Yosemite National Park - For Kids (U.S. National Park Service)

Visiting Yosemite? Become a Junior Ranger or Little Cub! Learn more about Junior Rangers with these links.

Consider visiting the Nature Center at Happy Isles (summer only) or the Yosemite Valley Visitor Center for interactive exhibits.

Read about a Junior Ranger's winning entry in an essay contest.

If you're working on a report for school, you can probably find the answers to your questions be looking through:

Nature & Science section of Yosemite's website
Discover Yosemite, an interactive website with lots of info

History: Junior Ranger history reaches back to the Yosemite Junior Nature School, organized in June 1930 and lasting until 1954. Imagine being an eager young naturalist sent off to the park for a week's summer session. Read a 1937 Yosemite Nature Notes article about the historic school and a 1960 Yosemite Nature Notes article that shares the program's success and structural evolution in 1955. Read about the children's experience in their words in this 1938 Yosemite Junior Nature Notes magazine. [1 MB PDF]. Also, could you pass the Junior Ranger 1933 test? [20 kb PDF] Warning: it's tough!

Ranger in Yosemite Valley field with children in historic photo

Ralph H. Anderson

Ranger Walter Heil and a 1938 Yosemite Junior Nature School group explore Sentinel Meadow in the Valley.