Cameron Beach, 11, of Lewiston, liked finding horseshoe crab shells at Wolfe’s Neck Woods State Park in Freeport.

“We saw the ocean, but not 50 yards from shore were woods. We walked around and hiked and ate lunch in an opening field. It was really nice.”

Emily Kozak, 11, of Auburn, liked probing tidal pools at Popham Beach State Park. “We found crabs. We observed them and put them back in the water,” she said. Emily enjoyed swimming at Rangeley Lake State Park and looking for moose. They didn’t see any moose, but did discover a painted turtle. “It was really fun,” she said.

Members of the Boys & Girls Club of Southern Maine Auburn-Lewiston Clubhouse, Emily and Cameron have visited some state parks they’ve never been to using the “Maine State Park Passport.” It’s a new passport-designed booklet created to encourage more visits at more state parks.

It’s working.

Attendance at state parks through June of this year compared to last year is up 37 percent. Most of that is the weather; last year’s constant rain has been replaced this year with summer weather.

“But we think the passport has helped,” said Will Harris, director of the Bureau of Parks and Land in the Department of Conservation.

“We’re hearing a lot of excitement. Two weeks ago I was talking to a park manager at Pemaquid. Two groups came up asking for passports. The same thing happened at Reid. People are coming in to get their passports. It’s become a very popular thing.”

The state parks passport, a booklet with pages of each of the 48 state parks, works like this: People get a passport free when they visit any state park. On each visit to a park they can get that park’s page stamped. If people collect enough stamps, they get rewards. Eight stamps fetches a sticker; 16 a patch; 24 a water bottle. Those who get all 48 stamps get the biggest prize: a vehicle’s season pass for next year, worth $70. The rewards carry over, so someone could take two years to visit all 48 parks.

Often people visit the same state park they’ve been to before. “A lot of Mainers may not appreciate the diversity and variety of Maine parks,” Harris said. State parks offer canoeing in the Allagash Wilderness Waterway in Aroostook County; hiking at the Grafton Notch State Park near Newry; history learning at Fort Knox State Historic Site near Searsport; and sand and surf at the Ferry Beach State Park in Saco.

The passport is encouraging more to visit different parks, Harris said. Later this week the department will recognize two who have already visited all 48 parks this summer.

The Boys & Girls Club of Southern Maine Auburn-Lewiston Clubhouse is using the passport as a guide to plan summer outings, Harris said. “They’re having their kids see more of their own state. That’s great.”

Boys & Girls Club unit Director Andie Hannon said they use the passports to help them decide where to go. The passports have motivated counselors to visit as many parks as they can.

“Our goal is we’d like to hit 40 parks by the end of the summer. After tomorrow we’ll have hit 16 or 17,” she said. Using the passport, they’ve divided which counselor takes the kids where.

Hannon’s a hiker. She’s in charge of state park trips involving hiking.

Another counselor, Kris Dube, loves environmental science and takes kids to coastal parks. Still another likes geocaching, a high-tech treasure hunting game played with a GPS, and hosts state park trips where kids can geocache.

Clubhouse staff sometimes hit two parks in one day, Hannon said. She has taken youngsters to one park to hike, then another where they can swim.

Using the passport “has been a blast,” Hannon said, adding it’s a great way to see Maine. “The kids are really enjoying it. For some, they never leave Lewiston-Auburn. Here they are going to Camden or Rangeley.”

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If you like the outdoors, you should pick up a Maine State Parks Passport.

It’s a softbound, 81-page, 4 1/2- by 6-inch book that gives you a quick glimpse of the fun Maine has to offer.

In the book each park has one page with a brief description and color photo. Parks are categorized by region: Aroostook County, Downeast and Acadia, Portland and Casco Bay area, Kennebec and Moose River valleys, lakes and mountains, mid-coast, the beaches and the highlands. Each section has a map graphic.

The book features an introduction about how the passport program works, how many stamps you need to get rewards, and a bunch of information about parks’ geography, history, park phone numbers, and which offer what activities: fishing, picnic tables, swimming, showers, wildlife watching, camping.

At each park the stamps for the passports are in locked boxes that open with a combination. The combination is the year the park opened. The combination is not a secret, but youngsters like unlocking the box and stamping their passports.

You can get a passport, free, at any state park.