National park passport stamps, explained

Those inked stamps people collect at visitor centers are cancellations from the Passport To Your National Parks® program. It's run by America's National Parks, whose parent company, Eastern National, is a nonprofit education partner of the National Park Service. In the program's own words, a cancellation is “In Passport lingo, a cancellation is a rubber ink stamp that records the name of the national park and date of your visit”, much like a stamp in a real passport.

The program dates to 1986: “Since 1986, national park visitors have turned to Eastern National’s bestselling guidebook, Passport To Your National Parks®, to collect ink stamps from each of their explorations.” Collecting the stamps costs nothing. The Passport book, stickers and expansion packs are sold by America's National Parks, and the money supports the parks.

Passport To Your National Parks® is a registered trademark of Eastern National (USPTO Reg. 2198347). Park'd is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Eastern National, America's National Parks or the National Park Service.

1. Bring something to stamp. The Passport book is designed for it; the program sells it online and in park stores.
2. Find the stamp station. “Take your Passport to any national park visitor center or park store and get your free ink stamp with the date and location of your visit.” Our park-by-park list below shows where each national park keeps its stamps.
3. Stamp, and check the date. The cancellation records the park name and the date of your visit.
4. Ask about the extras. Many parks have more than one stamp. “Junior Ranger cancellations are available at national parks that have a Junior Ranger program.”

The National Park Service lists 214 stamp locations across the 62 national park units (all 63 national parks; Sequoia and Kings Canyon share one list). Acadia leads with 15. Locations come from the NPS Data API, checked October 1, 2026; parks move stamps around, so the program's advice stands: “The only sure-fire way to track down a stamper’s exact location is to contact the park directly.”

Visitor center Place Campground

• Go when the visitor center is open. Most stamps live indoors (81% of national park stamp locations are visitor centers), so check hours on the park's nps.gov page before a sunset arrival.
• Ask at the desk. “Cancellations are usually located in visitor centers or park stores, but are occasionally moved to seasonal locations or pop-up events.”
• Big parks have several stations. Yellowstone lists 12 locations and Acadia 15, so you can collect more than one stamp per park.
• It's not just the 63. The program covers National Park Service units of every kind. “Only designated National Park Service units are listed in the Passport books.”
• The NPS app helps. The free National Park Service app lists “Passport Stamps, Fees & More” for each park. More in our app comparison.

You'll see stamps all over this site, and they're a different thing. Park'd stamps are our own artwork: one illustrated, perforated stamp per national park, with its landscape, state and coordinates. Tick a park off on our checklist and its stamp inks in. They're a bit of fun, not an official record, and they have nothing to do with the Passport program's cancellations.

See all 63 Park'd stamps →

Program facts checked on americasnationalparks.org on October 1, 2026.