal tender,” states: “United States coins and currency [including Federal Reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal Reserve Banks and national banks] are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues.” }
Well, I think it’s “public charges” that could be the sticking point. Private businesses don’t have to accept your cash offer under fed law so there is no contract/sale or debt to begin with. We are talking about a government fee though, so is it public charges?or
What gets interesting is if they let you drive past those “entering a fee area” signs without telling you can’t pay cash or stopping you. Have they created a debt? You walk in to the station to pay cash and they refuse, then what? You go to your campsite and don’t pay? They demand payment or fine you and you offer cash again?
All because they spend $40k to process $22k for $18k loss? That’s embarrassing to say publicly. A local can pay them 50 cents on the dollar with a debit card and save them $7k. Might make up for the crap fed wages they get paid.
Hell, they could walk 3 minutes to the fed post office 22 times a year and buy the maximum $1k money order each time.
https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/currency_12772.htm
This, along with the “internet campsite ” stuff, needing to reserve a camping spot on-line instead of “first come, first serve ” like it used to be, making it harder and harder to enjoy the outdoors overnight in a tent..with me, two times I “reserved ” and paid for a spot to camp and fish for 3 days and nights over the internet at Rock Creek , but when getting there,no record of it,and having to go through red tape and a hassle with, and for the camp-host too to find and verify…
So you think that it’s preferable to schedule a trip, gather everything needed, and travel to an area only to find that because of “first come, first served” there are no campsites available?
M. Anderson…
Then you move-on to another site, campground or boondock…
But I see your point,what with this last two or three year occurrance of the SoCal tourist tsunami’s the Owens and Mono Counties have had, and are having nowdays, and not just the week-ends, but week-days too..
Armored car for 22k a year? Cannot just have an armed law enforcement Park Ranger or Park Police make a monthly run to the bank?
Beside the fact of the feds not honoring their own notes.
Right? That’s not even $2k / month. That ROI is absurd.