Get out your calendars, Mesa Verde National Park will offer nine free admission days next year.
The park will offer free admission on nine days in 2015.
The entrance fee-free days are:
Jan. 19: Martin Luther King Jr. Day
•Feb. 14-16: Presidents Day weekend
April 18-19: National Park Week’s opening weekend
Aug. 25: National Park Service’s 99th birthday
Sept. 26: National Public Lands Day
Nov. 11: Veterans Day
“Fee-free days offer a wonderful time for new visitors to become familiar with the park and for return visitors to reacquaint themselves,” said Superintendent Cliff Spencer. “I urge everyone to take advantage of this opportunity.”
Mesa Verde, Spanish for green table, offers a direct look into the lives of the ancestral Puebloan people who made it their home for more than 700 years, from 600 to 1300. Today, the park protects nearly 5,000 known archaeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings. These sites are some of the most notable and best preserved in the United States.
The entrance fee waiver does not cover camping or tours.
Last year, Mesa Verde National Park had more than 460,000 visitors. Those visitors spent $45.09 million local communities which helped to support 617 jobs.