Travel Hacks : Federal Land Pass

There are many things you need while traveling that can be bought for cheap with the thought you can just beat them up along the way. But every so often you need to pay more to gain more. This is true of all sorts of equipment, many of which we'll get to later, but definitely includes passes.

One of those passes is the Federal Lands Pass. The $80 price tag might make you balk but it quickly saves you money, especially if your traveling out west. 

What this pass does is it gives you free entrance into any federal property that charges a fee. This includes US Forest Service, National Wildlife Refuges, National Parks, Bureau of Land Management and others. It also gives you a discount on camping at many sites. 

At first that might not seem like a big deal, but if you look at the cost of just going to a few parks, it quickly pays for itself. Most national parks charge an entrance fee that covers you (or your vehicle depending on the park) going in and out for seven days. For many parks that fee is $20 if not more. If you plan to be there for a week then thats not a big deal, pretty low cost per day. But lets say you're planning a week in Utah and want to hit all the national parks in that beautiful state. 

Not everyone wants to spend seven days in
Death Valley, but it's well worth exploring
for at least a few hours. 

Just the entrance fees for all the national parks in Utah is $80, right there you could already break even just buying the pass. The pass also gets you cheaper camping at many federal campgrounds and it gives you the ability to go in and out of however many parks you like.

This lets you decide to pull into Mount Rushmore for fifteen minutes as you're driving through South Dakota or spend a Saturday afternoon at a historic battlefield near home without having to worry about staying in your budget. 

If most of your traveling during the year is going to be east of the Mississippi River getting a federal lands pass might have be the correct choice. There are less national parks in the east and some of them (Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Great Smoky Mountains National Park) don't charge entrance fees. There are many national historic sites though, so if you're a history buff or if you live near one of the parks that does charge entrance fees it can still be worth it. It's all about making it easier to decide to go explore somewhere.

Since there are more national parks out west and lots more federally owned land (national forests, national wildlife refuges, etc) having the pass can make travel much simpler since you get to make the fun decisions (where) instead of the hard decisions (how much your willing to spend). You can buy a pass online or at most National Wildlife Refuges and National Parks. 

State Parks With/Without Entrance Fees
Green = With
Gray = Free
Orange = Depends
(Arkansas varies by park,
Montana is free to residents)

Chances are that having a state parks pass has the same, if not more benefits then a federal lands pass. State parks are probably your best bet for local camping, hiking and learning about local history. While not all states charge entrance fees for their parks if they do picking up a pass makes taking advantage of these parks much easier to do on the spur of the moment. If you don't have to pay that entrance fee every time you're much more likely to come back to the same parks and get to know your local area better, which is fantastic! If you're a birder this can be a big deal as well, since you might not spend a lot of time in any one park, and will want to visit several in the same day or weekend. If you don't have a pass this can add up quickly. So support your local state parks and grab an annual pass if your state offers one (most of them do, more details on individual states here).

All of this comes down to the fact that passes make travel an easy decision, which makes exploring easier. Easier exploring is the ultimate goal so you can spend as much time as possible out enjoying the outdoors. 

How to start exploring locally

So I've made the argument that you should go out and get to know your local area. So how do you start?

Pull up your local area and look for green space!

Spending a little time online before you head out can help you find some great new places. Pull up Google Maps and look for green space. That is how I found Lake Fayetteville for the first time and it's been a gold mine of places to explore.

Finding a local nature center, or visitors center for a park can be a huge resource as well. The people that work there will know the best places and can help you know what to expect to see. How do you find these centers? 

Pull up your search engine of choice and type in [your state] state parks, or [your county] county parks, or [your city] city parks. Then find something near you.

There are a few things that are good to figure out before you go.

Sunset at Lake Fayetteville, Fall 2012

~ Is there a fee involved?

~ What is there to do there? Is there a lake, a trail, a nature center? Figure out what you want to do but remember that exploring natural places doesn't require an agenda. Just spend some time exploring and see what you can find.

~ How long do you want to be out for? Make sure to bring along some water and maybe a snack. Check the weather, and dress for it. Theres no faster way to have a miserable afternoon then not dressing for the weather. 

Once you have that information in hand DO IT! 

Take an afternoon or a Saturday and go out and explore. Pay attention to what you see and hear. Do you see any animals that are new? Any cool birds? Are there lots of other people at the park? Sometimes its nice to find a place without tons of people when you just want to enjoy the outdoors without so many distractions. What is everyone doing, does any of it look like something you'd like to try? Thats how I discovered Disc Golf for the first time.

The most important part is to get out there and explore, get comfortable checking out a new place and learn a bit about where you live.

Why should you explore locally?

Exploring often brings about images of climbing big mountains or sailing uncharted waters, but the best part is that it can occur everywhere, no matter where you are even just waiting at the bus stop there are things to be noticed, watched and understood.

Your everyday haunts might not seem as exciting as all the places on your bucket list but exploring wherever you find yourself can be extremely rewarding and help you develop the skills to really appreciate the natural world as you travel outside of your local biome.

My brothers at Bare Bluffs, UP of Michigan

Before moving to Arkansas I lived in the U.P of Michigan for almost four years while getting my bachelors degree. Houghton was the first place I lived away from home and so it was the first place that I remember learning for the first time. 

During college I was introduced to lots of new places through my classes and friends. I went to the porcupine mountains for the first time as part of a class, some friends took me on my first camping trip on the shores of Lake Superior. A tip from a professor took my family and I on a beautiful hike up Bare Bluffs one summer.

While I loved traveling around the UP and the rest of the Upper Midwest school often took priority and so I spent time discovering cool places that I could check in on every day. This is the kind of local exploring really connected me to Houghton, and still makes me a bit homesick for it. The little forest patch I walked by every day to and from school, the old field that bloomed so pretty with wildflowers in the spring, these were both places that aren't on a map, that aren't on anyone's top 10 of places to go in the UP but they were special to me. Finding a place like this can help you feel grounded in a new town or new job, and ever since I've left the UP I've always tried to find places like that.

Lake Fayetteville, Arkansas

Last fall I moved to Arkansas to start graduate school, having never been to Arkansas. I knew very little about Arkansas before moving here but luckily there is a lot to The Natural State and I'm starting to peel away the layers. Finding that place took awhile since I got a bit overwhelmed with the start of school but one of the first places that my husband Jon and I explored in Arkansas was Lake Fayetteville, a park owned by the city of Fayetteville. It's a great place to go birding close to town, is beautiful, especially in the fall and is just far enough of a walk to wear out the dog! While this park isn't Yosemite or the Grand Canyon, it is a great place to watch the seasons change and learn more about this particular area.

I walk the dog on the bike trail a few nights a week and I really enjoy seeing the change of the seasons along the stream that follows the trail. The water level comes and goes, right now the creek is starting to freeze over and things are dying back. The bike trail has become a grounding place for me, a quiet strip of habitat just outside my door to connect me back to why I am in graduate school. 

Understanding what makes NW Arkansas unique helps me better appreciate where I am and how lucky I am to be here. The seasons are different here, the colors change more slowly in the fall, the warblers come through earlier in the spring, we get most of our rain in the fall. All these things are unique and wonderful about Arkansas, and knowing them can help me better plan the trips I take around the area and better understand when I want to put the money into more extensive endeavors and when I should just go for a hike on a Saturday afternoon. If I didn't spend this time exploring what is right here in Fayetteville I would lose part of what living here really is and never would have found Lake Fayetteville or Woolsely Wet Prairie, both great areas to explore and most importantly, go birding.

So spend some time getting grounded in your current hometown, watch the seasons change, see what is special there. Honing your ability to observe the world around you will help you on your next big trip and might help you get more out of it since you'll be able to better appreciate the little places between the big shiny landmarks.