Cash isn't accepted at national parks. Three visitors are suing - Los Angeles Times
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The National Park Service will only take plastic at its parks. Three visitors are suing to use cash

A view of Death Valley.
Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes at Death Valley National Park. The National Park Service does not accept cash for payment of entry fees. An Ojai woman is among those suing.
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
By Summer LinStaff Writer 
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The National Park Service has been sued over its policy of accepting only payment of credit cards or debit cards for entry fees and refusing to take cash, a policy the agency that manages national parks, national monuments and other sites adopted last year.

Three park visitors, Esther van der Werf of Ojai, Toby Stover of High Falls, N.Y. and Elizabeth Dasburg of Darien, Ga., filed the lawsuit March 6 in the U.S. District Court of D.C., saying that they were prevented from using cash at national parks, historic sites and monuments across the country, including in Arizona, New York and Georgia.

They said that the National Park Service’s cashless policy violates federal law, citing a U.S. code that requires U.S. currency to be legal tender for all public charges. But the federal agency argues that accepting cash is costly and time-consuming.

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Van der Werf said that she was denied entry at the Tonto National Monument, Saguaro National Park and Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona, according to the lawsuit. Stover wasn’t able to visit the Roosevelt-Vanderbilt National Historic Site in New York after trying to pay for the $10 tour in cash. Dasburg emailed the Ft. Pulaski National Historic Site in Georgia to ask how to enter the park without a debit or credit card and was told to go to a Walmart or grocery store to buy a gift card.

Sequoia National Park, CA - A visitor poses for pi ctures next to the General Sherman Tree in Sequoia National Park. Scientists have found that many of the conifer forests in low-elevation areas of the Sierra Nevada are relics of the climate before the onset of global warming and won't be able to survive the current conditions. About one-fifth of all conifer forests in the Sierra Nevada mountains are now mismatched with the warmer climate and have become "zombie forests," according to research by scientists at Stanford University.(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

Climate & Environment

America’s four most polluted national parks are in California, study finds

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks topped the list of national parks with the unhealthiest air in the country, followed by Joshua Tree National Park.

The NPS began implementing cashless policies at multiple locations in 2023, including Death Valley National Park. The park service said in a news release that $22,000 in cash collected at Death Valley the previous year took more than $40,000 to process.

“Cash handling costs include an armored car contract to transport cash and park rangers’ time counting money and processing paperwork,†the park wrote in the news release. “The transition to cashless payments will allow the NPS to redirect the $40,000 previously spent processing cash to directly benefit park visitors.â€

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Summer Lin

Summer Lin is a reporter on the Fast Break Desk, the Los Angeles Times’ breaking news team. Before coming to The Times, she covered breaking news for the Mercury News and national politics and California courts for McClatchy’s publications, including the Miami Herald. An East Coast native, Lin moved to California after graduating from Boston College and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Lin was among The Times’ staff members who covered the Monterey Park mass shooting in 2023, which was recognized by the Pulitzer Board as a finalist in breaking news.

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