Gatlinburg Vacation part 2: Junior Rangers

This post is the second in a series about our vacation to Gatlinburg, Tennessee and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  Look for more posts of trip from me, here is Part 1 and Part 3.

As I was deep in planning for our trip, I asked a friend about their family trip.  She mentioned the Junior Ranger program and how much her kids enjoyed it.  I looked into the program on the website and knew my kids would enjoy it, too.

I found I could order the booklets online before our trip, but decided not to chance how long shipping would take.  You can pick up booklets at any of the visitors centers, we got ours at the Sugarlands Visitors Center.

The first activity in the booklets had the kids asking a park ranger questions.  The park ranger we talked to at the Sugarlands Visitors Center was extremely friendly, happy to talk to kids.  As our conversation unfolded, talking about different animals in the park, he slipped off to a back room.  When he came back a few minutes later, he had a fur from a black bear and a river otter for my kids to pet and learn more about.  It was a really great moment.  Not surprisingly, when asked what his favorite part of his job is, his answer was educating children.

The Junior Ranger program also requires the child to participate in a Ranger-led program.  Looking at the list of options online, I was both very impressed and overwhelmed at the sheer number of opportunities to participate in a ranger-led program.  Also impressing me was that almost all of the programs are free.  We did the Batteries Not Included program at the Mountain Farm Museum, and the kids enjoyed learning about the toys kids in the olden days would have played with, they even got to make their own "Buzz Button" and to bring it home.

The rest of the Junior Ranger booklet had different activities for some of the most popular places in the Smoky Mountain National Park.  There are questions to answer, things to observe.  What animals have you seen?  What kinds of plants have you seen?  How did kids learn in the olden days?  There also activities that kids can do on their own.

At the end of our trip, we took the mostly completed booklets to talk to another Park Ranger.  The kids talked with her about what they did, where they went, what their favorite location was.  The Ranger Rhonda then had a little ceremony where the kids got completion certificates and a Junior Ranger badge.  Oldest kid proudly wore her badge for 2 days afterward.

We let the kids each pick out a trinket for completing the program and they are the proud owners of key chains to decorate their school backpacks.

For the $2.50 cost of the booklet, this was a program that was very much worth the cost and the time.  My kids really enjoyed it.

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