At some libraries. Indiana State Library / DNR library park-pass offerings runs in parts of Indiana — call your branch before you drive. Verified against blog.library.in.gov, checked 2026-09-04.
| Program | Indiana State Library / DNR library park-pass offerings |
|---|---|
| What it covers | Not a simple universal patron checkout: participating libraries can purchase Adventure Backpack passes ($50/yr) that travel with an activity backpack, buy discounted one-day passes ($7 each, minimum order of 10) to use as reading-program prizes/giveaways, or get "buy one, get one free" Annual Entrance Passes for fundraising. |
| How to borrow | Individual libraries opt in and purchase passes directly from Indiana DNR; whether a patron can simply check one out (vs. receiving it as a program prize) depends on that specific library's own policy. |
| Day-use cost otherwise | Indiana state park gate admission roughly $7/vehicle for residents, higher for nonresidents. |
| Source | blog.library.in.gov · checked 2026-09-04 |
Differs from most other states' "check out a free day pass at the desk" model — Indiana's current (2025) version is library-purchased and program/prize-oriented rather than a free general circulating pass. An earlier "Centennial Pass Check-out" program (one free pass donated per library building) ran circa 2016-2017 and may no longer exist in that original free form. DNR does not replace lost/stolen passes or issue refunds.
Because Indiana State Library / DNR library park-pass offerings runs through participating libraries rather than every Indiana branch, the first move is a call to your own library — if they hold passes, they check out like books, usually one per household with holds allowed. The borrowed pass covers not a simple universal patron checkout: participating libraries can purchase Adventure Backpack passes ($50/yr) that travel with an activity backpack, buy discounted one-day passes ($7 each, minimum order of 10) to use as reading-program prizes/giveaways, or get "buy one, get one free" Annual Entrance Passes for fundraising.. Nothing overnight is included — campsites, cabins and launches are reserved and paid separately.
Day-use entry in Indiana runs about $7 per visit, so a family that day-trips five times over a season keeps roughly $35 by borrowing the pass instead of paying at the gate — and a twice-a-month hiking habit is $168 a year back in the budget. The pass costs exactly what the library card does: nothing.
Indiana is one of 8 states in this situation. Traveling? Connecticut, Idaho, Maine, Maryland work the same way.
At participating libraries — Indiana State Library / DNR library park-pass offerings doesn't cover every system. Individual libraries opt in and purchase passes directly from Indiana DNR; whether a patron can simply check one out (vs. receiving it as a program prize) depends on that specific library's own policy.
Indiana state park gate admission roughly $7/vehicle for residents, higher for nonresidents.. That's the per-visit saving the library pass delivers.
It doesn't — every program of this kind lends day-use entry only, with campsites, cabins and launches billed separately.