In case you hadn’t heard yet, 2016 marks the centennial of the founding of the National Park Service (NPS). To celebrate, NPS sites throughout the US are waiving entrance fees on 16 days this year. A nine-day blowout called National Park Week gets underway this Saturday, April 16 and runs through April 24, spanning two full weekends and conveniently incorporating Earth Day.
While New York’s Adirondack Park is the largest area of protected public land in the country – bigger than Yellowstone, Everglades, Glacier and Grand Canyon National Parks combined – the state’s list of NPS-administered sites seems pathetically short at six. Fortunately for mid-Hudsonites, half of those are located right here in Hyde Park: the Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site, the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site and the Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site.
If you haven’t visited these national treasures lately (or ever), this is a terrific chance to remind yourself why people come here from all over to see them. Get off the couch, potato! Bring the whole family! It’s free! For more info about National Park Week, visit www.nps.gov/findapark/feefreeparks.htm or
www.nationalparks.org/connect/blog/2016-free-admission-days-national-parks.
Join the family! 
