Originally Posted by
cyccommute
The list of National Park service attractions where no fee is charged is a lot longer on the eastern side of the Mississippi then the west and we pay more. Great Smoky National Park, all the stuff around DC, the Dayton Aviation Center, Natchez Trace, the C&O and a whole host of others are free of charge. Not paying a fee to enter a National Park or National Monument in the west is very rare.
That hasn't been my experience. Lots of free NPS sites fairly local to me in California including: Redwood National Park, John Muir National Monument, Pt. Reyes National Seashore, Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site (incl. free shuttle and guided tour), Channel Islands National Park, Golden Gate National Recreation Area incl. Marin Headlands Park. And then there are the vast areas of National Forest Service land that are generally free to access and offer low cost or free camping opportunities. Overall I felt that there were far more free or low-cost outdoor opportunities after moving to the west than I ever experienced east of the Mississippi.