Even before the Trump Administration’s moves to shrink the federal government and the National Park Service (NPS) among other agencies, many national parks have been moving away from accepting cash.
With the number of visitors who opt for this method of payment continuing to drop from year to year, going fully digital can significantly cut staff time when almost all of the country’s 63 national parks are struggling with understaffing.
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Acadia National Park to stop accepting cash come April
Saguaro National Park in Arizona and Great Falls Park in Virginia are some of the ones that are currently already fully cash-free — a policy change that three parkgoers unsuccessfully tried to challenge in court by drawing upon an old U.S. law stating that “coins and currency […] are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes and dues.”
Located on Mount Desert Island off the coast of Maine, Acadia just became the latest national park to scrap cash payments. Due to its isolation from the mainland, the national park, known for its rocky coastline and historic carriage roads, has fewer staff to navigate the increasing flow of visitors.
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Some of the most common situations in which cash is needed at Acadia include reserving parks, booking campgrounds, and paying for other activities; while the national park also has a timed-slot reservation system for driving in during peak visitor periods between May and October, the service is free but needs to be paid for online, so it cannot be paid in cash.
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‘Rangers spend up to eight hours documenting, reporting and transferring cash receipts’
“Cash sales represent less than 5% of in person sales in the park,” the NPS said in a statement announcing the decision. “During peak season, Acadia’s rangers spend up to eight and a half hours per day documenting, reporting, and transferring cash receipts. Moving to a cashless system will reduce the amount of time park staff spend managing cash and increase their availability to collect fees, increasing the amount of fee revenue available to support critical projects and visitor services.”
The change comes into effect on April 15; anyone coming into Acadia past that date will only be able to make payments by credit card, debit card or mobile payment system like Apple Pay (APPL)  or Google Wallet (GOOGL) .
For those who can only pay with cash, there is a small but inconvenient lifeline: one can go to one of nine third-party vendors in the area and then return to the park with a receipt.
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In the same announcement, the NPS also justified the entrance fees for vehicles that it put in place in 2021 — these are currently set at $35 per vehicle for a seven-day pass and $70 for an annual one.
“Entrance fees are a critical source of revenue used to improve the experience for visitors in national parks,” the government agency wrote. “For example, entrance fee revenue supported last year’s repair of the Bubbles Divide Trail, repairing comfort stations in our historic campgrounds, and removing hazard trees across the park.”
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