PHOTO GALLERY: Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta National Heritage Area Passport Program Kicks Off

    Two photos: Three hands pressing down a rubber stamp, and three people holding a stamped passport
    Dignitaries do the honors of the the first Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta National Heritage Area Passport Program stamp. Shown from left to right: Delta Protection Commission Chair Diane Burgis, U.S. Rep. John Garamendi, Delta NHA Advisory Committee Vice Chair Elizabeth Patterson (Photos by Delta Protection Commission/Jada Portillo)

    RIO VISTA, Calif. (Feb. 28, 2026) – U.S. Rep. John Garamendi and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta National Heritage Area (NHA) celebrated the launch of the NHA’s Passport Program Saturday at RioVision Gallery in Rio Vista.

    The Gallery hosts one of 27 self-serve “stamping stations” located throughout the Delta NHA, where visitors can stamp the NHA’s name, the date, and the city of the stamping station in passports. The passports are available from Eastern National, a nonprofit partner of the National Park Service that administers the nationwide passport program. But people who don’t have a passport can stamp any piece of paper.

    Stamped text

    Locals and visitors alike can find stamping station locations, as well as other nearby attractions, on an interactive map or in list form.

    The Delta National Heritage Area is one of 44 NHAs that participate in the Passport to Your National Parks Program, in addition to nearly all parks in the National Park System. Many travelers become avid collectors of stamps that commemorate their visits to some of the nation’s most beautiful and historically significant places.

    Attendees on Saturday had the opportunity to stamp their passports alongside Garamendi, Delta Protection Commission (DPC) Executive Director Amanda Bohl, and DPC Chair Diane Burgis. The DPC coordinates the National Heritage Area.

    Garamendi was a key supporter in Congress in the creation of the NHA – California’s first – in 2019.

    On Saturday, he told the gathered audience that he began participating in the Passport to Your National Parks program the 1990s.

    “As we’ve traveled in the years since that time, we’ve always carried a passport with us,” he said, calling it an extraordinary opportunity to remember where they were and what they did when visiting places of historic, cultural, and natural significance.

    All photos by Delta Protection Commission/Jada Portillo

    A man's hands on a table with a rubber stamp
    A kneeling woman smiles, looking up at a child's face
    A passport book
    A woman stamps a passport
    A man chats with two smiling women outside a brick storefront
    A man gestures while speaking to a gathered audience
    Three hands press down a rubber stamp
    Two women and a man hold up a freshly stamped passport
    Closeup of three hands holding a freshly stamped passport
    A man reaches for a rubber stamp
    A man presses ink into a rubber stamp
    Two women and two children pose with a smiling man
    A woman presses a rubber stamp into an inkpad
    A man stamps a piece of paper
    Two men point to a location on a map on a piece of paper
    A man stamps a piece of paper
    A man holding a passport book poses with a smiling woman
    Three women chat with a smiling man outside a storefront on a sunny day