Why camping fees may increase at Dinosaur National Monument
Apr 29, 2024, 12:45 PM
Dinosaur National Park officials announced Monday that they are considering new camping fees at the park beginning in 2025. The parks' fees were last adjusted in 2016. (National Park Service)
(National Park Service)
JENSEN, Uintah County — Dinosaur National Monument camping fees may soon change, for the first time in almost a decade.
Managers of the park straddling the Utah-Colorado border proposed new camping fees on Monday. If approved, the cost to camp at six campgrounds across the park will change beginning in 2025:
- Deerlodge Park: The high season rate will increase from $10 to $14 (senior/access pass rate will increase from $5 to $7). The offseason rate will increase from $6 to $12 (senior/access pass rate will increase from $3 to $6).
- Echo Park: The high season rate will increase from $10 to $14 (senior/access pass rate will increase from $5 to $7). The offseason rate will increase from $6 to $12 (senior/access pass rate will increase from $3 to $6).
- Echo Park (group site): The high season rate will increase from $15 to $25 for all users, while the offseason rate will remain at $15.
- Gates of Lodore: The high season rate will increase from $10 to $14 (senior/access pass rate will increase from $5 to $7). The offseason rate will increase from $6 to $12 (senior/access pass rate will increase from $3 to $6).
- Green River: The high season rate will increase from $18 to $24 (senior/access pass rate will increase from $9 to $12). The campground remains closed in the offseason.
- Rainbow Park: Both season rates will increase from $6 to $12 (senior/access pass rate will increase from $3 to $6).
- Split Mountain group site: The offseason rate will increase from $6 to $12 (senior/access pass rate will increase from $3 to $6). The high season rate will remain at $40 for all users.
The park’s current fees were last adjusted in 2016. And while the park recorded a little more than 325,000 visits last year — similar to its traffic over the past decade — the cost of maintaining park facilities has risen over the past decade, Dinosaur National Monument spokesman Dan Johnson said.
“The price of labor and everything has increased since then,” he told KSL.com. “All the fees we collect from our campgrounds and also our entrance fees are basically put back into maintenance, facility upgrades and things like that.”
Parks are also required to conduct a comparability study “every so often,” Johnson said, so its fees aren’t putting nearby businesses at a disadvantage. Thus, the proposed fee changes were proposed after considering the cost of camping at other private and public facilities in northeastern Utah and northwestern Colorado.
The National Park Service will collect public comment on the plan before any increases are finalized. People can submit their public comments on the park’s website or by emailing park officials at DINO_Fees@nps.gov, with the subject line “proposed camping fees,” between Wednesday and June 1.
Rangers will review the comments before anything is finalized, Johnson said. Any changes would go into effect Jan. 1, 2025.
