My yearly pass expires at the end of July, so I may plan our next "big trip" in early or mid July this year.
The NPS is looking at increasing (as in, doubling) entrance fees during the busy seasons as some of the busiest parks. Can't say I care for that. A lot of times I may visit a park only for one day. (Like the day we visited Zion--it was so horribly crowded that we bailed after two hours.) And for some families traveling on a tight budget, this pretty much rules out some of our best parks. I know the parks need to raise the money but they are also using this for "crowd control" (to put it nicely). Nice counterproductive measure there. Double the price, get half the visitors...? The good thing is, it makes even the early $80 pass a better deal. And when I drive across the country, I am not going to stop at just one national park--I will visit any along the way that I have time for.