Green Is The New Black: Free State Parks On Friday

California’s ‘Green Friday’ initiative offers free passes for nearly half the state’s 280 parks the day after Thanksgiving.

Here’s a free way to skip the chaos of Black Friday shopping. Go to a state park in California, for free. More than 13,000 day-use vehicle passes are available as part of the ‘Green Friday’ promotion, which launched last week.

Visitors can nab a day-use pass on a first-come, first-served basis for any of the 116 participating state parks. These include Big Basin Redwoods State Park, Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park, Sonoma State Historic Park, and many more.

The pass covers admission and parking. But once they’re gone, they’re gone.

#GreenFriday

Members and donors of California’s Save the Redwoods League and the State Parks Foundation collaborated on the program.

Last year, “we offered free ‘Green Friday’ state park passes for 48 parks, and the response was overwhelming,” said Sam Hodder, of Save the Redwoods League.

“We realized we had the constituency and momentum to create a new tradition.”

It looks like that tradition is taking off. This year’s “Green Friday” 13,000 passes is a big leap from last year’s launch.

REI To #OptOutside Again On Black Friday

The giant outdoors retailer will close its doors on Black Friday again in 2016 to give employees and customers a day to play in the outdoors. Read more…

With REI’s #OptOutside program, which encourages customers to get outside by closing all its store on Black Friday, now in its second year, we are excited to see more “buy nothing” and “go play” initiatives take hold across the country.

Passes for #GreenFriday parks are already “selling” out, so check out the program page soon.