It's indeed a confusing topic. I believe the term "America The Beautiful pass" applies to the entire series of passes. Or more properly, they are the "America the Beautiful - The National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass Series"...
ANNUAL PASS - (for people who don't qualify for any of the other passes or would just prefer to have that one)
MILITARY PASS (for current military members and dependents, Reserve and National Guard members, US military veterans and Gold Star Family members)
4th GRADE PASS (for 4th graders including the summer after their 4th Grade school year)
SENIOR PASS (for US citizens and permanent residents over 62. For this one there are two variants, "Annual Senior" and "Lifetime Senior". And here's a tip: if you buy the annual senior version and later want the lifetime senior one, you can turn in any old annual senior passes for credit on the purchase of the lifetime one.)
ACCESS PASS (for US citizens and permanent residents who are permanently disabled)
VOLUNTEER PASS (for volunteers with over 250 hours volunteering at one or more of the agencies sponsoring the pass)
See this link for details (and follow links in the page for more details and Frequently Asked Questions...
National Park Service Entrance Passes webpage (Note: the policies there apply to all agencies participating in this program, not just to the NPS)
Also- The type of pass should be right on the card, i.e., if it's an Annual Senior pass, the words annual and senior are on the card. If you have the older Lifetime Senior pass with the red cactus flowers on the front, the word "Senior' is on the front and the "Lifetime" part is on the back. The newer ones have both words on the front.
Edited by Old Crow, 06 August 2022 - 10:34 PM.