Scout Moore: Junior Ranger, Grand Canyon

It is quite clear that my blog has been on a 3 week hiatus, and the reason for that is a family vacation, which ties in really neatly with this book. We undertook a road trip to the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, Arches National Park, Denver and a couple of other spots for almost 2 weeks. I thoroughly enjoyed all of these spots, and as such, bought this book for my daughter.

This is a really cute story, written by Theresa Howell, of how Scout becomes a Junior ranger when her and her family visit the Grand Canyon. Being a foreigner in the US, I didn’t really know about this program, and after reading this cute story, our family worked through junior ranger programs at Zion, Canyonlands and Arches national parks. When checking for the link to this book, I see that there are multiple options for different parks. I would imagine the stories are quite similar, and perhaps only the one from your first national park makes most sense.

My girls really enjoyed the story, and looking for the little brother’s toy on every page. And as an aside, we also hid one of our toys a good few times when we were out hiking, and then the kids got so excited to find ‘Hootie’ in the wild.

As an aside, if you are new to the junior ranger program, you should make a stop on your way into a national park at the visitor’s center or ranger station and pick up a junior ranger booklet for each of your kids aged 3/4 to probably 13 or so. You can then work through it, completing paper based exercises, excursions and even ranger led programs. Once you have completed the requirements outlined in the book, your kids can turn them in for a junior ranger badge. My kids were so proud.

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