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
Maybe the "so" is so the NPS won't end up the same situation they have at Grand Canyon, where the concessioner's surrender value has gotten so high that it's difficult to impossible to get anyone to bid on a new contract. When that happens, I don't think visitors or the NPS benefits.
Different situations JT. Most of Xanterra's LSI was accumulated over decades, before the provisions of the 1998 act were implemented. We're working on a story that will address this in more detail, but the way things are designed now no concessionaire should be able to amass such an interest in a facility.
Thanks.
I do not like the fact that a concessionaire can use the LSI as a stranglehold on competitive bids thus there are no bids exept the one who owns the LSI.
David,
You sure wouldn't like things in the Smokies then. The only concession that has ever been allowed to operate a private lodge in the Great Smoky Mtns National Park is Leconte Lodge. They suppress the information as to when the purported bid goes public and for good reason. They pull in about 1.8 million dollars per year in exchange for a paltry 200k return to the NPS. In addition, they get the sham "friends" groups to run PR campaigns for the lodge and extol the virtues of running weekly Lllama trips to resupply said lodge on a very fragile trail system. (ironically, the lodge managers complained non stop about dogs being brought up on "their" trail system) Just the damage to that 8 mile trail alone is likely in the 20 thousand dollars per year category. And guess who the biggest proponents of fees in the park were? You guessed it. The lodge itself and sham Great Smoky Mtns Association. Why they even went so far as to produce a PR piece for the Lllamas on that trail recently appropriately entitled, Grandstand of the Smokies. Here is a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRqmj85Gu1s
There is something dreadfully wrong with Jarvis NPS. They have seriously lost their way. The moustache club needs some trimming.
Once again, lots of lies, and baseless attacks by Jihad Johnny. None of which have any accuracy or truth to them. .
Nobody likes that. However, the concessionaire should be compensated for upgrades (hard or soft) they create in the properties. Perhaps it would be better to credit it immediately against their concesssionaire fees so that LSI would not build to levels that become a barrier to competitive bids. Or, there needs to be a better process to determine what the property values actually are.