Denali Entrance Fees altered once more

The National Park Service is changing the way it charges visitors to Denali National Park and Preserve. Visitors now will be charged per head, not per vehicle.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner says after reviewing public comments, the park service has decided to eliminate a $20-a-vehicle entrance fee and instead charge a flat $10-a-person entrance fee for visitors age 16 and older. That means a vehicle with four adults in it will have to pay $40 instead of $20. The Park Service says the vehicle fee was eliminated because the park does not collect the fee at an entrance station like the majority of national parks around the U.S. The change took place on Sunday.

National parks in Alaska also reported a 2 percent increase in visitors in 2011, according to preliminary figures. The National Park Service says there were about 2.32 million visits to Alaska parks in 2011, an increase of about 50-thousand from 2010. Final numbers should be released next spring. Five parks — Denali, Kenai Fjords, Glacier Bay, Klondike Gold Rush and Sitka — account for about 90 percent of those visits. Kenai Fjords National Park is on the Kenai Peninsula. Glacier Bay National Park and Klondike Gold Rush and Sitka national historic parks are in southeast Alaska and are popular stops for cruise ship passengers.