Field Notes National Parks Review

You might have heard about Field Notes, especially if you’re into notebooks. This company specializes in the creation of timeless paper products and the National Parks series is one of their latest additions to the shop.

Field Notes National Parks series memo books are sold in packs of 3. These tiny notebooks inspired by traditional farmer memo books celebrate America’s biggest treasure – the national parks. These high-quality books are manufactured in the States and will be appreciated by anyone who likes to take quick notes.

What is the story behind the National Parks series and do the products have any flaws? Let’s take a closer look at these pieces.

Field Notes National Parks Review

Field Notes National Parks
List of National Park Editions.

Initially, field notes were where you’d record your observations during fieldwork. These notes can work as:

  • Descriptions – you can keep track of the things that a lot of people tend to forget over time. For example, names, dates, conversations, and so on.
  • Interpretations – next to the descriptive narratives, you can add a section with your explanations of what you’ve seen.
  • Reflections – finally, in the field notes, you can share your own thoughts, ideas, and any concerns that you might have.

The books had to be quite small so that you could easily keep them in your pocket while exploring.

Of course, you wouldn’t have to be doing any fieldwork in a National Park, in order to be able to use the beautiful Field Notes National Parks memo book. But it’s definitely an item with its own character that might, hopefully, inspire you to go on your own adventure and take note of everything you will see.

About the Brand

Field Notes Cover
Arches National Park edition in a leather cover

Field Notes is a brand that specializes in the production of memo books. They also manufacture their own pencils, pens, and postcards, but notebooks are the products that the company is best known for.

The books were inspired by the traditional memo books used by farmers to keep track of their crops. That’s exactly why the majority of the items on their website have a soft cover and are quite small (after all, you should be able to carry a memo book with you wherever you go, right?).

The company was founded back in 2006. Aaron Draplin, the co-founder of the brand, has been collecting promotional memo books distributed to farmers over the last century by various agricultural companies. Draplin’s unique collection was the inspiration behind the creation of Field Notes.

Today’s memo books pay homage to the old-school classics but feature a modern twist. All notebooks are manufactured from scratch in the United States and a lot of products are made in collaboration with famous artists.

About the Product

Field Notes National Park

Field Notes National Park series is a series of graph paper memo books that come in packs of 3.

Main Features

  • Graph paper
  • Copper staples
  • 3.5 x 5.5’’
  • The graph grid is 3/16’’
  • 48 pages in each book
  • The cover is a thick card stock, a variety of French 100#C papers
  • Not waterproof
  • Each book features a few sentences about the national park and a designated space for the official passport stamp that you can get once you pay a visit to the actual park
  • Made exclusively in the United States of America
  • $14.95 for a pack of 3 memo books

Packs Description

Each pack includes three books with different national parks on the covers.

  • Series A: Zion, Yosemite, Acadia National Parks
  • Series B: Joshua Tree, Grand Canyon, Mount Rainier National Parks
  • Series C: Great Smoky Mountains, Rocky Mountain, Yellowstone National Parks
  • Series D: Grand Teton, Arches, Sequoia National Parks
  • Series E: Denali, Cuyahoga Valley, Olympic National Parks
  • Series F: Glacier, Hawaii Volcanoes, Everglades National Parks

At the moment, the company offers all the memo books only in 3-packs. This means that you can’t buy those separately. They also offer an $85 set that contains all of the books.

Some customers like to think of these very special books as collectible items, so they buy all six packs to have a complete series. By the way, the company is planning on covering more national parks in the future as, of course, the States have a lot more wonderful places that deserve to be presented in the collection.

Field Notes National Park Series A

Here are some close-up pictures of the books in Series A:

Field Notes - Zions National Park
Zion National Park
Field Notes Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park
Field Notes Acadia National Park
Acadia National Park

Field Notes National Parks Series D

Here are some close-up pictures of the books in Series D:

Field Notes National Park
Grand Teton National Park
Arches NP Field Notes
Arches National Park Edition
Sequoia National Park Field Notes
Sequoia National Park Edition

What Makes the Series So Special?

Field Notes National Park

Any Field Notes memo book is a beautifully-designed item. But if you’re interested not only in looks, then you might like the story behind the creation of the series (spoiler alert: this will make you fall in love with the small books even more).

Field Notes are known for putting out collections that celebrate everything American. For example, the ‘United States of Letterpress’ featured the work of independent letterpress shops across the States, while the ‘Great Lakes’ series celebrated the gorgeous water reservoirs.

The National Parks series is the brand’s love letter to the millions of acres of an American treasure. The creators at Field Notes were inspired by a series of incredible posters that celebrate the national parks.

Basically, the memo-book series is a collaboration between Field Notes and Fifty-Nine Parks. And the best part is that 5% of all purchases are going to be sent to the NPS to help save the landmarks for future generations.

American-Made Memo-Books

Arches NP Field Notes
Arches National Park Edition

The paper and ink used to manufacture the lovely books are made in the United States.

The book covers are created together with a paper company that is based in Michigan. And let’s just say that the cover-printing process is not just an ordinary one.

Field Notes tried to find a way to blend the paper’s actual stunning opaque-white color into the gorgeous artwork – and they successfully managed to do that. The covers feature unique colors thanks to the relatively rare printing technique that is seldomly used in the manufacturing of any other products. 

A bit of magic was also added to the graph paper. Instead of covering the paper in black squares, Field Notes decided to use the ‘Green Earth’ ink for the grid to go with the whole park theme. The soy-based ink, by the way, is from Toyo Ink (a company that was founded in Tokyo and started business in the USA in 1976).

Field Notes National Parks Pros

  • Fit in your pocket
  • Feature stunning artworks
  • High-quality and well-crafted
  • Can become a collectible item or a thoughtful gift
  • Feature cool details on the inside of the cover (information about the National Park and a spot for a passport stamp)
  • Are printed and manufactured in the USA
  • The company works together with small businesses across the States
  • 5% of the money made goes to the National Park Service

Field Notes National Parks Cons

  • These memo books are quite small (3.5 x 5.5’’) – this might not be the size you’re looking for. But it fits perfectly in your pocket!
  • Some might find a $5 pricetag to be pretty expensive for a tiny notebook
  • The ink on the covers will slowly wear away which might be fine if you like a distressed, retro-style look
  • Gel pens can bleed through the paper a bit, as well as fountain pens
  • You can’t buy the memo books separately as they come only in packs of 3

Final Thoughts

Overall, customers agree that the memo books from the National Parks series by Field Notes are high-quality products with incredible artwork. The small notebooks can become a wonderful gift and will warm the heart of anyone who is able to fully appreciate the beauty of these books and the story behind their creation.

If you are interested in purchasing the National Park version of Fields Notes, you can conveniently buy it on Amazon.com

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