Best kept secret; National Park's Annual Pass

The  National Parks annual pass is the best deal around.  An annual pass costs $80 and for a solid year from the day you purchase.  You can enter enter over 2,000 parks and recreational areas throughout the United States.  Your pass covers entrance and standard amenity fees for a driver and all passengers in a personal vehicle at per vehicle fee areas (or up to four adults at sites that charge per person). Children age 15 or under are admitted free.  This is the best deal out there, unless you are 62 or older, then you can get a lifetime pass for $10.  Don't want to wish our lives away, however, we looking forward to getting ours in a couple of years. 


In September 2011, we bought an annual pass for our Utah trip.  We used it out west, in Florida, in Virgina and West Virginia and will be using it throughout our cross country trip.  It definitely has saved us a bundle.  For further information as to how to get yours visit:  http://www.nps.gov/findapark/passes.htm. 

For your kids or grandkids, you can also get a National Parks Passport.  This helps get the kids involved and gives them some incentive to go into the visitor center to view the exhibits too.  This handy, spiral bound, 6 x 3 travelogue is a 104 page guidebook makes it easy to learn about and explore all of our national park sites. The Passport® to Your National Parks includes maps that are color-coded for specific regions in the country, pre-visit information, illustrations and photographs. It also includes a free map and guide to the national park system.

The best part is there are spaces in each region that are designated for you to collect rubber stamp cancellations at each national park site you visit. The cancellations, similar to those received in an international passport, record the name of the park and the date you visited.  This is a great way to document which parks you have visited and each park has their own stamp with the date that you can use to stamp in your passport, just ask at the Visitor Center where the Cancellation Station is and start stamping.  However, make sure the date is correct before you stamp.

As we visited Mount Rushmore, I picked out some postcards to stamp.  Christina still loves mail and expects them from every park we visit.  She is living vicariouly through her parents!  As I was waiting my turn there was a family with three children that were excitingly stamping their books.  I engaged them in conversation asking to see their stamps and they had been quite a few places.  The youngest little boy proceeded to tell me they had been to Yellowstone, the Tetons, Devil's Tower and Grandmas!  I don't think Grandma had a stamp, but he had a great time just the same.  They were so intent on stamping their books and it reinforced my point that it is great to get the kids involved that I asked if I could take their picture for the blog.  As you can see from their picture, they were very proud of their passports.

The passports can be bought in most park visitor centers or gift shops or at http://www.eparks.com/store/product/22515/%2APassport%C2%AE-To-Your-National-Parks%2A/ .  I also usually buy several post cards and use the cancellation stamp for the park we are visiting.  I keep one and send the remainder to friends and family with a little note.  Later I can scan the postcard and cancellation for my photobooks.  Always like proof that we actually were there!