The 5 Hands-Down Best National Park Souvenirs RVers Should Collect

Traveling in an RV across the country is the quintessential trip for many Americans. Whether you start roadtripping with young kids and make it a tradition, or only take to the RV lifestyle in retirement, it is one of the best ways to see large swaths of the country. And while you're on the road, you're going to want to pick up some souvenirs to commemorate your adventures. Trying to tick off that list of every national park in America? These staple items will help you keep track of where you've been and where you're eager to get to.

There are so many things that RVers collect on their travels. From homewear to books, hiking gear, and kistchy T-shirts, there are a lot of options available in National Park gift shops. For anyone hoping to get started with a collection of their own, we've compiled the five hands-down best national park souvenirs RVers should collect, based on popular choices seen on blogs, forums, and from expert travelers. And once you've got your loot, head to this unexpected spot to find even more travel gifts.

A souvenir you'll find at any national park, and many other popular tourist destinations for RVers, is postcards. These souvenirs are slim and lightweight, easy to carry around, and cheap. You can easily collect this souvenir without spending more than a few dollars at a time, if that. Not just a great souvenir for yourself, postcards make great gifts. Buy one for yourself and one to send off to keep family and friends updated on your travels. Over time, you'll also be able to visualize just how much you've traveled by looking down at the thick stack of postcards you've collected.

There are several things you can do with postcards once you have a solid collection. Some travelers choose to mail them home to themselves to put up on the fridge; others frame them. One frequent traveler shared on Reddit that they "put them in an archival album. Make sure the cards won't then fade or oxidize. Maybe put an inscription on the back of each card [noting] where you were, who you were with, the day, and what you thought of the place." Another great idea that a traveler shared is to "laminate and hole punch! It will be the perfect little book to flip through."

One of the easiest kinds of souvenirs to collect on the road is stickers. They're small, light, and can be stuck onto just about anything. Within stickers, there are a few different categories that are perfect for RVers. Bumper stickers are popular, especially for indicating to other travelers where you've been. Whether you're putting them on your RV, camping trailer, or Subaru, these little flagpoles are fun for you and anyone driving behind your vehicle.

If you're an RVer, most likely you're also a hiker or adventurer who keeps a water bottle with you at all times. Stickers that mark your travels are a great addition to any bottle, and you can even buy special water bottles with spots for collector stickers from various national parks. A great visual reminder of your adventures, stickers can also live in notebooks, on tablets and computers, on guitar cases, skateboards, and really any surface that you use in your daily life. Fridge magnets, which are typically sold with stickers and postcards, are extremely popular with RV travelers as well. If you run out of room for placing stickers on your RV or truck, you can start adding them to the fridge.

If you're looking for a national park souvenir that's a bit more useful than the rest, consider grabbing a book. Not just a great way to decorate RV shelves and kill time reading on the road, books picked out in a national park will usually be tailored to the park or region of the country you're visiting. For instance, in California national parks like Yosemite, you're likely to find the writings of environmentalist John Muir (for whom the nearby Muir Woods National Monument is named). 

If you're passing through Moab, Utah, you'll find the books of Edward Abbey in national park visitor centers and local bookstores. The author worked two summers at Arches National Park in the 1950s, and his experience doing so is recounted in his most famous book, "Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness." Collecting books like these on the road is a great way to fully immerse yourself in the park you're visiting and have a souvenir that you can return to after departing.

This idea might work best for folks in larger RVs, as books can quickly take up space in your cabinets. You could also consider buying small guidebooks or brochures about the local wildlife, which tend to be thin and easy to store in any available nook or cranny.

Similar to stickers, these small items are compact and easy to carry around. Plus, unlike stickers, patches can be added to bags and items of clothing, a souvenir that you can wear on your travels or back at home. Patches can also be ironed onto sentimental souvenirs, like a travel blanket or a wall tapestry in your RV. These souvenirs serve a double purpose of keeping you comfortable on the road.

Patches are also popular collectible items among hikers and backpackers. It's not uncommon to see a hiker with patches all over their backpack or jacket indicating all of the cool places they've been thus far. Similar to bumper stickers, patches can be a marker for yourself and others. Every national park in the country sells patches that represent its location. Some even have patches for specific trails, hikes, and mountains. Patches are also a great souvenir to collect if you travel internationally. Particularly in an outdoorsy tourist destination, you'll be able to continue this collection regardless of where you travel.

Whether you spend the holiday season in your RV touring the country (some folks have trees just for their RVs) or in your stationary home, Christmas ornaments are a popular item to collect all year round. In addition to being sold in most tourist towns and national park gift shops, ornaments are a convenient souvenir, as they're kept in storage for most of the year. Unlike other souvenirs, they don't take up space year-round and can be slowly collected year after year. Depending on where your travels take you, there may be a few items in a gift shop to choose from, or an entire store dedicated to kitchy ornaments.

These items are great for collectors who are in it for the long haul. If you travel in an RV as a family, each year when you go to take out the ornaments for the tree, you'll have more and more memories to sift through. Unlike junk that gets added to a drawer after purchasing, you know the purpose that this souvenir serves, and you'll probably have a place to store it (thanks to the small size of most ornaments). If you don't have a tree and want to display them in your RV, these Command Hook hacks for RV camping are total game-changers.

In compiling this list, we compared lists made by RVers of the best items to collect in national parks and on road trips in general. We made special note of items that were mentioned on several lists. In addition, we took to travel forums on websites like Reddit to see what items were the most popular to collect, how they were stored, and what purpose they served. By "most popular," we mean items that are mentioned frequently enough to stand out against other items. We also considered how expensive items are to collect, how easy they are to carry with you on the road, and what function they serve to come up with a list of not only the most popular souvenirs for RVers, but the most practical items as well.