1st Year Summary of Collecting National Parks Passport Stamps
Exactly one year ago, On December 1st 2022, I purchased the Explorer and Collectors Edition National Parks Passport book and started with the first park Stones River National Battlefield. I have had the Classic Passport book since Congaree National Park visit on Nov 1, 2020.
I decided to visit all 423 national park sites in three years, and many would be revisited to get new passport cancellation stamps. I wanted to personally stamp all three books at each location. My favorite book is the Collector’s Edition as it has much more room for extra stamps, and I like how it has sections for each national park, unlike the Explorer and Classic edition, which is just a mess of passport stamps.
I visited 107 national parks in 2023 with many more cancellation stamps than that acquired as many parks have 2-5 stamps for various locations. Many national parks have a different stamp for every visitor center, and being the purist that I am, I feel obligated to get every stamp available for every park. Despite visiting more parks this year than most see in a lifetime, 3 years is still too much for even me to accomplish, so I have now changed my goal to all the parks in 6 years by Dec 1st, 2028.
I finished the following states of all its parks this year, Ohio, Missouri, Kansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Iowa, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Rhode Island.
I’m one stamp away from finishing many states, such as Illinois, Indiana, and Mississippi.
The following are all the parks visited in the one year since December 1st, 2022.
North Atlantic Region
Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park
Acadia National Park
Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park
Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park
Lowell National Historical Park
Springfield Armory National Historic Site
Roger Williams National Memorial
Minute Man National Historical Park
Mid-Atlantic Region
Thomas Edison National Historical Park
Southeast Region
Stones River National Battlefield
Chickamauga And Chattanooga National Military Park
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area
Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park
Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park
Andersonville National Historic Site
Jimmy Carter National Historical Park
Horseshoe Bend National Military Park
Mammoth Cave National Park
Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park
Manhattan Project National Historical Park – Oak Ride
Cowpens National Battlefield
Kings Mountain National Military Park
Fort Donelson National Battlefield
Camp Nelson National Monument
Mill Springs Battlefield National Monument
Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area
Obed Wild & Scenic River
Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park
Everglades National Park
Biscayne National Park
Dry Tortugas National Park
Natchez Trace Parkway
Tupelo National Battlefield
Brices Cross Roads National Battlefield
De Soto National Memorial
Big Cypress National Preserve
Natchez National Historical Park
Vicksburg National Military Park
Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site
Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site
Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument
Shiloh National Military Park
Russell Cave National Monument
Cumberland Gap National Historical Park
Freedom Riders National Monument
Little River Canyon National Preserve
Andrew Johnson National Historic Site
Midwest Region
William Howard Taft National Historic Site
Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument
Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park
Homestead National Historical Park
Herbert Hoover National Historic Site
Pipestone National Monument
River Raisin National Battlefield Park
First Ladies National Historic Site
Cuyahoga Valley National Park
James A. Garfield National Historic Site
Hopewell Culture National Historic Park
Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial
George Rogers Clark National Historical Park
Gateway Arch National Park
Perry’s Victory & International Peace Memorial
Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site
Ste. Geneviève National Historical Park
Ozark National Scenic Riverways
Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield
George Washington Carver National Monument
Fort Scott National Historic Site
Harry S Truman National Historic Site
Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park
Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve
Nicodemus National Historic Site
Fort Larned National Historic Site
Lincoln Home National Historic Site
Missouri National Recreational River
Effigy Mounds National Monument
Southwest Region
Chickasaw National Recreation Area
Waco Mammoth National Monument
Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park
San Antonio Missions National Historical Park
Aztec Ruins National Monument
Petroglyph National Monument
Cane River Creole National Historical Park
Big Thicket National Preserve
Padre Island National Seashore
Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park
Poverty Point World Heritage Site
Pecos National Historical Park
Fort Union National Monument
Pea Ridge National Military Park
Fort Smith National Historic Site
Buffalo National River
Capulin Volcano National Monument
Bandelier National Monument
El Malpais National Monument
Chaco Culture National Historical Park
Valles Caldera National Preserve
White Sands National Park
Manhattan Project National Historical Park (Los Alamos)
Amistad National Recreation Area
Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument
William J Clinton Birthplace Home National Historic Site
Rocky Mountains Region
Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site
Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site
Rocky Mountain National Park
Western Region
Petrified Forest National Park
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What is a cancellation stamp? In Passport lingo, a cancellation is a rubber ink stamp that records the name of the national park and the date of your visit, similar to how you get your US passport stamped when traveling internationally. Cancellations are free to collect at every national park in America.
The parks are broken into regions, with each one having a different color stamp
1. North Atlantic Region
2. Mid-Atlantic Region
3. National Capital Region
4. Southeast Region
5. Midwest Region
6. Southwest Region
7. Rocky Mountain Region
8. Western Region
9. Pacific Northwest and Alaska Region
Within the national park collection as of 2023, there are 423 national park sites administered by the National Park Service, but only 63 of them are simply designated “national park” by name. The other 360 sites fall into an additional 19 categories with some containing only a single entry, but it’s important to note that the NPS refers to all of them as “parks,” regardless of their titles.
63 National Parks
85 National Monuments
Combined, there are 136 national historical parks and national historic sites
Saint Croix Island International Historic Site is the lone member of this category.
National Battlefield sites Brices Cross Roads National Battlefield Site is the only member of its category, but there are also four national battlefield parks and eleven simply designated as national battlefields, plus nine additional national military parks, including Gettysburg National Military Park.
National Waterways comprise many national protected areas in the United States, with three national lakeshores, four national rivers, ten national seashores, and a combined ten national wild and scenic rivers and riverways.
The remaining 88 national park sites fall into the following categories: national memorials (31), national parkways (4), national preserves (19), national reserves (2), national recreation areas (18) and national scenic trails (3), leaving eleven sites so distinct they have no category. Members of this illustrious list labeled “other” include President’s Park (the White House) and the National Mall and Memorial Parks.