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Saturday, April 16, 2016

California Junior Ranger Programs

California NPS Junior Ranger Programs & State Park Junior Ranger programs

California has some great national parks and monuments, including the famous Yosemite and Death Valley. Here's the full list of California national parks, monuments, and memorials that have junior ranger badges. Click to go right to the junior ranger page. Further down they have been organized by region to help you plan a trip. California also has a state park junior ranger program and Humboldt county has the Redwood Edventures program. Information for those programs is at the bottom of the page.

Alphabetical List:
  1. Alcatraz Island
  2. Cabrillo National Monument (special centennial badges for 2016!)
  3. Cesar Chavez National Memorial
  4. Channel Islands National Park
  5. Death Valley
  6. Devil's Postpile National Monument
  7. Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site
  8. John Muir National Historic Site
  9. Joshua Tree National Park
  10. Lassen Volcanic National Park (earns a patch)
  11. Lava Beds National Monument
  12. Manzanar National Historic Site
  13. Marin Headlands
  14. Mohave National Preserve
  15. Muir Woods National Monument
  16. Pinnacles National Park
  17. Point Reyes National Seashore
  18. Redwood National Park
  19. Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historic Park
  20. San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park
  21. Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area
  22. Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks
  23. Whiskeytown National Recreation Area
Organized by Region:
California State Park Junior Ranger Programs (Earn a badge and patch):
California State park junior ranger programs are only available during the summer and they are hour-long programs scheduled at certain times of the day. You have to check the events page of the park before you go and make sure you are there on time to attend the program. At the end of the first program kids receive a star badge and a logbook. The ranger stamps the back of the book for each Junior ranger program you attend. For 5 stamps kids get a poster, for 10 stamps, a patch. Initially, one program earned one stamp, but they are now also stamping for every 3 pages completed in the activity book.

Grover Hot Springs State Park
Lake Oroville State Recreation Area
Calaveras Big Trees State Park
Mount Diablo State Park
Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park
Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park
Auburn State Recreation Area
D.L. Bliss State Park
Ed Z’Berg Sugar Pine Point State Park
Emerald Bay State Park
Millerton Lake State Recreation Area
Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park
Humboldt Redwoods State Park
Patrick’s Point State Park
Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park
Richardson Grove State Park
Clear Lake State Park
Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook
Leo Carrillo State Park
Malibu Creek State Park
Pio Pico State Historic Park
Will Rogers State Historic Park
Angel Island State Park
China Camp State Park
Mount Tamalpais State Park
Samuel P. Taylor State Park
Tomales Bay State Park
California State Mining and Mineral Museum
Hendy Woods State Park
MacKerricher State Park
Russian Gulch State Park
Standish-Hickey State Recreation Area
Van Damme State Park
San Luis Reservoir State Recreation Area
Bodie State Historic Park
Pfeiffer-Big Sur State Park
Bothe-Napa Valley State Park
Donner Memorial State Park
South Yuba River State Park Crystal Cove State Park
Redwood Edventures (earn patches):
Humboldt County offers a special additional program. Kids go on a quest (a scavenger hunt) on a trail in the park. At the end of the trail they can find a final phrase they need to copy down in their brochure.

Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park
Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park
Redwood National Park
Patrick's Point State Park
Arcata Community Forest
Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary
Fort Humboldt State Historic Park
Headwaters Forest Reserve
Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge
Humboldt Redwoods State Park
Richardson Grove State Park
Trinidad Head Coastal Monument
Humboldt Coastal Nature Center
Gray Falls Day Use Area
Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park
Sequoia Park and Zoo
Fish Lake (closed in winter)
Tish Tang Campground (open summer only)
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Junior Ranger Review: Petrified Forest National Park


We visited the Petrified Forest in March 2016.


The Petrified Forest National Park in northern Arizona is in a pretty barren landscape, but there are huge logs of petrified wood, many of which are still lying where they fell, looking like they are still made of wood, even though now they are solid rock. Some of the petrified wood has cracked into chunks where you can see they contain may different beautiful colors of stone and sometimes even an iridescent shimmer. This park is right next to the famous Painted Desert, but we didn't have time to check that out on this trip.

We did the junior ranger program entirely at the the Rainbow Forest Museum and the trail that runs behind it. This museum is the first visitor center you encounter when you enter the park. The museum is small but has some cool exhibits with dinosaur skeletons! The exhibits give you a great idea of the huge ancient forest that was here, deep rivers, and the amazing plants and animals that populated it. There were ferns, conifers, giant crocodile-like reptiles and giant salamander-like amphibians. It's all hard to imagine now, since the area is so dry, empty, and rocky.

The junior ranger booklet is for the most part a scavenger hunt type deal. Kids have to find things in the museum and outside on the trail. The booklet has some coloring parts, so we were glad we brought our colored pencils. It asks you to color the petrified logs with all the colors you see in them. When we finished the ranger gave us the usual petrified forest badges and also junior ranger patches, which was neat.

Junior Ranger: "I thought we were going to a forest. But it was really a desert. That was a surprise!"

Mom: "During their pledge, the ranger made the kids swear to eat their vegetables--ha!"

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U.S. Territories Junior Ranger Programs

American Samoa
National Park of American Samoa

Guam
War in the Pacific National Historic Park

Northern Mariana Islands
American Memorial Park

US Virgin Islands
US Virgin Islands National Park
Buck Island Reef National Monument

Puerto Rico
San Juan National Historic Site
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Friday, April 15, 2016

Junior Ranger Review: Grand Canyon


We visited the Grand Canyon in March of 2016.


The Grand Canyon is an amazing place and people come from all over the world to see it. We've been here several times and the park is always very busy and it's hard to even find a parking place near the visitor's center! In the same area they have both a visitor center where the rangers are, and a bookstore where all the souvenirs are.

Head to the visitor center once you manage to park and get your junior ranger booklets. The junior ranger badge here has 3 levels for children of different ages. Pages with ravens on them are for kids 4-7; pages with coyotes are for kids 8-10, and pages with scorpions are for 11 and up. The program also requires attending a ranger talk, and the ranger has to sign their books. The ranger talks are offered throughout the day. The one we attended was about elk. We learned about keeping our distance from elk and the differences between deer and elk and between antlers and horns. The ranger brought out some elk antlers that we could touch.


After completing all the book pages, kids get sworn in and get their badges. If you are visiting late in the day you can get sworn in at the bookstore which stays open later than the visitor's center. Also at the bookstore, you can purchase the coordinating junior ranger patches for $2 each. The patches are quite nice and each age-range's patch is unique, so we bought them. We got the raven and coyote patches.We learned there is also a special junior ranger patch you can get if you make it down to the bottom of the canyon. Maybe next time!


Junior Ranger: "I love the Grand Canyon; it's so big. The best part this time was there was some snow on the ground and I got to play in it!"

Mom: "There were so many people around the visitor center that one of my kids to got lost in the crowd for a minute. That was scary. And there were elk strolling through the parking lot!"




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Thursday, April 7, 2016

Junior Ranger Badges You Can Earn From Home

These are NPS junior ranger badges or patches that you can get without having to visit a site.

Web-based Junior Rangers Programs:
Web Rangers site (earns the Web Rangers patch)
Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail

Mail-in Junior Ranger Programs
National Parks Service Centennial
Jr. Ranger Underwater Explorer
Junior Cave Scientist
Junior Paleontologist
Junior Ranger Night Explorer (patch)
Discovering the Underground Railroad (earns the standard junior ranger patch)
Chesapeake Bay
Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail (earns a patch)
Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument
Point Reyes National Seashore

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Arizona Junior Ranger Programs

 Arizona NPS Junior Ranger Programs & State Park Junior Ranger programs

 Arizona has some great national parks and monuments, including the Grand Canyon and the the Petrified Forest. Here's the full list of Arizona national parks, monuments, and memorials that have junior ranger badges. Click to go right to the junior ranger page. Further down they have been organized by region to help you plan a trip. Arizona also has a state park junior ranger program where you can earn buttons. Information for that program is at the bottom of the page.

National Parks Alphabetical List:
  1. Casa Grande Ruins National Monument (wooden badge!)
  2. Canyon de Chelly National Monument
  3. Chiricahua National Monument
  4. Coronado National Memorial
  5. Fort Bowie National Historic Site
  6. Glen Canyon National Recreation Area
  7. Grand Canyon National Park
  8. Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument (No facilities or visitor contact areas within the monument boundaries, so this is a mail-in badge or get it at the Interagency Information Center in St. George, Utah)
  9. Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site
  10. Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail (web ranger badge)
  11. Lake Mead National Recreation Area
  12. Montezuma Castle National Monument/Montezuma Well
  13. Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument
  14. Petrified Forest National Park
  15. Pipe Spring National Monument
  16. Navajo National Monument
  17. Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument
  18. Tonto National Monument
  19. Tumacacori National Historical Park
  20. Tuzigoot National Monument
  21. Walnut Canyon National Monument
  22. Wupatki National Monument
National Parks Organized by Region:
Northern Arizona
Central Arizona
Southern Arizona
Arizona State Park Junior Ranger Programs (Earn buttons)
Western Arizona
Northern Arizona
Eastern Arizona 
Southern Arizona
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