Prices to tour the underground of Mammoth Cave National Park are going up in March/NPS shot of Mammoth Dome.
Mammoth Cave National Park Superintendent Sarah Craighead has announced that fee increases proposed last year will take effect on March 14. This year, income from park fees will fund renovations at the Mammoth Cave Hotel, she said.
Cave tours will increase by $1 to $2, except the Wild Cave tour, which will increase by $5, and camping fees will increase by $3 to $5. Fees for reservable picnic shelters will increase by $25. Some of these have not changed in seven or more years. Park staff are required to compare the cost of Mammoth Cave fees with the cost of comparable services in the local area in order to set rates.
'We asked for modest increases because we want to ensure that visiting Mammoth Cave will remain affordable,' said Superintendent Craighead in a release. 'However, the cost of operating the park continues to increase along with the need to complete improvement projects on aging park infrastructure. In total, we expect the fee increase to bring an additional $350,000 to the park this year.'
At Mammoth Cave, 80 percent of the money collected is used in the park to provide facilities and services that have direct benefit to park visitors. The remaining 20 percent helps support projects in the 270 national park units that do not charge entrance fees, such as nearby Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park in Hodgenville, Ky.
Fee dollars are a great asset to Mammoth Cave, park officials said. Fees have been used to fund the new visitor center, repair trails, roads and campsites, and cover the cost of summer tour guides and environmental education with local schools. Big Hollow Trail was also a product of the fee program.
Public comment was accepted from November 14 to December 5, 2014. The park received 17 comments, 12 favored increasing the fees, and five opposed increasing the fees.
The authority to charge recreational fees at national parks stems from the 2004 Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act.
Below is a chart of the past fees, the new fees that will begin on March 14, and the year of the last time a particular fee was increased.
Visitor service (tour, campsite, shelter)
past fee ($)
new fee ($)
year of last increase
Mammoth Passage Tour (Adult)
5
7
2001
Mammoth Passage Tour (Youth 6-12)
3.5
5
2001
Frozen Niagara Tour (Adult)
12
13
2014
Gothic Avenue Tour (Adult)
11
12
2005
Gothic Avenue Tour (Youth 6-12)
8
9
2005
Domes and Dripstones (Adult)
14
15
2014
Domes and Dripstones (Youth 6-12)
9
10
2014
Great Onyx Tour (Adult)
17
18
2014
Great Onyx Tour (Youth 6-12)
12
13
2014
Historic Tour (Adult)
12
14
2007
Historic Tour (Youth 6-12)
8
9
2005
Cleaveland Avenue (accessible) (Adult)
0
20
N/A
Cleaveland Avenue (accessible) (Youth 6-12)
0
14
N/A
River Styx Tour (Adult)
13
15
2007
River Styx Tour (Youth 6-12)
9
11
2007
Star Chamber Tour (Adult)
12
14
2007
Star Chamber Tour (Youth 6-12)
8
10
2007
Focus on Frozen Niagara-Photo Tour (Adult)
10
13
2007
Focus on Frozen Niagara (Youth 6-12)
8
9
2007
Trog (Child 8-12)
14
16
2007
Introduction to Caving (Adult)
25
26
2014
Introduction to Caving (Youth 6-12)
19
20
2014
Violet City Lantern Tour (Adult)
17
18
2014
Violet City Lantern Tour (Youth 6-12)
12
13
2014
Wild Cave Tour (Adult)
50
55
2014
Discovery Tour (Adult)
4
5
2001
Discovery Tour (Youth 6-12)
2.5
3.5
2001
Mammoth Cave Campground
17
20
2005
Mammoth Cave Group Campground
20
25
2005
Mammoth Cave VIP Campground
40
50
2005
Maple Springs Group/Equestrian (water/electric)
30
35
2007
Maple Springs Group/Equestrian (primitive)
22
25
2007
Open Picnic Shelter
25
50
2007
Enclosed Picnic Shelter
50
75
2007
Comments
Its funny how accustomed the NPS has made people to these fee increases that no one even comments anymore. The NPS has done a great job getting people used to their double taxation of American citizens. We all know this is being done in advance of the FLREA conversation. When FLREA is reconsidered, it could limit their ability to double tax citizens as they are currently so all the present fees will be grandfathered. This means that they will NEVER go away. Yet the president has turned in a whopping RAISE for the NPS? Talk about a leaky boat.
Interestingly, the revenues are to be used to pay for remodeling the park hotel. Why isn't the concessionaire who wins the contract charged with paying for that, as is done in Yellowstone and Grand Canyon national parks, just to cite two examples. In return for paying those costs, the concessionaires involved often have to return a lower percentage of revenues to the Park Service.
Just as interesting is that overnight lodging inside the national park has fallen by more than a third during the past decade, and so it's quite possible that the visitors paying the higher fees for cave tours will never spend a night in the hotel.
The finances of running a national park can't be easy to manage with all the various demands from user groups, federal benefits to be paid, maintenance and operation, etc. But wouldn't it seem to make more sense that as a federal building the Congress should take responsibility for its care and upkeep?
The discussion is about fee increases in general. We all know it is going to happen at virtually every unit. No need to start a whole new thread when each of the 405 units announce their increase.
Perhaps they are paying a higher concessionaire fee or have other expenses they do pay that Yellowstone and GC concessionaires don't pay. Hard to make comparisons on individual terms without havng the full contract in hand. But does raise an interesting questions. Should (can) the NPS have a standard contract across all parks or are customized contracts needed for each unit.
The lodging contract currently is up for bid, so they possibly could have adjusted the fees to reflect the investment in the hotel.
As for having a standard contract, that would be nice, but I believe there are too many differences in parks (lodgings, visitor patterns, environmental conditions, etc) to make that entirely feasible.
I think you are right on that Kurt.
I believe if the concessionaire does remodeling then they own a Leasehold surrender interest in the improvement where if the Park Service pays for it they do not have to charge the new bidder the upfront payoff of the previous tenant. Just a guess.
Yes, you're right, David. But so?