You may have heard of the new National Park Pass, which costs $80 and practically pays for itself with three trips to national parks around the country.

In some states there is also a state park pass, but you’d better do the math before you buy one.

In California for example, a Golden Poppy Pass costs $90 and is good for vehicle entrance at 97 parks.

A Connecticut State Park pass costs $50 for locals and $75 for out-of-towners and gets you free entrance to nearly 150 state parks and forests.

So is it worth it? In Connecticut, the daily entrance fees are usually $7 for residents and $10 for non-residents.

So if you do the math, you’d need to spend about a week in state parks before it’s worth it.

In Colorado an annual pass costs $60 per vehicle.

That will get you into 43 parks around the state where entrance fees usually cost about $6 per day.

My advice: unless you’re a local who not only loves the great outdoors but lives there, you’ll want to go á la carte on this one.

For more advice, please visit our National Parks section.

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