Lake Mead, national parks offer free entry Tuesday
If you don’t have to work on Tuesday — or you’re looking for an excuse not to — consider heading out to the lake for some free parking.
Lake Mead National Recreation Area and other National Park Service sites across the nation are waiving admission fees for the service’s 99th birthday. That means free entry at the national parks nearest to Las Vegas: Death Valley in California, Zion in Utah and Grand Canyon in Arizona.
Great Basin National Park in Nevada doesn’t charge entrance fees, so every day there is like a birthday celebration.
In addition to waiving the usual $10 fee, Lake Mead will offer free birthday cake at the visitor center at 1 p.m. while supplies last.
The 1.5 million-acre park on the Nevada-Arizona border east of Las Vegas recently announced Lizette Richardson as its new superintendent.
Richardson will start work in early October. She previously spent about 9 years as the maintenance and engineering chief at Lake Mead, and she currently heads up the construction program management division at the Park Service’s national office in Denver.
The Park Service isn’t waiting until next year to celebrate its centennial. Earlier this year, it launched the Find Your Park campaign aimed at promoting what the system has to offer, highlighting problems facing parks and boosting visitation.
Contact Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350. Find him on Twitter: @RefriedBrean