Passport To Fun!

A few years ago Chris bought us both National Parks Passports. He's had more opportunities to use his since he was leading tours in DC and other areas on the East Coast. I finally got to use mine on our trip to SD.

The passport had divided the US into about 9 different regions with background information for each region and areas for stamps. 

At each national park, usually in the visitors' center, you'll find a place where you can use rubber stamps to mark your passport for free. Each place usually includes a picture depicting the park, plus a cancellation like the post office uses with the name of the park and the date you visited. In my stamp above for the Badlands there's also a stamp marking the 100th Anniversary of the park. Other than the cost of the passport (and any admission fee for the park) the stamps are free. 

You can also purchase stamps or stickers for the different parks. Here you can see my reproductions of the official stamps for Mount Rushmore and Devil's Tower. These each cost about $1.75, so it's a fun and inexpensive way to keep track of your visits. 

I also splurged and bought this sticker and description of Devil's Tower. There are lots of spaces so I think I'm safe in using extras for Devil's Tower. 

This week we've also been watching Ken Burns' series on the National Parks on PBS, so seems appropriate that we've been visiting. It's been a thrill for us to be able to visit so many national parks recently and we look forward to getting more stamps in our passports in the future.