National Parks Passport

“Does anyone else here on TT have a National Parks Passport? My hubby, Thinkbubelz and I carry it with us when going on vacation-- we've been collecting the stamps since 1993 or so... :-)”

“yes, it was a gift (thanks, stikmon). I find I forget it a lot, but what I've done is use a highlighter to highlite all the parks I've been in.

And get the stamps, when I actually remember it. :-) For exampe, I forgot it on the last trip (what else is new??). I visited the main Badlands visitor's center and didn't think of it at all. In the Oglala Sioux visitor's center in the south (Pine Ridge reservation), I remembered and then stamped a sheet of paper..... sigh... There was a separate stamp for there.”

“Never heard about this previously. The only passport stamps I have are those from various countries whenever I would enter or exit. One book was almost filled, but they do provide extension pages, which they attach to the passport. Yes, I know, this is a different passport.
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last edited: 8/08/05 3:58:39 AM”

“I just collect a map of the park. How many do I have now... counting...
still counting...
44 national parks, national monuments, national preserves, national lakeshores, national historic parks, national heritage areas, national battlefield parks. I am sure I haven't gotten maps of some of the places I've visited.”

“The park maps are all that I collect also. I have a good number of them.”

“Yep....I have one....I use it for everywhere I go...and put the NON-NPS stuff where ever I can find real estate in the book...that is after the blank pages are filled in the back....i'm on my 2nd book.....I don't care where i'm at...i'll ask for a stamp and sometimes it'll just be the rubber stamp used for the return mailing address....in fact I even have a stamp from the Eiffel Tower!!...If I forget my book for some odd reason, i'll stamp a blank piece of paper then cut it out and use Elmers stick glue to place it in the book....neato....I love this book!!

Lizs....I recall when Stikmon bought that book for you....you really should remember to bring it along...programme yourself chicky.....whenever a trip comes up...first thought should be "passport book"!!”

“Very cool! Stratus, I do the same thing-- if we forget the book, we stamp it on a paper and glue it in later---we usually average about 1 national park a year... :-) We can sometimes get stamps at National forests and try to do so whenever possible... :-)

It's a lot of fun-- we keep it right in the glove compartment of our car-- have had ours since about 1993! :-)

We used to collect patches from the parks, and then never did anythign with them-- I still collect them, but have started getting into the pin collecting now. :-)

Thinkbubelz & I also will try to mail ourselve postcards from our out of town visits... (dummy us-- we forgot when going to Atlanta and the GSMNP 2 weeks ago!) Although we did get the National Parks Passport stamps!”

“That is so like ironic Pinky....collecting patches was the thing way back when....but now i'm on the pin kick....don't laugh...but Disney sells a really cool pin trading bag and i've been loading it with pins from where-ever we go...i'm addicted!!!

Now I have to go back to all these places a 2nd time just to get a pin.....and more importantly i'm now purchasing a book or 2 along with the pin so that I can actually learn something about these dang sites.....although it'll prolly take a lifetime to get around to reading all these books....

I'm telling ya.....i'm addicted....I take my passport book everywhere!!!

I must say though....I get really pissed if my stamp comes out....you know....no so perfect....i'm a bit anal about the whole process.....I need to practice on blank paper a half million times before I make the final stamp in the book.....ya never know....those ink pads are a tricky thing!! And on occassion, after going through a careful process of making sure the stamp will come out just right....that I totally forgot to look at the date....and wah lah...it's wrong....talk about being really piss-ed off....oy vey!!”

“SL, I have enough stuff I'm anal about, LOL.... so try to be mellow on the whole passport book process (or I would be POed all the time at having forgotten it or forgetting to get a stamp! lol)

When you people say you collect the maps, do you mean the brochure that includes a map? Or are you specifically buying a map of the park? I just found a website that has all the national park maps available on it, from the brochures. It was on the NPS website.... shoulda bookmarked it!”