Design Prompt 16: August
National Park Tickets!
Before moving to Northeast Los Angeles nearly seven years ago, I don’t think I had the slightest idea that I’d be a day trip away from so many natural wonders. I knew about the big nature events like the splendor of Yosemite. I’d heard of the desert and the Joshua Trees, and of course, the beauty of the Pacific Ocean and the wild cliffs of Big Sur. So in our first year of living in California, I wanted to see it all. So our first November in California, we packed up our 14-year-old dog and drove up to Yosemite National Park before the first snowfall and camped on the west side of the park. I remember it being my first “fire season,” and the camper next to us left his fire going all night. I didn’t sleep a wink, thinking that we’d all be on the news for accidentally burning Yosemite down to the ground.
The next day, we wove our way through Yosemite Valley, up to Tuolumne Meadows, and ended up on the east side of the park, hours away from our campsite. As the magic goes when following your whim on trips, we decided not to retrace our steps and instead continue east out of the park, which led us to US Highway 395. Oh my. All one has to say is “the 395,” and those who know, know. Somehow, on one magical highway, there are so many natural wonders that I’m still confused how it still feels so undiscovered. Thank goodness! Driving down the 395 you’ll find Mt. Whitney, the tallest mountain in the contiguous US. Mono Lake, a one-million-year-old lake that's one of the planet's most critical bird migration sites, with these super-interesting spindly columns of white limestone rising out of the water. You roll into The Alabama Hills that make you wonder if you’ve accidentally teleported to Mars. And then if that’s not enough, the world’s oldest tree (4,858 years old!), Methuselah lives off the highway in the ancient bristlecone pine forest! I could keep going on and on.
So this summer, I headed back up Hwy 395 to experience it in the summertime. Besides the insane heat (!!), we made our way up to Yosemite National Park and waited in line to enter. I pulled up, paid the entrance fee, and was handed a receipt that, besides its bright yellow color, felt like something I’d get at the gas station. What? No perfectly designed ticket for such a magical and grand National Park? It was such an opportunity to share the park’s wonder and excitement through design that it felt like such a letdown to shove this thin piece of a “receipt” back into my wallet.
Now let me back up. In 2025, Trump and his red-hat clan cut the National Parks budget by 20% and eliminated 25% of its workforce. In 2026, he’s proposed to cut the funding for National Parks by $1.2 billion, which would be 1/3 of the park’s budget. Despite the record number of visits and the love for National Parks here in the US, he’s determined to, in the end, privatize these national landmarks that are beacons for conservation and are the heartbeat of our nation. So when I was handed this gas station-style ticket, it really felt like another reflection of the state of the US.
So here I am coming to you with this month’s design prompt. I took a stroll through past National Park entry tickets and, to my surprise, initially felt underwhelmed but intrigued!
I had imagined beautiful illustrations or logo mockups of the park. But upon further investigation, I realized that these vintage National Park tickets are actually such a great exercise in typography and layout. Take a look at this breakdown…
