This is going to be a short, sweet and to-the-point post.

The point?

If you're going on a National Park road trip or planning on seeing more than 2 national parks in the span of a year, than you need to buy this pass.

It's as simple as that. 

A no-brainer.

When I bought this pass, it costs $80 for the year. It may be more expensive as you're reading this.

I figured it would be good to help cover park entry fees and the like. At the time I had no idea how expensive the park entry fees could be. But, that's another story.

What I didn't realize is that this pass covers tour fees at some of the places we went on our road trip as well.

Carlsbad Caverns? It covered both our entry fees to the caverns, $12 a piece.

Mesa Verde? It would've covered both of our $10 tour fees here as well (we just forgot to use it!).

Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Zion National Park, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Sequoia National Park and Crater Lake? Yup and yup. This baby covered the $30 entry fee to every single one of these parks. And no, that's not a typo. For a single vehicle, it costs $30 to enter every single one of these parks. 

So let me re-hash this for you:

My costs? $80

What my costs would've been without the pass? $254

Yes, This pass saved me $174 on my USA National Park road trip.

Moral of the story? It's fucking worth it.

You can buy your National Parks pas here at the National Parks Service website! Or, conveniently, if you forget, you can take it on to your order as you make camping reservations at nps.gov! That's what I did when I booked our Grand Canyon campsite!

Short, sweet, and too the point, but this is without a doubt the most important things I purchased in advance of my road trip! 

Don't forget to purchase yours at nps.gov!