For those of you who missed the last fee-free weekend at Yellowstone National Park you will be happy to know that they are doing it again on August 15 and 16. Responding to the tough economic times and wanting to give as many people as possible the opportunity to go on a Yellowstone tour, the Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, came up with the fee-free weekends to encourage Americans to tour their national parks.

Yellowstone tours include some of the most breathtaking scenery in North America. With over three hundred active geysers, sixty-seven species of mammals and three hundred twenty recorded species of birds. Yellowstone Lake, at 7000 feet above sea level, is the largest high elevation lake in North America and a great place to get in some fishing or just a peaceful boat ride under the wide open sky.

The August fee-free weekend is not the first this summer, nor is it limited to strictly Yellowstone tours. The intent of the Department of the Interior is to make it possible for tourists to visit all national parks this summer, not just Yellowstone Park. There are one hundred forty seven national parks in the United States that charge fees for admission and all of them will be fee-free on August 15 and 16. Most Americans live within easy driving distance of at least one of them, so it’s a great way to spend a summer weekend with the family.

The other two fee-free summer weekends for Yellowstone tours have already passed: June 20 and 21 and July 18 and 19. Early indications are that this national parks “stimulus” package has increased the tourist numbers and actually brought in additional revenue in souvenir and concession sales. Hikers, birdwatchers, and photographers have turned out by the hundreds to take advantage of the savings.

If you’re planning on taking a Yellowstone tour this year, make sure you check out the Fishing Bridge Museum, Norris Geyser Basin Museum, Obsidian Cliff, the Old Faithful Inn and Historic District, Roosevelt Lodge Historic District, and Fort Yellowstone at Mammoth Hot Springs. Your kids can enjoy becoming a Junior Ranger or Junior Scientist and you can be guided through Yellowstone by a real live park ranger who will answer any question you might have.