While checking into the Grand Canyon I noticed that there is a Jr. Ranger program that the National Park system runs. I had seen it before, but didn’t pay much attention since my boys were so young. They are finally old enough, and it is AWESOME.
At the Grand Canyon it was totally free, which I believe is the way it is everywhere. Anyway, they get a free work book with about 4 activities that they need to do. They ranged from Grand Canyon Bingo, to drawing pictures of what they see. It was great at keeping the boys occupied for the 2 days. They ate up every minute of it.
One of the other activities was that they needed to do a ranger guided tour. That had me worried in that they were only run at certain times, and most of them were about an hour long, which with 2 boys stretches their attention. The ranger was great though. She had a goody bag to keep us interested and shortened it to about 30 minutes since our entire group was made up of kids trying to get their Jr. Ranger badge. The boys loved the nature walk.
When they finished everything, they turned it into the Rangers, and got a certificate and badge. 
So next time you visit a national park, make sure to check with the Visitor Center about the Jr. Rangers. If only for the workbook. Something great for the kids to do while driving around the park.
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