While there are over 400 sites which are part of the system, only a small percentage of them actually charge an entrance fee to visit. It’s these sites which will be waiving their entrance fee. Below is a list of all the parks which will waive their fee for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. These include National Parks (NP), National Monuments (NM), National Recreation Areas (NRA), National Historic Parks (NHP) National Historic Sites (NHS), National Military Parks (NMP), National Seashores (NS), National Memorials (NM), National Battlefields (NB), National Lakeshores (NL), and National Expansion Memorials (NEM). The list includes the no cost entrance sites and which state they are located.
Alaska
Denali NP
Arizona
Casa Grande Ruins NM
Chiricahua NM
Glen Canyon NRA
Grand Canyon NP
Lake Mead NRA
Montezuma Castle NM
Organ Pipe Cactus NM
Petrified Forest NP
Pipe Spring NM
Saguaro NP
Sunset Crater Volcano NM
Tonto NM
Tumacacori NHP
Tuzigoot NM
Walnut Canyon NM
Wupatki NM
Arkansas
Fort Smith NHS
Pea Ridge NMP
California
Cabrillo NM
Death Valley NP
Joshua Tree NP
Lassen Volcanic NP
Lava Beds NM
Muir Woods NM
Pinnacles NP
Sequoia NP
Whiskeytown NRA
Yosemite NP
Colorado
Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP
Colorado NM
Dinosaur NM
Florissant Fossil Beds NM
Great Sand Dunes NP
Hovenweep NM
Mesa Verde NP
Rocky Mountain NP
Florida
Canaveral NS
Castillo de San Marcos NM
Dry Tortugas NP
Everglades NP
Gulf Islands NS
Georgia
Chattahoochee River NRA
Chickamauga and Chattanooga NMP
Cumberland Island NS
Fort Frederica NM
Fort Pulaski NM
Hawaii
Haleakala NP
Hawaii Volcanoes NP
Pu’uhonua o Honaunau NHP
Idaho
Craters of the Moon NM
Yellowstone NP
Indiana
Lincoln Boyhood NM
Maine
Acadia NP
Maryland
Antietam NB
Assateague Island NS
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal NHP
Fort McHenry NM and Historic Shrine NM
Fort Washington Park
Harpers Ferry NHP
Massachusetts
Adams National HP
Cape Cod NS
Michigan
Sleeping Bear Dunes NL
Minnesota
Pipestone NM
Mississippi
Gulf Islands NS
Vicksburg National MP
Missouri
Harry S Truman NHS
Jefferson NEM
Wilson’s Creek NB
Montana
Bighorn Canyon NRA
Glacier NP
Little Bighorn Battlefield NM
Yellowstone NP
Nebraska
Scotts Bluff NM
Nevada
Death Valley NP
Lake Mead NRA
New Hampshire
Saint-Gaudens NHS
New Jersey
Thomas Edison NHP
Morristown NHP
New Mexico
Aztec Ruins NM
Bandelier NM
Capulin Volcano NM
Carlsbad Caverns NP
Chaco Culture NHP
El Morro NM
Fort Union NM
Gila Cliff Dwellings NM
Pecos NHP
White Sands NM
New York
Eleanor Roosevelt NHS
Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt NHS
Martin Van Buren NHS
Sagamore Hill NHS
Saratoga NHS
Vanderbilt Mansion NHS
North Carolina
Wright Brothers NM
North Dakota
Theodore Roosevelt NP
Ohio
James A. Garfield NHS
Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial NM
Oklahoma
Fort Smith NHS
Oregon
Crater Lake NP
Lewis & Clark NHP
Pennsylvania
Allegheny Portage Railroad NHS
Fort Necessity NB
Johnstown Flood NM
Steamtown NHS
San Juan NHS
South Carolina
Fort Sumter NM
South Dakota
Badlands NP
Jewel Cave NM
Tennessee
Chickamauga and Chattanooga NMP
Texas
Big Bend NP
Fort Davis NHS
Guadalupe Mountains NP
Padre Island NS
Utah
Arches NP
Bryce Canyon NP
Canyonlands NP
Capitol Reef NP
Cedar Breaks NM
Dinosaur NM
Glen Canyon NRA
Golden Spike NHS
Hovenweep NM
Natural Bridges NM
Zion NP
Virgin Islands
Christiansted NHS
Virginia
Appomattox Court House NHP
Assateague Island NS
Colonial NHP
George Washington Memorial Parkway’s Great Falls Park
Manassas NBP
Petersburg NB
Prince William Forest Park
Shenandoah NP
Washington
Fort Vancouver NHS
Lewis & Clark NHP
Mount Rainier NP
Olympic NP
Whitman Mission NHS
West Virginia
Harpers Ferry NHP
Wyoming
Bighorn Canyon NRA
Devils Tower NM
Fort Laramie NHS
Grand Teton NP
Yellowstone NP
I love national parks and hope everybody takes the time to see and discover them, but the free entrance days are probably the worst day to visit them. It attracts a lot of people, so it’s much more crowded than usual. A much better way to visit is to buy an annual pass and go to many parks and as often as you want during the year.
I would agree for the most part, but it is a good day to go to a park you have never visited to see if it’s a place you’d like to explore more in depth at a later date. It will be more crowded than other days, so if you want to avoid crowds, it’s not the day to go.