America's National Park Service turns 98 on Monday, August 25th. To celebrate, each of the country's 401 national parks, monuments, memorials, and assorted historic sites will be waiving its entry fees.
Above: Timelapse sequences from Yosemite HD II, by filmmakers Colin Delehanty and Sheldon Neill. More info here.
Roughly two thirds of the sites in the National Park system are free to access all year-round, but it's in that remaining third that you'll find a lot of real bucket-list destinations. Denali National Park (in Alaska), Saguaro National Park (in Arizona), Yosemite (in California), and 130 other NPS destinations typically charge some sort of entrance fee, so if you've been itching to visit any of these on the cheap, now's your chance!
Looking for the national park nearest you? You may find this map useful. For more information and help planning your trip on free entrance day, visit the National Park Service website.
Can't make it out on Monday? The NPS plans to waive entrance fees on two more occasions in 2014, the first on September 27th, in observance of National Public Lands Day, the second on November 11, in observance of Veterans Day. For a list of free entrance days in the National Parks, see here.