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DUI on federal land costs: the park regulation, the federal court, the state-law route
A DUI stop inside a national park does not run through the county courthouse down the road. Our DMV hearing guide prices the state administrative case; this page prices the federal one — the National Park Service regulation that defines the offence, the penalty frame that attaches to it, the separate refusal prohibition, and the Assimilative Crimes Act route by which a state DUI statute can be charged in federal court instead.
The offence lives in a park regulation, not a state code
Title 36 of the Code of Federal Regulations, section 4.23, prohibits operating or being in actual physical control of a motor vehicle in a park area while under the influence of alcohol or drugs to a degree that renders the operator incapable of safe operation, or while the alcohol concentration in the operator's blood or breath is 0.08 grams or more per 100 millilitres of blood or per 210 litres of breath. The regulation adds a detail state pages on this site do not carry: if the state where the park sits sets a more restrictive alcohol concentration limit, the state limit supersedes the 0.08 figure in the regulation itself.
The same section governs testing. At the request or direction of an authorised person who has probable cause, the operator shall submit to one or more tests of blood, breath, saliva or urine. Refusal to submit is itself prohibited by section 4.23(c)(2), and proof of the refusal may be admitted in a related judicial proceeding. That is a different structure from the state implied-consent pages elsewhere on this site: in the park system the refusal is a prohibited act inside the same regulation that defines the DUI, rather than a separate administrative suspension priced by a licensing agency.
Section 4.2 of the same part supplies the second charging route. Unless a park regulation specifically addresses the conduct, traffic and vehicle use in a park area are governed by state law, state law is adopted as part of the park regulations, and violating state law is prohibited. Where a federal enclave prosecution proceeds under the Assimilative Crimes Act, 18 U.S.C. section 13, the surrounding state's DUI statute supplies the offence and its punishment range, heard in federal court. Which route a case takes is a charging decision, and the two routes do not price the same way.
The federal components that are published
Two cost components recur in park DUI cases and are deliberately not priced in the table. The first is any state-law fine imported through the state-law route: that figure belongs to the surrounding state's DUI statute and is priced, state by state, in the penalties breakdowns already on this site rather than restated here as a federal figure. The second is programme cost — evaluation or treatment ordered as a condition of federal probation is billed by the provider, and no park regulation publishes a tariff for it. The published federal frame is the table below.
| DUI component | Published amount |
|---|---|
| National Park Service DUI — definition (36 CFR 4.23(a)) | Operating or in actual physical control while incapable of safe operation, or at 0.08 or more; a more restrictive state limit supersedes the 0.08 figure |
| Penalty frame for a park regulation violation (36 CFR 1.3; 18 U.S.C. § 1865(a)) | Fine of not more than $5,000 for an individual, imprisonment of not more than 6 months, or both, and payment of all court costs under § 1865(a) as summarised in published references to the statute |
| Refusal of a blood, breath, saliva or urine test (36 CFR 4.23(c)) | Refusal is prohibited as its own act under the regulation; proof of refusal may be admitted in a related judicial proceeding — no separate refusal fine is published in the regulation |
| State-law route (36 CFR 4.2; Assimilative Crimes Act, 18 U.S.C. § 13) | The surrounding state's DUI statute supplies the offence and its fine range; priced in this site's state penalties breakdowns, not as a federal figure |
| Appeal from a federal conviction (Court of Appeals fee schedules, effective December 1, 2023) | $605 paid to the district court clerk — a $600 docketing fee plus a $5 filing fee; priced in full on this run's appeal page |
Sources: 36 CFR 4.23 and 4.2 (National Park Service, Title 36, Part 4); 36 CFR 1.3; 18 U.S.C. §§ 13, 1865; U.S. Courts of Appeals fee schedules effective December 1, 2023. Last verified: October 2026.
The fine is one line in a longer stack — court costs, program fees, interlock, supervision and reinstatement all bill separately. Price the layers that apply to your case in the calculator.
Open the DUI cost calculatorWhat the federal frame does not publish
No park regulation publishes a total cost of a federal DUI, and none is calculated here. Court costs under the federal penalty statute are assessed in the case itself; the regulation does not print a schedule of them. Supervision during any term of federal probation, evaluation and treatment ordered as a condition, and the towing or storage of a vehicle stopped inside a park are all billed by the supervising office, the provider or the tow operator rather than set in Title 36, so each is described on this page and left unpriced.
The licence consequence also sits outside the federal frame. A park DUI conviction is reported into the same state record systems that drive the suspension and reinstatement components priced elsewhere on this site, and the state that issued the licence applies its own administrative rules to it. The federal case therefore adds its own fine and custody exposure on top of a state licence layer that this page does not re-price: readers should pair this page with their home state's breakdown and with our out-of-state DUI guide, which covers the two-jurisdiction licence problem in the state system.
One boundary matters for expectations. The $5,000 and six-month frame in the table is the frame for violating the park regulation itself. A case charged through the state-law route carries the surrounding state's range instead — which, for a felony-graded state DUI, can be far heavier — and a case involving injury or death can leave the park regulation behind entirely. The table prices the regulation route honestly and does not present it as a ceiling on every federal-land DUI.
Common questions
- Is a national park DUI a federal or a state case?
- It is heard in federal court. The charge can rest on the park regulation, 36 CFR 4.23, or on the surrounding state's DUI statute brought into federal court through the state-law adoption in 36 CFR 4.2 and the Assimilative Crimes Act.
- What is the maximum fine for a park-regulation DUI?
- Under the penalty frame cited on this page — 36 CFR 1.3 and 18 U.S.C. § 1865(a) — not more than $5,000 for an individual, with imprisonment of not more than six months and payment of all court costs.
- Is refusing the test a separate problem in a park?
- Yes. Section 4.23(c)(2) prohibits refusal itself, and proof of the refusal may be admitted in a related judicial proceeding. The regulation publishes no separate refusal fine.
Related cost guides: DUI DMV hearing costs, out-of-state DUI costs, DUI appeal costs, actual physical control DUI costs.
Sources: 36 CFR 4.23, 4.2 and 1.3; 18 U.S.C. §§ 13, 1865. Last verified: October 2026. This page is educational information about costs only — not legal advice. Laws and fees change; confirm current figures with your court and your state's driver-licensing agency.