Project overview: Inspire future stewards through year-round Junior Ranger programming, including ranger-led walks and talks, free workbooks, and the expansion of creative, bilingual programs to ensure all Junior Rangers feel welcome in Yosemite. 

How your support helps: Spending time outside has well-documented benefits for kids, from improving physical health to sparking creativity and reducing stress levels. That being said, growing up in the 21st century has become a largely indoor activity for many children. Yosemite’s Junior Ranger programs create fun, educational experiences that inspire kids to feel comfortable in and connected to the outdoors.  

Each year, thousands of children earn their wooden Yosemite Junior Ranger badges through ranger-led walks and talks, educational worksheets, and stewardship activities. Participants might explore ecology during a forest wander, practice Leave No Trace skills while meeting in a meadow, or learn about American Indian history next to a bark-covered umacha — a structure made of cedar bark and historically used for shelter by local Tribes.  

Yosemite’s youngest visitors aren’t the only ones who benefit from Junior Ranger programs. Many activities lend themselves to intergenerational engagement, prompting older siblings, parents, grandparents, and other family members to learn and explore, too.  

Conservancy donors first funded the park’s Junior Ranger activities in the early 2000s. Since then, donor support has helped the program expand to offer more activities at more locations in the park, with over 200,000 children earning their Yosemite Junior Ranger badges since 2008. In 2021 and 2022, donors also supported free workbooks for all participants and funded trainings to make junior ranger lessons more inclusive and welcoming to all visitors. 

2024 saw the piloting of Spanish-language ranger programming in Wawona and Glacier Point, which continues capacity building to introduce new audiences to Yosemite in their own language.  

These improvements to the Junior Ranger program are essential for kids with varied learning styles and needs, and they create a valuable and memorable experience for all participants. Your support will enable more kids and families to participate in enriching educational activities, experience the park in a meaningful way, and develop a lasting appreciation for the outdoors.  

This year: In 2025, Yosemite educators will lead hundreds of Junior Ranger programs throughout the park during the summer season and activities in the Valley all year long. We hope to distribute 16,000 badges based on completion of Junior Ranger books and events. And, with your support, the team will pilot five bilingual pop-up tables in the park with Spanish-language materials, ensuring all Junior Rangers are welcome at Yosemite. 

Project partner: Yosemite National Park 

Bob Loudon

Interpretation and Education, Yosemite National Park

Project Notes

"Since 2008, Yosemite Conservancy and its preceding partners have invested in the next generation of Yosemite National Park's supporters. Funding has ensured that thousands of Junior Rangers each year receive their Junior Ranger badge, as well as interact with rangers during Junior Ranger days, badge swear-ins or Junior Ranger walks."