The National Park Service Is Turning 110 — Here’s How to Join the Party

110 looks pretty good in hiking boots.

On August 25, 2026, the National Park Service celebrates its 110th birthday, and this year the party is bigger than the usual ranger-program-and-cupcake situation. The birthday falls smack in the middle of National Park Week, August 22–30, which means nine days of events, programs, outdoor adventures, history, wildlife, Junior Ranger activities and plenty of reasons to go play outside!

Oh, and there’s a birthday present: entrance fees are waived at national parks on August 25 for U.S. citizens and residents. More on that in a minute.

The Parks Came Before the Park Service

Did you know America had national parks before it had anyone specifically in charge of managing them all?

Yellowstone became the country’s first national park in 1872, more than four decades before the National Park Service existed. More parks and national monuments followed, but a hodgepodge of federal agencies managed them. Some fell under the Department of the Interior, others under the War Department or the Department of Agriculture. No single agency oversaw the whole shebang.

Enter businessman and conservationist Stephen T. Mather and his colleague Horace Albright, who helped build public and political support for a dedicated national park agency. On August 25, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the National Park Service Organic Act, officially creating the National Park Service within the Department of the Interior. Mather would become its first director the following year.

The agency was charged with a job that sounds simple until you think about it: protect these places while also helping people experience them, leaving their natural and historic resources unimpaired for future generations.

Today, the National Park System includes more than 400 sites, and they’re definitely not all the giant western landscapes we tend to picture when somebody says “national park.” The system includes national parks, monuments, seashores, battlefields, historic sites, memorials, recreation areas and plenty more.

The 2026 Birthday Party Is a Whole Week

This year’s NPS birthday happens during National Park Week, running August 22–30, 2026. The theme is “Celebrate America’s Story,” tying into the United States’ 250th anniversary. Each day gets its own theme, from Safety Sunday and Watch Wildlife Wednesday to Staff Saturday, with the week wrapping up on National Junior Ranger Day, August 30.

But Tuesday, August 25, is the big one: the National Park Service’s 110th Birthday and Fee-Free Day.

The NPS has even put together a “10 for 110” list of ways to celebrate. You could join a ranger program, hike or bike a trail, earn a Junior Ranger badge, volunteer, visit a monument or memorial, stay out for some stargazing or—my personal favorite—bring your own birthday cake and have a picnic.

Their advice: feed the rangers, not the wildlife.

Seriously. Solid rule year-round.

See all the official birthday ideas here.

Field Tip: Yes, August 25 Is a Fee-Free Day. But Check the Fine Print.

On August 25, National Park Service sites that normally charge an entrance fee will waive that entrance fee for U.S. citizens and residents. Beginning in 2026, NPS free-entrance days no longer apply to non-U.S. residents.

Also important: free admission doesn’t necessarily mean every part of your visit is free. Some parks still require timed-entry reservations, tour reservations or other fees, so check the individual park website before you head out.

How to Find National Park Birthday Events Near You

Start with the National Park Service’s Find a Park tool. You may discover an NPS site much closer to home than you realized.

Then browse the NPS event calendar for ranger talks, guided walks, cultural demonstrations, Junior Ranger programs, birthday celebrations and other special events.

There are virtual programs too, so you can participate even if a park day isn’t in the cards.

Check your chosen park’s individual website before leaving home. Event times, reservations, road conditions, parking and weather can all vary dramatically from one site to another.

Find someplace you haven’t explored. Talk to a ranger. Read the signs. Look at the weird little bug. Learn the story behind the place. Stay for sunset.

And if cake happens to make it into the daypack? Hey, it’s a birthday.