Trying to save money on your next visit to one of Colorado’s greatest natural treasures? Some dates on the 2026 calendar will help you do just that, starting Monday. 

Presidents Day is the first of the National Park Service’s free entrance days scheduled for the year. 

That means saving $25-$30 on passes at places like Rocky Mountain, Great Sand Dunes, Black Canyon of the Gunnison and Mesa Verde national parks in Colorado. Fees are also waived at national monuments, including Colorado, Dinosaur and Florissant Fossil Beds national monuments. 

In a change for 2026, the free entrance days will not apply to international visitors as part of what an Interior Department news release described as “America-first entry fee policies.” The new policies require non-residents to pay $250 for an annual pass ($80 for U.S. residents) or otherwise pay $100 per person in order to enter 11 of the most visited national parks. Rocky Mountain National Park is one of those. 

The new policies also added more free entrance days compared with prior years, while removing some dates that were previously scheduled, including Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the first day of National Park Week, Juneteenth, the anniversary of the Great American Outdoors Act and National Public Lands Day. 

The Interior news release listed Presidents Day as the first of “resident-only patriotic fee-free days for 2026,” followed by: 

• Memorial Day (May 25) 

• Flag Day/President Trump’s birthday (June 14) 

• Independence Day weekend (July 3-5)

• 110th birthday of the National Park Service (Aug. 25) 

• Constitution Day (Sept. 17) 

• Theodore Roosevelt’s birthday (Oct. 27) 

• Veterans Day (Nov. 11)