Since 1986, National Park visitors have been traveling throughout the park system and “cancelling” their National Park Passports with stamps of the parks they visit. Over the years, one could look through their passports and relive adventures while planning new ones. The old passport had five pages for putting cancellation stamps as well as featured commemorative stamps inside. In 2006, a special 20th anniversary edition “Passport Explorer” was released. This larger passport is in a binder format which also allows pages to be added. There is a small charge for the binder Passport, but all proceeds support your national parks.
Now the Passport comes into the digital age. This isn’t meant to replace your National Park Passport but to be a fun supplement to it. Available for the iPhone, Eastern National has created a new app that allows you to search for national parks by name, state, Passport region or those geographically close together. The Passport App allows you to collect information on your visits and mark parks you would like to visit. You can view a list of those you’ve visited or would like to by list or map. View nearby national parks within 50 miles, 100 miles or 250 miles of your current GPS location.
Once you find a park that interests you, you’ll find information on it, as well as links to the park’s website. The app allows you to add notes about your visit or any additional information you’d like to add. You can also add pins to the map as well as photos and captions from your trip. Once you get home, you can sync your phone with your computer! Alternatively, if you have iOS 5 and iCloud backup enabled, your database and photos will be backed up to the Cloud.
Only available for the iPhone at this time, but an Android version is in the works. (Update: Android version now available as well)
For more information and to download, visit these pages:
