NPS

The Missouri National Recreational River Junior Ranger Badge

The Junior Ranger program has been in use throughout the National Park System for more than two decades. Many of the 391 National Park Service sites across America offer the program, and Missouri National Recreational River is one of them. Each program is geared to an individual park, with a variety of activities in each.

At the Lewis and Clark Visitor Center, kids will receive a booklet with activities about the park's many resources. Parents are allowed to help their kids complete the booklet if they so choose. Upon completion of the requirements, kids will receive a Junior Ranger certificate and an official MNRR Junior Ranger Badge. The booklet will also be their souvenir for a job well done. The "rec river" Junior Ranger program is also available in a pdf format (1.14 MB). Just click here for the booklet that you can download.

Each park site has a different badge with a different design, so many kids become collectors while learning about the parks.

Many parks in the National Park System have gone high-tech lately and offer Junior Ranger programs online. To check out the listings for these parks, click here.

In addition, the Junior Ranger Gazette is now available online. Here are all kinds of fun stuff about your national parks, plus games, puzzles and even recipies! Just click here or pick up a copy at your nearest national park.

Junior Ranger Essay Contest

The winner of the 2008 Junior Ranger essay contest will receive an all expense paid trip for four to Everglades National Park where he or she will appear in an electronic field trip about invasive species in national parks. Essays must be 500 words or less and received on-line or by mail by March 14, 2008. The essay contest information is available at www.nps.gov