Jackson, Wyo. • The National Park Service is considering raising entrance fees to Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks by $5.
Vehicles entering the parks now are charged $25 for a seven-day pass good for both parks.
The Park Service is looking at fee increases at other parks around the country as well.
"We're certainly one of the parks that is eligible to have a review of our entrance fees," Yellowstone spokesman Al Nash said. "We've discussed it for a while, including before we got the notice that our Washington office was willing to accept proposals."
Eighty percent of entrance fees are retained within the park where they are collected. The balance goes to a nationwide Park Service account and is distributed to park units that don't charge entrance fees, Nash said.
A $5 increase in the rate per vehicle would likely add more than $1 million annually to Yellowstone's coffers.
The world's first national park typically collects about $8 million at its gates, Nash said.
"Certainly it would be a significant additional amount of money available for us to use to benefit visitors here in Yellowstone," he told the Jackson Hole News & Guide (http://bit.ly/1vDKg5O).
Yellowstone and Grand Teton officials have until mid-February to submit proposals to increase their fees. The proposals will be received and have to be approved by the Park Service's regional office.
Under the proposal, Grand Teton park would also go from $25 to $30 a vehicle, spokesman Andrew White said.
"We are working with Yellowstone and kind of considering our options together," White said.
Grand Teton generates significantly less money than Yellowstone at its entrance stations each year. Entrance fee collections typically near $3.2 million a year, White said.
White said that entrance fees are an "important part" of the park's revenue and support activities such as trail maintenance, re-vegetation of social trails and upkeep of outhouses and scenic overlooks.
Nash said the Park Service's regional offices will review each park's proposal this spring, but the timeline for putting the increases into effect is still up in the air.
"We've had discussions about this," he said, "but we don't have any of the details worked out."
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Information from: Jackson Hole (Wyo.) News And Guide, http://www.jhnewsandguide.com