Visitors to White Sands National Park in New Mexico, USA can now purchase and download their entrance passes completely online.
White Sands becomes the latest unit of America’s national park system to implement electronic entry.
It’s a sign of added convenience but also increased demand. The electronic passes can be obtained at the website Recreation.gov, which was set up to manage advanced reservations for visitors to enter and enjoy the nation’s most crowded national parks.
The US National Park Service says the website can be used to purchase 7-day passes or annual passes to White Sands.
“The park has joined with other public land sites in providing digital passes through Recreation.gov to better serve their visitors,” NPS said.
Still, NPS recommends that visitors purchase and then download the passes to their phones or make print-out copies of the passes. This is because cellular phone access can be spotty at the park, therefore people may run into trouble getting access to purchased passes in their email inboxes.
NPS characterized the move as just another step into the modern era.
“This digital pass technology will allow people to save some time at the entrance station and reduce long lines by purchasing a pass in advance,” White Sands National Park Superintendent Marie Frias Sauter said in the NPS announcement.
Other national parks that have implemented digital parks passes include Arches National Park in Utah, Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, and Big Bend National Park in Texas, among others.
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Park Info
Park Name:
White Sands National Park
Location:
New Mexico, USA
More Information:
