National Passport Book

As some of you may know, I am a bit of a nerd.  It is a badge that I wear with honor.

My latest nerdy obsession is visiting the more than 400 sites of the National Park System.  The way that I track and organize these visits is with the National Park Passport book.

In this book, I collect cancellation stamps of sites that I visit.  There are also stamp (sticker) sets that are released every year and have been since 1986.  So basically, you adhere the sticker next to the site and then when you actually visit the site, you stamp it with an ink pad stamp.

The NPS is divided into 9 regions.

• North Atlantic
• Mid-Atlantic
• National Capital
• Southeast
• Midwest
• Southwest
• Rocky Mountain
• Western
• Pacific Northwest & Alaska

With each stamp (sticker) set, you get one large stamp that is that year’s National Stamp, as well as one stamp for each region.

Below is a picture of what a visited site looks like.

I find this very cool.  I do have to warn you though, this was a bit of an expensive hobby to start.  The collector’s edition book that I have cost $25.  There is a smaller version for $10.  Then each sticker sheet is $5.  Which doesn’t sound like a lot, but remember, they have been issued since 1986.  34 x $5 = $170.  None of these prices include tax and shipping.  If you want to get started with this, but don’t want to spend more than $200 before ever even stepping foot in a site, then I would suggest purchasing the stamp sets just a few at a time.  Maybe even request them for holiday or birthday gifts.  You can still get your ink pad stamps.  There is no rule saying that you have to have the stickers first.

I will continue to update you all with my progress as I visit as many sites as possible.

LP