FREE 1-Year National Parks Membership for Families with 4th Graders
If you have a child in the 4th grade (or homeschooling equivalent) this year, your family is eligible for a FREE 1-year National Parks Annual Pass good through August 31st, 2018. The pass can be used as often as you’d like and grants you access to national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, and more!
If you’re a 4th grade teacher, you can print passes for your entire class, plus download activities.
(Thanks, Money Saving Mom!)
What a great program.
I wish they can do it for upto 6th grade.
Why is it only for 4th grade students????
I was wondering the same thing! From their site: “Why fourth graders
We chose fourth graders because research shows that kids ages nine to 11 are beginning to learn about the world around them. They’re open to new ideas, and they are likely to connect to nature and our history.
We offer the pass to fourth graders every year. Over time, every kid can get a free pass to explore our country.”
At the school that my son attends, 4th grade is when they start to study about regions. Maybe that is why it fits best to offer for 4th grade.
Thanks for sharing!! Time to get out and explore with our 4th grader!
You’re welcome Christine!
We went to the Grand Canyon this year just because of this program. My son has one more year until he’s a 4th grader and we plan on visiting a state with many national parks because of this great program. I love that they encourage visitors at this impressionable age!
That’s great you were able to go to the Grand Canyon and can use this program Shannon!
Shannon, if you’re looking for a state with many national parks, you should consider Colorado. We have 4 national parks. I’ve been to all of them, and they’re all wonderful. Mesa Verde National Park is my favorite, I think!
We took advantage of this last year. Such a fantastic program!!
So glad to hear you enjoyed it Pam! Thanks for sharing!
Get a national parks passport too you can collect dated stamps from each place you visit
We just used this pass for our recent trip to Zion and Bryce Canyons. Wouldve done Grand Canyon as well if we hadn’t run out of time–just means another trip in the spring! 😉 So happy that it saved us a good amount of money!!
So am I reading this correctly… it’s 1 pass only for the 4th grader and not the entire family?
Everyone in the vehicle gets in free
We used this to go to the Badlands and Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota last year. It was great!
Can’t wait to until my son is old enough to take advantage of this!
Am I wrong in thinking national parks are free to the public already? The ones on my state’s list are free to enter, unless there is another perk I’m missing. Thanks!
National Forests are usually free. Most National Parks require an entrance fee, though I know of at least one (Smokey Mountain NP in TN) that if free.
This is great! Although I don’t have a 4th grader, I love that they are offering this for families! I tried to share this on FB, but it won’t let me 😕.
My daughter has this, have been to Arches NP, Windcaves NP (including the tour for the family, no charge), Mt. Rushmore, Badlands and Theodore Roosevelt NP so far! Has saved us a ton! The ranger was so awesome, I pulled forward enough when she just had the print out, she handed over her paper, the ranger talked to her, handed her the card, had her sign the back and told her all about her membership. This was at Arches, and there was a bit of a line behind us! AMAZING All the rangers have been great! Really engage her and she feels so proud!
I learned about this program on Hip2Save last year. We had a trip planned from Iowa to Acadia National Park in Maine this last summer. Our best trip to date. We saved $20 on the entrance fee. Thanks again Hip2Save.
You’re welcome! 😉
My sister in law would love this, she had a 4th grader and his 2 older siblings, they will have a blast! Thank you for sharing this Hip2Save!!
We took advantage of this program last year when our daughter was in 4th grade. A quick tip: Even though it is for National Parks, we showed the pass at state parks too here in CA, and a few times they offered a discount for her. So it doesn’t hurt to ask.
This time last year, this program was the impetus we needed to fulfill a goal I had to show my children our beautiful country. So we took full advantage last May/June and my family did an AMAZING 3 week trip in a rented Cruise America RV to swing a loop through the western states and hit as many parks as we could along the way. The NPs we visited included Zion, Bryce, Teton, Yellowstone, Badlands, Wind Cave, Great Sand Dunes, Mesa Verde, and the Grand Canyon as well as many National Monuments, National Forest, State Parks, and historic sites along the way. We had never even done an RV trip before but with 8 months of advance planning and reserving campground sites in the parks themselves wherever possible (booked 6 months in advance to the minute the reservation system opened up for our dates) it went very smoothly, and we had an incredible experience. It was our first real vacation in our 20 year marriage, and while we had a very ambitious itinerary our kids were old enough (10, 13, and 15) and fit enough to cover so much ground (literally, we did a ton of hiking and biking) and help out in the RV and at the campgrounds. At each National Park we had to show our pass (the paper voucher was exchanged for a plastic pass card they put in a hang tag for us – we took care of that in advance at Steamtown NP in PA) and also the rangers checked that our 4th grader was in the RV with us (she just came up front and waved to them each time). Several rangers joked that we owed her an ice cream each time we entered the park for how much money she was saving us 🙂 As someone else mentioned, we were pleasantly surprised that at Wind Cave the pass covered the cave tour fee (unlike for example Mesa Verde where the tour fees required to visit certain sites were not covered and had to be paid separately).
I loved reading about your family’s great adventure! Thanks for sharing. Hope you get to do it again in the future(if you can.)
Our school has a Park Ranger who comes in and does a presentation and gives each kid the actual pass (plastic card), a lanyard and plastic case to wear the pass around their neck and a booklet about the parks in Arizona.
Has anyone found a map that shows the locations that the pass can be used at? I found a list https://store.usgs.gov/sites/default/files/PassIssuanceList.pdf
But, it would be so nice if there was a map with them pinpointed. Anyone find anything like that?
My daughter starts 4th grade next year. How quickly after she finishes 3rd can she get the pass?
This year it was at the beginning of September, so I imagine it will be the same.
Thanks!
What all does this involve?