Boat ramp launch fees, state by state

Of those 5,232 records, 3,796 state that launching is free and 1,436 state that a fee applies — 27% of the ramps where the question is answered at all.

That denominator is the whole point. A fee field is absent far more often than it is present, and an absent field is not a free ramp. Day-use fees are frequently set by the parking lot or the park gate rather than by the ramp, so a state agency inventorying launch structures may legitimately have nothing to record while you still pay $8 to leave the car.

Where a fee is actually published

What to check before you tow

• The fee on a ramp page is the fee the agency published, at the date on that page. It is the only figure here that is not ours.
• Annual launch permits usually cost less than four or five day passes, and several states sell them for out-of-state boats at a higher rate.
• Federal ramps — Army Corps, Forest Service, Bureau of Reclamation — often honour the America the Beautiful pass at the gate but not at the ramp, or the reverse. The signage at the site governs.
• Where a ramp page shows no fee, treat the cost as unknown, not as zero.