Updated September 2026. We wrote this post in 2016 on the first day of the program, when it was called Every Kid in a Park. It is now called Every Kid Outdoors, and it still works the same way: a new pass comes out every September 1 for that year’s fourth graders. The links below go to the current program site, and we’ve added what we learned from our own pass year at the end.
Every Kid Outdoors (previously Every Kid in a Park) Starts on September 1st!
Today is the day, folks! It’s time to get your fourth grader signed up to take advantage of a year’s worth of adventure in our National Parks.
Armed with an Every Kid Outdoors pass, your fourth grader along with up to three adults and children under 16 can get free admission to all of our National Parks from September 1 through August 31 of their fourth grade year. We are so excited about this program that we have decided to make this our vacation priority this year. If you have a child entering the 4th grade or are a 4th grade teacher, go sign up here!
For reference, this includes national parks, monuments, battlefields, military parks, historical parks, historic sites, lakeshores, seashores, recreation areas, scenic rivers and trails, and the White House. That’s more than 400 reasons to go sign up, and the pass also works at national forests, wildlife refuges and other federal recreation sites. This is a fantastic opportunity!
From everykidoutdoors.gov:
Every Kid Outdoors is a program supported by the U.S. Department of the Interior (which includes the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Reclamation, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Forest Service, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
For a bit of background on the National Park Service and how we celebrated its centennial, check out this post.
Don’t forget to sign up! Pin this to your favorite board to save it for later!
Pin this one for later!
Future you will definitely want this the next time someone asks "where are we taking the kids?"
Save to PinterestOr tap the image
Kicking Things Off
Here’s what we had planned back in 2016.
For the next 365 days, we’re on a mission! The first two parks on our list will be Volcanoes and Haleakala National Parks in October. Others we’re looking to try and fit in by the end of the year are Rocky Mountain NP and Hot Springs NP which is the one closest to us.
Read our posts on Hawaii’s National Parks here:
Our biggest endeavor will be this coming summer when we will try to see as many parks as we can in one epic road trip. We have a lot of details to work out on that one, so definitely stay tuned. It should be awesome! (you know us by now – we don’t really do anything halfway…)
So far, that list tentatively includes the following parks:
- Arches NP
- Canyonlands NP
- Capitol Reef NP
- Bryce Canyon NP
- Zion NP
- Grand Canyon NP
- Death Valley NP
- Sequoia NP
- Kings Canyon NP
- Yosemite NP
- Mt. Rainier NP
- Olympic NP
- Denali NP
- Glacier Bay NP
- Kenai Fjords NP
- Maybe a few more sprinkled in? Whew!
Stay in touch, because it’s going to be a grand adventure. We’ll be tweeting, sharing photos, and blogging about it in the months to come, and we hope you’ll like it!
Tips from our pass year
Added in 2026, now that we’ve been through it.
- Get it on day one. The pass expires August 31 no matter when you pick it up, so a pass printed in September is worth a lot more than one printed in June.
- Make the swap early. You print a paper voucher at everykidoutdoors.gov, and a paper voucher does not survive a rainy hike or a week in a backpack. Most parks will trade it for a plastic pass at the entrance station or visitor center, so do that at your first stop.
- Don’t forget your fourth grader. The pass belongs to the kiddos, not the parents, so it only works when they are with you.
- Know what it doesn’t cover. Camping, lodging, tours, shuttle tickets, and timed entry reservations are still on you. The pass covers the entrance fee once you get there. It also does not work at state parks.
- Look past the big names. The pass works at national monuments, historic sites, wildlife refuges and national forests, and a lot of those are within a day trip of home. Our closest was Hot Springs National Park.
- Grab a Junior Ranger book while you are there. Almost every park has one, and the badge at the end is a free souvenir.
Where the pass took us
These are the trips we took while we had the pass.
- Visiting Hawaii’s National Parks in One Epic Day
- 72 Hours in Hawaii with kids
- Visiting Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial with kids
- A Winter Adventure in Rocky Mountain National Park
- Visiting Independence National Historic Park
- Visiting the Gateway Arch in St. Louis
- Visiting Cedar Point and Cleveland with kids
- Cuyahoga Valley National Park
- Visiting Virgin Islands National Park in St. John
- Biscayne National Park
- Exploring Dry Tortugas National Park
- 2017 National Parks in Pictures
For the full list of parks we have visited, along with what to see and do at each one, head over to our National Parks page.
What National Parks have you been to?
Let’s be friends! Come follow us on our social media channels.
