okay so this might be a dumb question but i genuinely cannot find a straight answer anywhere. im planning a trip out west, going to be near some national park areas and i want to bring my mini 3 pro along. i know the parks themselves are off limits, ive heard that a million times, but what about areas right outside the park boundary? like if im standing on a pullout thats technically not park land but the airspace above might overlap or something?

also does the no-fly thing apply to the airspace over the park or just launching from inside it. asking because from a distance shot standpoint it would be kind of pointless if i cant even get the drone over the treeline from outside anyway. not trying to break any rules just want to understand what the actual restriction is before i haul this thing across three states

the restriction for national parks is a NPS policy thing not necessarily an FAA airspace designation, which makes it kind of weird to navigate. technically the FAA controls the airspace, the NPS controls whether you can take off or land from within park boundaries. so in theory you could be standing on non-park land and fly over the park... but in practice rangers have cited people for this and its a gray area that honestly isnt worth the hassle, especially since enforcement has gotten more aggressive.

some parks have specific SFARs on top of all that ? Grand Canyon is a famous one ? which actually do restrict the airspace itself not just ground operations. so it really depends which park youre going to. id look up the specific park by name plus "drone policy" and also check if theres an SFAR associated with it. dont just rely on the DJI geofence either because those arent always current or accurate with the policy boundaries.

i took my avata out near zion last summer and honestly just didnt fly anywhere near the park at all, found some BLM land about 20 minutes away that was completely fine and the scenery was just as good. sometimes its not worth stressing over the legality when theres usually somewhere nearby with zero issues. the shots i got on the mesa were insane anyway