12 Aug Meeting a Junior Ranger

This week I had the opportunity to visit Muir Woods for the first time, and it was absolutely beautiful. I love being able to visit new national parks and experience them because they all have something unique to offer. I don’t think I have ever seen trees like these, and walking through this park made me feel somewhat small in comparison. In this same trip I was able to meet Junior Ranger Aida Frey, who has visited over 150 national parks throughout the country by the age of 16. Prior to meeting her, I had only a basic knowledge of what a Junior Ranger was. I was informed that a Junior Ranger goes to a park and takes notes on observations and answers questions in a book pertaining to the park, then upon completion the Junior Ranger turns it in to a park ranger and is sworn in to protect all national parks and receives a badge. I was able to see Aida receive her Muir Woods Junior Ranger badge. Later that day we were also able to show her part of the Anza Trail and then presented her with the Anza Junior Ranger badge. It was great being able to see the appreciation that young people like her have for the national parks. Aida was such an awesome person to talk to and get to know, and her personal relationship to the National Park Service was quite different than most people have, so I was happy I was able to be part of her mission to collect Junior Ranger badges for all national parks. As for back at the office, I am now finishing up my story map.  It has been somewhat stressful these past few days trying to get everything in order and creating a worthy finished product, but I know it will come out great in the end. I am also very excited to be able to travel to Colorado next week and meet all the interns and learn about the amazing projects they have been working on.