National Forests, Parks Offer Free Entrance

Visitors to nationals forests and parks will not have to pay any fees this weekend in honor of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

According to the U.S. Forest Service, fee waivers are in effect from Saturday to Monday in all parts of the 676,666-acre San Bernardino National Forest, about a third of which is in Riverside County, and in the Cleveland National Forest, which borders southwest Riverside County.

"We encourage the public to get outdoors in America's vast and dynamic playground," Tom Tidwell of the Forest Service said. "We hope that visiting ...beautiful national forests and grasslands will help people gain a deep appreciation for natural resources and create lifelong memories."

Rangers said the fee waivers are also part of an effort to boost economic activity near parkland. They said access to 98 percent of federally protected land is free most, if not all, of the time.

Future fee-waiver weekends are planned on June 9, Sept. 29 and Nov. 10.

More information is available at http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/sanbernardino/ap/.

In addition, the National Park Service is offering free entrance to 100 national parks this weekend, including Joshua Tree National Park and Cabrillo National Monument. To see a full list of parks offering free entrance this weekend, click here.