I was sharing the pictures from my trip to Bryce and Zion National Parks with my friends at work, when Lindsay suggested that I get a National Park Passport. And I was like – What…A national park passport? How cool is that and how did I miss it before my trips to 20 other national parks! It is then I realised that the National Park Passport will make a perfect gift for Vinay’s birthday this year! It was just perfect because Vinay loves national parks and trails. In fact, he is trails leader for Voluenteers for Outdoor, Colorado. This would be such a great way to capture and record our trip memories.
The idea got me so excited that I was already dreaming about our next trip. But the first thing to do was to grab my national park passport. I got the opportunity when my college friend Aunja was visiting us here in Denver. We visited our favorite Rocky Mountain National Park. I sneaked up to the Eastern National bookstore located in the visitor center, where I bought the “Passport To Your National Parks®” from the store for just $8.95. It was a special one too because now our first souvenir cancellation stamp on the passport was from Rocky Mountain National Park which was celebrating it’s 100th year anniversary. So besides the regular stamp, I got the special 100th Anniversary edition stamp too!
I got so intrigued by the passport program that I started reading more about it at eParks FAQ page, Eastern National and BackroadPlanet. The Passport to Your National Parks program is run by Eastern National, a non-profit organization. The program began in 1986 to encourage travel to the national parks. Collectors of the stamps have formed a non-profit social club, the National Park Travelers Club, a group which holds annual conventions. I also learnt about all the regular and collector’s edition passport and stamps. Now this has become one of the compelling reasons for me to visit these beautiful natural gems of United States.
There are many different options available for the passport and stamps at National Park online store. I ordered the “National Park Foundation Anniversary Book” 25th Anniversary edition to treat myself, and “Kids’ Passport To Your National Parks®” for Akira through eParks Passport page. You will hardly find the 25th Anniversary edition in the national park stores now. But you can still buy it from the national park e-store or maybe through eBay. The only thing about buying online is that you will have to wait for your next trip to get your first stamp and of-course you have to consider the shipping & handling. I was excited to receive my new passport as I had a trip to Death Valley National Park planned ahead, but while packing for the trip I forgot to carry it. Thankfully the collector’s sticker stamp saved the day for me! You can buy the regular or collector’s edition sticker stamps of the park and get it stamped to take back home in case you forget your passport at home. 🙂
One thing which a lot of people do not know is that you can get the cancellation stamps at nearly all of the 408 American National Park units and many of the National Park Service’s affiliated areas, at no cost. You can access the complete list of the cancellation locations here . To stay on top of all these locations, you can also download “Passport to Your National Parks” iPhone app or Android app for free. The app uses GPS to find the nearest cancellation stamping location. Earlier I used to collect magnetic souvenirs with each of my national park trips. Now all that will be replaced with the cancellation stamps and sticker stamps from the park! Aren’t they the best and cheapest souveniers?
Have you gotten stamped yet? Do you have any National Park Passport stories to share with me?
One of my very close friend is big time into national parks, I think this will make the perfect gift! This is a very unique article, you should consider submitting it to Huffington post or any travel site!
Thank you so much for appreciating my efforts Krishna! It means a lot.
I am glad if it helped in finding the ideal gift.
Have a great rest of your week and thank you for stopping by,
Just wondering if there will be a new Passport STamp Series Collectors Book? This is the book that you can save a whole sheet of the stamps at once. I always buy two sets of the stamps each year, one to use in the passport book and the other for saving the whole sheet. I have filled the one that was from 1986 – 2016. Now, I need a new one!!! Is there going to be one? Is it available yet? Thanks!!