Become a Junior Ranger

Explore, Learn, Protect! Families can purchase the full-color Junior Ranger activity book at visitor centers for $3. Visitors of any age earn a Junior Ranger patch upon completion.

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 13–113 years.

 

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. Currently, visitor centers remain closed due to COVID-19 and books are not available in the park. If you would like to purchase a book before your visit, please send $3.00 each and we will mail you a book(s).

Address:

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

Please send a check made out to National Park Service.

 

Pick up a Junior Ranger book at a visitor center and work on it during your visit.

NPS/Jim Peaco

 

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.