If you've ever visited a national park and wondered why those people are hauling massive binders and blue books, well, those are the national park passport stamp books. They are dated stamps for each national park. There are ones for the highlights of a park, the visitor centres, or just the overall park. Besides these so-called cancellation stamps, some parks have extras. Like Bryce, they have Thor's hammer and Mount Rushmore, an image of the mountain. The parks that have junior ranger programs also have junior ranger stamps. They are meant for a different book, but make a beautiful addition for your passport.

The stamps are free to collect, and the passport itself costs about $15 (more about that later in the post).

State parks also offer dated stamps and often stickers; you can decide to add those in or get a separate book. It's your book where you can decide. 

Most stamping stations can be found inside the park's visitor center, near the gift shop or the exit. Bigger parks like the Grand Tetons or Yellowstone have more than one visitor centre, and they usually have an additional stamp for you to stamp.

A cancellation stamp is a rubber stamp that is dated, has the name of the national park, and the location of the stamping station. The ink pads are usually the color of the region noted in your passport. When stamping, try out the ink on a separate piece of paper, you probably don't wanna end up with half or double stamps. When stamped, leave your book open or put a piece of paper in between the pages to prevent the ink from smudging.

The stickers are a collection on their own. I know of 3 kinds. The official ones are the stamp series distributed by America's national parks website https://shop.americasnationalparks.org/. The second ones are the stickers by Impact Photographics; some are beautiful art prints, and others are photographs of the national park. You can get these at the park or the individual national park websites. And third, my favorite, but a little pricier, the Travel Stamps https://travelstamps.com/. They are vibrant art pieces cut out as a stamp that fit right into your book. These are also available at most national park shops

There are 4 passport books for purchase. One for every explorer and collector. Starting with the most compact one, the classic edition, this is the blue little book you'll see most people stamp in. There is enough space for stamps, but once those are still filled up, you can add extra pages once you're out of blanks. Secondly, the collector's edition is about 3 times the size of the classic one and fits more stamps, and there is additional room for state parks and memorials. Next is the Explorer edition, which is a full-on binder that is weather-resistant. It is mostly used by stampers who want full customization, seeing as you are able to open the rings in the binder and switch up the pages. And for the little ones, there is a Junior Ranger passport book. With infographics and assignments for each park. The classic edition is usually available at national park gift stores, but the larger books are usually not in stock. I highly recommend you to get these only if possible.

Tip: if you get a Junior Ranger book for your kid, I do recommend also getting a classic one, one they can still add to when they're older, and have passed the Junior Ranger age.

The main reason I love collecting stamps is that it gives an extra bit of joy. It gives so much satisfaction, getting a pretty stamp and seeing the collection grow. I love collecting things, and this is such an accessible collection, seeing as I also stamp the cancellations and extra stamps in my personal journal. It just becomes part of the routine when visiting a national park.

The main reason I love collecting stamps is that it gives an extra bit of joy. It gives so much satisfaction, getting a pretty stamp and seeing the collection grow. I love collecting things, and this is such an accessible collection, seeing as I also stamp the cancellations and extra stamps in my personal journal. It just becomes part of the routine when visiting a national park.