Since moving to Chattanooga, our family has become more adventurous. Our weekends are packed with either a fun, quirky drive over to a neighboring towns’ unique festival, or we’re hiking the surrounding mountains like wilderness explorers.
One of those weekend trips took us to Gatlinburg, just under three hours from downtown Chattanooga. The city had been on our radar for two reasons. First, because of the museums and tourist attractions, but also because of its designation (now official!) as the Gateway to the Smokies. This city motto became especially obvious when we arrived downtown and the first thing we saw when we got out of the car was a black bear climbing a tree!
National Park Visitor’s Center
One of the other exciting parts of our visit was the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The National Park spans 500,000 acres with 800 miles of trails (including a stretch of the Appalachian Trail) and multiple hike-able waterfalls. For information on the area, there is a visitor center on the edge of Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg.
To get to the Gatlinburg Welcome Center, we decided to take the free downtown trolley that picks up in front of the Ripley’s Aquarium. Inside the center, we found a dedicated National Park desk where we spoke with a Park Ranger about ways to help keep our son engaged and curious about National Parks. One of the suggestions was to use a Passport to the National Parks book. They were available for sale for about $15 (price may vary depending on what type you pick up) and he even got to stamp it himself!
How the Passport Books Work
Just like in the Gatlinburg Welcome Center, most National Park visitors centers will have a station (called a cancellation) with an inkpad and stamp set to the current date. Within the Passport, each page has a color coded edge marking the region of the United States the National Park is located; the book divides the US into nine regions, with Tennessee being in the Southeast. It is also helpful that they come with a map highlighting the different National Parks. Stamping the book is free and we’ve found that many spots will have multiple stamps, one with a date and one specific to that park or a significant event like America’s 250th.
What if you Forget to Bring it?
Just up on the top of Lookout Mountain is Point Park, part of the Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park. Within its gift shop is a cancellation (stamping) spot, but during our visit we forgot to bring our son’s Passport Book! The Park Ranger let us stamp a scrap piece of paper to take home and glue into our book. Similarly, on a trip to the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri (yes, it’s a National Park!), we saw that they also provided scrap paper. That was not the case, however, when exploring the National Mall in Washington, DC. Instead, they offered a pre-made sleeve for $1.25 of three perfectly sized stickers for stamping. That option may just be at the more heavily trafficked National Parks.
Why it’s a Great Summer Activity
If your family is planning a road trip or a screen-free summer, a National Park Passport Book may help inspire some young explorers. It will transform a standard vacation into an interactive scavenger hunt by, not only adding a hands-on element, but also a quantitative goal!
Tips for Getting Stamps
- Cancellation stamps are free, but the books and stickers are not.
- Less travelled National Parks will have scrap paper for if you forgot your book, but others might make you buy a sticker sleeve.
- The stamps and ink pads are usually at the Visitor’s Center and may be available at special exhibitions (like the St. Louis Courthouse Gateway Arch Museum Exhibit).
Cancellations a Short Drive from Chattanooga
- Point Park at Lookout Mountain.
- Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center in Fort Oglethorpe, GA.
- Russell Cave National Monument in Bridgeport, AL.
