News Release

Annual Junior Ranger Day Celebration at Big Thicket National Preserve

Junior rangers can look for sunspots on the sun with our solar telescope!

NPS Photo / Nathan Pattee

News Release Date: April 9, 2024

Contact: Megan Urban, 409-554-9016

KOUNTZE, Texas – Come celebrate Junior Ranger Day at Big Thicket National Preserve on Saturday, April 20, 2024! This FREE family-friendly event will take place at the visitor center located at 6102 FM 420 in Kountze from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm.

Visitors of all ages and abilities can learn about the different types of park rangers at Big Thicket while exploring these different stations and completing a scavenger hunt:

• Check out the awesome vehicles and tools it takes to protect the preserve, including a fire truck and air boat.
• Learn about the vast human history of the Big Thicket and help rangers find new artifacts in an archeological dig.
• Take a photo of yourself using the ranger career props and start imagining yourself as a ranger.
• Look for sunspots on the sun through a solar-filtered telescope.
• Go for a ranger-led hike to learn more about the plants and animals that call Big Thicket home.

Cracklin Kings will be selling food during the event and ASL interpreters will be on-site throughout the day. Visitors that finish the scavenger hunt become official Big Thicket junior rangers and take home a new wooden junior ranger badge and a 50th anniversary badge. The ranger-led hike will take place at the Kirby Nature Trail at 1:00 pm, at the conclusion of the event.

View our calendar of events for more information on free ranger-led programs and activities.

-NPS-

Big Thicket National Preserve is located in Southeast Texas, near the city of Beaumont and 75 miles northeast of Houston. The preserve consists of nine land units and six water corridors encompassing more than 113,000 acres. The Big Thicket, often referred to as a “biological crossroads,” is a transition zone between four distinct vegetation types: the moist eastern hardwood forest, the southwestern desert, the southeastern swamp, and the central prairies. Species from all of these different vegetation types come together in the thicket, exhibiting a variety of vegetation and wildlife that has received global interest.