JOE FRUGAL: Free Admission to National Parks on Saturday

Today and tomorrow I'll be spilling the beans on a couple of things you can do this weekend.

In my family, the start of Fall means the start of weekend getaways.  We're always looking for something to do within a few hours drive... some place we can drive to in the morning, spend the day there, and then drive back that night.

Saturday, you can access nearly 400 national parks for free as part of National Public Lands Days.

At the same time, National Public Lands Day will offer a wide range of projects and activities, including litter removal, planting trees, testing water quality, restoring campgrounds and educating the general public about the history of well-known national and community public lands.

In Tennessee, you'll find about 25 locations offering service projects, including the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Cumberland Trail State Park.  In Georgia, some 24 sites need help, like the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site and Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.

So, you can either go to a national park for free, or volunteer to do a needed project on public land.  You'll find a complete list of nearby sites still searching for volunteers here.

Tomorrow, I'll tell you how to get into Huntsville's Space & Rocket Museum for free on Saturday!