Become a Junior Ranger

 

Cover of the Junior Ranger booklet. The complete booklet is available at visitor centers across the park.

NPS

Yellowstone National Park has a self-guided, Junior Ranger program for visiting children 4 years and older. This program is a way to introduce children—and those young at heart—to the natural wonders of the park and their own role in preserving these wonders for the future. Full-color booklets are available at park visitor centers for $3 and a patch is awarded to those who complete the requirements.

After completing the age-appropriate requirements described inside the booklet and reviewing their work with a ranger at any visitor center, participants are awarded an official Yellowstone Junior Ranger patch. Modeled after the National Park Service patch, these patches are shaped like an arrowhead and feature a geyser for 4–7 year olds, a grizzly bear for 8–12 year olds, and a bison for those 13–100+ years old.

 

Patches of Yellowstone's Junior Ranger program.

NPS

Requirements include attending a ranger-led program, hiking on a park trail or boardwalk, and completing activities in the booklet to learn more about park resources, issues, and concepts such as hydrothermal geology, wildlife, and fire ecology. Both children and adults benefit by learning more about the park and sharing the fun of becoming a Junior Ranger.

 

Winter Junior Rangers

If you visit Yellowstone in winter, you can participate in the Junior Ranger program. Winter Junior Rangers are awarded a snowflake patch.

Address:

Junior Ranger Coordinator
Yellowstone National Park
PO Box 168
Yellowstone National Park, WY 82190.

 

 

World Heritage Junior Ranger

Yellowstone National Park one of 24 World Heritage Sites within the United States. These are sites that meet at least one of several highly stringent criteria for universal value.

To learn more about World Heritage Sites, head on over to the World Heritage Junior Ranger web page and become another type of junior ranger today.