Admission Waived At CA's National Parks On Martin Luther King Jr. Day

CALIFORNIA — Places where Martin Luther King and others in the Civil Rights Movement made history are among 400 National Park Service facilities, including those in California, that will waive admission fees on Monday in honor of King's birthday.

MLK Day, observed every year on the third Monday of January, has been a federal holiday since 1986 and is a day off for many Americans. Facilities in California that are waiving admission include:

• Cabrillo National Monument
• Death Valley National Park
• Joshua Tree National Park
• Lassen Volcanic National Park
• Lava Beds National Monument
• Muir Woods National Monument
• Pinnacles National Park
• San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park
• Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks
• Whiskeytown National Recreation Area
• Yosemite National Park

MLK Day is the only federal holiday designated as a day of service. Some of the places with special volunteer opportunities for visitors include the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park in Atlanta; the Selma to Montgomery Historic Trail, which traces the footsteps of King and other civil rights activists in the 1965 Voting Rights March in Alabama; and the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., where King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech.

Some events in California include:

• Beach Cleanup, Channel Islands National Park, Ventura County
• Habitat Restoration Dipsea Trail, Marin County
• Habitat Restoration Tennessee Valley, Tennessee Valley, Marin County
• Monarch Enhancement Planting, Marin County
• Muir Woods Maintenance, Muir Woods National Monument, Marin County

Other free admission days at national parks in 2024 are:

• April 20: First day of National Park Week
• June 19: Juneteenth National Independence Day
• Aug. 4: Anniversary of the Great American Outdoors Act
• Sept. 28: National Public Lands Day
• Nov. 11: Veterans Day