I Found My Pennsylvania State Parks Passport Again

I had one of those random afternoons where you’re digging through moving boxes and you find something you completely forgot about. For me it was a little green wirebound booklet I bought about two years ago called a Pennsylvania State Parks Passport. Eight bucks. The whole idea is you ride or drive to state parks and historical sites across Pennsylvania, get your passport stamped at the visitor center, and work your way through the book. I bought it with every intention of using it and then promptly buried it on a shelf and eventually in a bin when we moved about a year and a half ago.

Finding it again felt like a sign.

The Idea That Didn’t Pan Out

A couple months back I posted a video asking Would you ride for this? and showed a picture of a little free lending library. The idea was to build a community scavenger hunt around those little roadside book exchanges. I was actually pretty into it. Got the prep work done to at least run a beta test.

But I’m the type who doesn’t wait around. If something sounds fun I usually just go build it and figure out later whether it was worth the effort. In this case I held off on building out the full spreadsheet and sharing system I had in mind. Good thing, because the response to that video just wasn’t there. Not enough interest to justify the infrastructure.

I’m not going to lie, that was a little disappointing. I was looking forward to doing it. But you can’t make something work if the appetite isn’t there, so I’ve been thinking about what else I could do that gets me out exploring and gives me something to document along the way.

What the Pennsylvania State Parks Passport Actually Is

So that little green book. Here’s the deal. It’s a wirebound passport booklet that covers Pennsylvania state parks and state historical sites. Emphasis on state. There’s a specific reason I’m saying that.

When I started flipping through it I noticed right away that some of the places I thought would be in there aren’t. The Daniel Boone Homestead near me, for example, not in the book. It’s a Berks County park, not a state park, so it doesn’t qualify. A few other historical spots around me that I figured would be easy first stops also came up missing.

That was a little deflating at first. But then I started finding places I hadn’t thought about. Hopewell Furnace is in there, which is actually really similar to the Daniel Boone Homestead in terms of what you get when you visit. It’s an old-timey historical village with original buildings still standing, tours, the whole deal. I think the main difference is Hopewell Furnace is on the National Register of Historic Places and the Homestead is not. Either way, it’s exactly the kind of stop that makes a good ride destination.

The way the passport program works is simple. You show up at a qualifying site, go into the visitor center, and ask for the stamp. They ink it right there in your book. Do it enough times and you can apparently mail in for some kind of medallion or ribbon. Honestly I don’t care that much about the prize. It’s the structure I like. Having a list of places to work through gives the rides a purpose beyond just putting miles on the bike.

The New Plan

Since the lending library scavenger hunt isn’t going to happen, I’m going in a different direction. I’m going to fill out this Pennsylvania state parks passport solo. Already pulled the book back out. Now I just need to sit down with it and start mapping out some routes.

Some of these places are going to be a haul. I don’t know that I’ll ever make it all the way out to Erie to fill in that part of the book. But a lot of the sites are well within reach for a day ride and that’s more than enough to keep me busy for a while.

I wish I’d started this two years ago when I bought the thing, but here we are. Can’t do anything about yesterday, so might as well get moving on today.

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Ride With Me

If you’ve got one of those passport or stamp books for your area, whether it’s national parks, state parks, historical byways, bike trails, whatever, drop it in the comments. I know a lot of states have their own versions of this kind of thing and I’d love to hear what other people are working through.

If you want to follow along as I start knocking out these Pennsylvania state parks passport stamps, subscribe to the WaltInPA YouTube channel for more riding content. And if you know a rider who’s always looking for a reason to get out and explore, share this post with them.

Finally, if you just want to hang out and talk riding with good people, come join us in the WaltInPA Discord where this kind of stuff comes up all the time.