Yosemite latest to offer electronic park entrance passes

The number of public lands and national parks offering electronic visitor passes and permits is growing. Yosemite National Park, in California, recently announced that it has joined the YourPassNow program, which offers visitors new digital passes. Yosemite began offering the passes June 21. Through YourPassNow, those planning to visit a participating location can go online and purchase a pass in advance. Once paid for, the digital pass can be saved to a cellphone digital wallet or downloaded and printed. Rangers can then scan the pass at the park’s entrance station. The program is already available to visitors at several National Park Service sites across the country including Acadia, Everglades, Grand Canyon, Theodore Roosevelt, Sequoia, Kings Canyon and Yellowstone National Parks; Castillo de San Marcos and Colorado National Monuments; Whiskeytown National Recreation Area; Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area; Wayne National Forest; and the Bureau of Land Management’s Lake Havasu Field Office. “We are pleased to offer this opportunity for visitors to purchase park passes at home or on their mobile devices,” Yosemite National Park Superintendent Michael Reynolds said in a statement. “This exciting technology provides visitors with the option for buying their park entrance passes in advance while on the road or from home.” There is no additional cost for purchasing the passes through YourPassNow. Among the Yosemite passes available through the program are private vehicle entrance ($35, valid one to seven days), motorcycle entrance ($30, valid one to seven days), individual/bicycle entrance ($20, valid one to seven days) and the Yosemite annual pass ($70 valid for one year from month of purchase). Developed in cooperation with the National Park Service, YourPassNow is aimed at making it easy and convenient for visitors to purchase entrance passes and land access permits to public lands online. The program was designed to streamline the paper-based purchase process that was previously only available at physical park locations or approved resellers.