Posts filed under ‘Park Rangers’
Chipper for Parks: Yosemite National Park
“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine into trees.”
-John Muir
Yosemite Valley
We are definitely Chipper for Parks! Parks are places for us to clear our minds and enjoy our surrounding. They are places for our kids to free their imaginations and explore nature! Stretching over 1,200 square miles (761,268 acres) of central California, Yosemite National Park is one the largest and oldest parks in America. With almost 4 million visitors each year, it is also one of the most frequented parks in the country. It’s no wonder why so many people travel from far and wide to visit if you have ever been lucky enough to visit before. The park’s forests of Redwoods and Sequoias and it’s huge valley’s filled with waterfalls and gigantic rock formations are awe-inspiring indeed.
When famous conservationist, John Muir, arrived to Yosemite in 1868 from his beautiful home land of Scotland, he was changed for life and inspired others to visit this magical place, leading the area’s way towards being a National Park. He also spurred scientific interest and was one of the first to theorize that the major landforms in Yosemite Valley were created by large alpine glaciers. After President Theodore Roosevelt visited Yosemite in 1903 to visit John Muir, he said, “”It was like lying in a great solemn cathedral, far vaster and more beautiful than any built by the hand of man.”
Mirror Lake
Yosemite is full of opportunities for fun activities in the great outdoors! Explore Yosemite by hiking or biking. Spend some time with a park ranger learning about Yosemite or get a broad overview by taking a bus tour. You can teach your children to give back to the planet and help Yosemite by volunteering for a few hours (Memorial Day to Labor Day).
Your kids will love becoming apart of the historical Junior Ranger or Little Cub! The Junior Rangers reach back to the Yosemite Junior Nature School, organized in June 1930 and lasting until 1954. In 2010, more than 24,000 children became Yosemite Junior Rangers (up from 6,000 in 2007). Learn more about Junior Rangers with these links. 
Consider visiting the Nature Center at Happy Isles (summer only) or the Yosemite Valley Visitor Center for interactive exhibits.
Don’t forget to earn your FREE Chipper for Parks Badge on your next park visit by posting a picture of you and your tot in nature on Chipper’s Facebook Page, or give back to a park of your choice– in your name– when you purchase a badge here!
The Yosemite Guide has information about all scheduled activities and hours of operation for services.
Visit here for more information on this national treasure.
Chipper for Parks: Family Camping this Summer
There’s nothing like spending time with the family around the camp fire under the open sky. Camping gives us all a retreat from the crazy, busy pace of our daily lives and gives us time to reflect and connect with your children. A little fresh air does wonders to
a depressed teenager or a grumpy 4 year old. Take a nature walk and collect some rocks and leaves or just laze by a stream and watch the butterflies flutter by. There is no limit to the fun you can find when exploring our parks open spaces.
Join Chipper in supporting our Park Systems this summer by visiting and camping at our State and National Parks. Get out there and have your own adventure at one of our 279 State Parks. Click HERE to find parks with available sites and reserve your spot to start enjoying the great outdoors! Our noble Park Ranger’s can use all the 
support they can get with budget cuts and closures happening left and right. Donate in your name to any park of your choice when your purchase our Chipper for Parks Badge. Nothing inspires and benefits you and your children quite like nature and parks are the safest, easiest place to reconnect with our beautiful planet. Where will you go for your next camping adventure?
Chipper for Parks: Why Parks are so Important for Kids
Many parks have Junior Ranger programs for kids! Click this image to learn more!
Parks are great places for children to make important connections–with their parents, their peers, and the environment. They are also a great place to improve and maintain kid’s physical fitness with play based activities. Just by playing, they are moving and that’s good exercise! And playing outside, in the dirt and sun, has been shown by countless studies to improve and benefit every aspect of a child’s growth and development. Sadly, many parks around the country are closing down due to economic strain and lack of attendance. That’s why the folks here at Let’s Go Chipper are championing parks and open spaces all over the world to encourage visitation and inspire children everywhere to be the environmental stewards of the future! Here is a list of six reason’s why parks are so important for children’s well being!
Exploring and finding little critters can occupy your child for hours and expand their mind in wonderful ways!
• Parks are safe places for kids to go. Whether it is reality or just the perception of reality, many parents are fearful of letting their kids play unsupervised outdoors except in very controlled circumstances. Stranger-danger, fear of poisonous plants, fear of stinging and clinging insects—all of these are reasons why nature for some is a place to be feared not embraced. Parks are one of the few places that are generally very safe for kids to go. They are specially designated places for the public to enjoy nature, free from most hazards, and watched over by staff and the public. Park visitors promptly report unsafe conditions or hazards. Many eyes on the park make for a safer place for kids to play.
• Parks are one of the best places for discovery and play. Think back on your own childhood. The life of your imagination was a fertile place. Playing king-of-the-hill on a pile of dirt, building a fort or a clubhouse in the woods, flipping rocks over in a stream, exploring in uncharted territory—all were hugely enriching experiences. Natural parks are places for kids to discover the eggs of a frog in the water collected in a tire track and to see squirrels (Like Chipper!) running through the tops of trees, jumping from tree to tree. Kids will load up their pockets with objects collected on a hike to later marvel at how interesting the things found in nature really are. Parks are places for kids to discover nature and exercise their imagination!
• Parks are places for families to connect – Parks connect kids and adults with nature and to each other. Perhaps more than ever, families need places to connect with each other. Parks are all-purpose places for kids to connect with nature and with families to connect with peers. They are one of the few places that families can go where there are no barriers to communication—no amplified loudspeakers, no big screen TVs, nothing other than the sounds and sights of nature. Parks enable connections between families, between generations, and to nature!
• Parks are close-to-home nature places. As open space is rapidly disappearing from our communities, designated public open space and places for nature are becoming all the more important for all ages. The power of local parks, even small neighborhood spaces, to connect kids with nature is not to be underestimated. Joe Elton, Virginia state park director, recently reiterated a long-standing observation about parks: “You visit your local parks daily, your state parks a few times a year, and your national parks perhaps but once in a lifetime.” Kids can find nature in almost every park, and there are parks and public lands close to where almost everyone lives. If there are not, become an advocate for them. They should be everyone’s backyard!
• Parks provide a sense of adventure for kids. Parks have the unique ability to provide kids with a sense of adventure. Every hike in the woods brings new things to see, and around every turn there is something new to discover. Kids gain a sense of accomplishment from challenges met outdoors, which leads to greater self-confidence and self-worth. Parks are a great place for kids to take risks, within acceptable limits, and to discover that the fears they have about the unknown are conquerable. Every successful adventure in the park that kids have contributes to their maturity and to their developing a sense of stewardship for wildlife, natural resources, and open spaces.
• Parks are a place to remember. Some of our earliest and most special memories were formed in parks—lifetime experiences that we remember the rest of our lives with great satisfaction. Parks were special places where we forged friendships, had adventures, and learned new things about life and ourselves. Parks still provide these kinds of experiences to kids, and they produce powerful positive memories, affecting kids in ways we cannot always easily perceive. These park experiences influence kids’ ethics, their career choices, and even how they will be as parents.
Parks connect kids to nature in all the right ways. Discover where your close-to-home local parks are and get to know the park personnel who supervise them. Enable your kids to play there—they will be grateful to you for the rest of their lives. One simple way to support a parks is to purchase your very own Chipper for Parks Badge. We will donate a portion of the cost to any park of your choice, in your name. Support your local parks and noble Park Rangers–Get Chipper and Get Outdoors!!!
Chipper Summer Events: National Get Outdoors Day!
Join Chipper and his friends at your closest National or State Park this Saturday, June 6th, to celebrate the 5th annual National Get Outdoors Day (GO Day)! Admission to a number of parks is free and there an array of events being held by federal agencies, nonprofit organizations and the recreation industry. Chipper and others are again teaming up to encourage healthy, active outdoor fun! Prime goals of the day are reaching currently underserved populations and first-time visitors to public lands, and reconnecting our youth to the great outdoors.
Each GO Day event will offer a mix of information centers and “active fun” areas – places where guests, and especially kids, can use a fishing pole, go geocaching, help pitch a tent and more. The sites will provide photo opportunities with characters like Smokey Bear, Woodsy Owl and other interesting creatures. Many sites also feature areas that focus on other aspects of healthy living, including sustainability and good nutrition. In addition to the GO Day events, participants will be invited to nearby follow-up activities 
called EchO events occurring throughout the summer, which include introductions to mountain biking and fly-fishing, hikes with rangers to see wildlife, kayaking and rafting and much more!
Save the Date and Save our Parks by purchasing your very own Chipper for Parks Badge and you can chose which park to donate to in your own name. Chipper encourages young Americans to seek out healthy, active outdoor lives and embrace our parks, forests, refuges and other public lands and waters this GO Day!
National Trails Day
This Saturday, June 2nd, join Chipper and friends for the 20th anniversary of America’s largest trail celebration! Save the date and find an event near you at this link: http://www.americanhiking.org/NTD.aspx. There are so many trails to explore at our State and National Parks!
Take a local hike or take the dogs out for a nice walk in the summer sun. There are also bike events, horseback rides, and paddle trips if you really want to get active. Gather the family and go on a photo safari or bird watching expedition. Your kids will love the outdoor experiences and learn so much, especially with extremely educational geocaching activities taking place at a number of parks.
Take advantage of this special day to volunteer and give back to the community. There are a number of projects where you can lend a hand: trail maintenance and clean up, health fairs, and more! Talk to the Park Rangers at a park near you to learn more and Get Chipper on the trails this weekend!
For those of you living in the Bay Area, here’s a link to all the local activities and volunteering opportunities to celebrate our trails this weekend: http://www.parksconservancy.org/events/volunteer-events/special-events/national-trails-day.html
Twin Lakes trail exploring!
Park Ranger Profile: Lloyd Luketin from Great Smoky Mountains National Park
View from one of the many beautiful campgrounds in the park
Park Ranger’s inspire us to reconnect with nature. Many of us get caught up in our busy lives and feel like there’s never enough time to get to the park or take the family camping. But being in touch with our planet gives us all a much-needed respite. The Earth is not only our home; it provides us with everything we need, physically and spiritually. Nature was mankind’s first church and our National and State park rangers are our current environmental-clergymen! No matter what you believe, no one can deny the extreme importance of every facet of our planet. That’s why it’s so much fun to learn more about it!
Like Chipper, Lloyd Luketin is one Ranger who very dedicated to encouraging future generations to appreciate the outdoors and get inspired by the environments many fascinating aspects. He was very grateful for the opportunity to answer some of our questions about how awesome it is to be a Park Ranger at the famous Great Mountains National Park, home of “Smoky the Bear”-America’s fire watch mascot.
1. What inspired you to become a Park Ranger?
As a child I always liked to play outside, exploring the natural environments around me, and I still do. I like the feel of snowflakes melting on my face and mud squishing between my toes. I used to take long walks in the woods behind my house and examine all the birds, trees, flowers, and butterflies. There are two reasons I wanted to become a Park Ranger. First, I want to get today’s youth outside and in touch with the natural world around them. In sharing my love of nature I hope I will have a small part in developing the next generation of stewards who will be protecting the world’s wild places for future generations. The second reason I became a Park Ranger is that I get to be outside everyday. The mountains, valleys, forests, and streams that make up the Great Smoky Mountains are both my office and my playground.
2. What is the best part about being a Park Ranger? Describe a day on the job.
I work in the Resource Education Division. I teach outdoor, curriculum based, environmental education programs with children from kindergarten to high school. Every morning I will meet a school bus of children that are here on a school field trip. We may hike to a waterfall and study animals groups and habitats along the way or we may climb into a mountain stream and study aquatic invertebrates. We may even hike to the top of the highest peak to study weather and air pollution. Every day is different. The one thing that doesn’t change is that every day the student, teachers, and Rangers all have fun outside learning about the natural world.
Rainbow Falls with a Spring Rain
3. What’s a fun fact about your park that you like to share with visitors?
The Great Smoky Mountains is famous for its natural history, cultural history and scenic vistas. We are located in Tennessee and Half in North Carolina. Scientists think we may have 100,000 different species of life in the park. One of those species is the American Black Bear. We have more than two Black Bears per square mile in the park. This may be the highest density of Black Bears in the world. We like to say that the Black Bear is a charismatic mega fauna. That means that it is a big (mega) animal (fauna) that everyone likes (charismatic).
4. What advice would you gives kids and their parent’s visiting your park?
There are so many things to do in the park that you should plan your favorite activities first before you even arrive. A great way to research what to do is on our website, www.nps.gov/grsm. When you get to the park, stop at one of our visitor centers and pick up a free Smokies Guide and a map. There is a lot of information available in our visitor centers along with rangers to answer any questions. Don’t forget to visit “Clingmans Dome”, the highest mountain in the park!
5. What is the most important thing about parks in your opinion?
There are two important things about National Parks. All the plants, animals and history are protected for all time and National Parks are here for us to enjoy. Please come visit us here at the Great Smoky Mountains. You will be glad you did!
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is one of the few places remaining in the eastern U.S. where black bears can live in the wild, natural surroundings. For many, this famous Smokies' resident is a symbol of wildness.
Most of the park is a magnificent wilderness. The Cherokee described its foggy, serene mountains as shaconage, meaning “blue, like smoke.” Artifacts and log-home ruins from the Native peoples, who were very much in touch with their environments, can be seen all over the park. A visit here will surely motivate your kids to get out and play while also learning so much about nature. The Junior Park Ranger program (available at most National and State Parks) is an excellent place to start the process of improving our home we call Earth for your kids and all the generations after them. Let’s get outside and get Chipper today!
Our National Park System
Since 1872, the United States National Parks System has grown from a single, public reservation called Yellow Stone National Park to embrace over 450 natural, historical, recreational, and cultural areas throughout the United States, its territories, and island possessions. These areas include a diverse varieties of areas —Parks, Monuments, Memorials, Military Parks, Parkways, Recreation Area, Seashores, Scenic River Ways, Scenic Trails, and others.
Parks are the living, breathing monuments to our nation’s history, culture, and landscape. In some ways, they represent the soul of the Nation. They need care and support to overcome the many dangers that threaten to destroy them forever, such as pollution and and an increasing lack of funds from Congress for the vital care and support they need. The Park Rangers, charged with this protection, need our help as well, by visiting and volunteering at a park near you.
Next week is National Parks Week and the folks here at Let’s Go Chipper want to encourage all of you to take the family to your local Park to show your support for the priceless benefit to our lives, health and education that parks give. We want to encourage our future generations to champion the park systems by appreciating their beauty and fun. Junior Park Ranger programs are one great way to embed this appreciation and interest. Join us in raising awareness and necessary funds to support local playgrounds and our national park systems by buying one of our Chipper for Parks Badges. You can leave a specific park in your order and we will contribute a portion of the price directly in your name.
CHIPPER FOR PARKS BADGE (click here to purchase)
The National Parks Service also has “Fee Free Days” each year where you don’t have to pay any entry fees to gain access to the park. (“Fee waiver includes: entrance fees, commercial tour fees, and transportation entrance fees. Other fees such as reservation, camping, tours, concession and fees collected by third parties are not included unless stated otherwise.“)
The Fee Free Days for 2012 are:
- January 14-16 (Martin Luther King Jr. weekend)
- April 21-29 (National Park Week)
- June 9 Get (Outdoors Day)
- September 29 (National Public Lands Day)
- November 10-12 (Veterans Day weekend)
This deal applies to the 397 national parks that in the USA, but of the total national parks many don’t charge regular admission fees. To find out if there is a national park near you this Easter Weekend that is free year-round check out the U.S. National Park Service’s Find A Park page and explore the great outdoors!
Chipper for Parks!
Chipper for Park Badge
This month, we are launching our Chipper for Parks campaign! Open, urban, state, and national – Chipper supports programs committed to educating children and families about our parks. Parks not only preserve natural spaces and protect local plants and animals, they encourage families to enjoy the many wonders of nature and connect with our planet. Spending time in your own community park allows children to build friendships that will last a lifetime. Parks help parents to spend some productive time with their kids by playing outside, something that is even more essential in our increasingly digital world. The noble park rangers that help run our parks teach us about our complex environment and organize many activities and programs for future generations to take part in caring for mother nature.
Let's Stroll Crissy Field
Spending time in nature not only educates, it inspires us and promotes physical and spiritual well-being. Support your community and have some essential fun with your family by visiting your local park today! Please share your story with us and take some photos to earn your very own Chipper for Parks badge as seen above. Also, take a look at some of our books, music and DVDs for more ways to inspire your family to get outdoors and learn about the planet: Chipper guided almost 1,000 families through Crissy Field in Golden Gate Park during Earth Stroll a 40th Anniversary celebration for Earth Day. Through a grant by Growing Up For Good, our book “Let’s Stroll Crissy Field” educates and excites children about urban parks and the importance of taking public transportation to help reduce our carbon footprint and live a more healthy lifestyle.
Park Ranger Profile: Casey Overturf from Mount Rainier National Park, WA
The south face of Mt. Rainier, looking from Longmire. On a clear spring day, the mountain seems to glow!
The spring-time snow is finally here and now is your last chance to hit the slopes with the family! Not only is it great exercise, playing in the snow is also a fun, fantastic way to connect with your family and with the beauty of nature this season. Our National and State parks are great resources for you and the family to find physical and emotional rejuvenation in nature this spring as nature begins to bloom again.
Mount Rainier National Park in Washington State is one park with all kinds of outdoor activities to take advantage of and also see an amazing patchwork of vistas: deep green forests, tumbling rivers, flower dotted meadows, ice-blue glaciers, a snow-shrouded volcano. There are 25 major glaciers on Mount Rainier and numerous unnamed snow or ice patches which serve as important indicators of climatic change, major visitor interpretive objects, sources of water for park aquatic systems, and hydroelectric and recreation pursuits outside of the park. Visit the interactive Mount Rainier glacier webpages of in-depth information on the park’s glaciers to learn more about our dramatically changing landscape.
Mount Rainier was one of the US’s earliest National Parks, having been established on March 2, 1899 as the fifth national park in the United States, encompassing 236,381 acres of pristine forest. The snow there is some of the best on the west coast and thousands of visitors come each year to experience the thrill of riding down the magnificent stratovolcano (also known as a composite volcano) that is Mount Rainier. Check http://twitter.com/#!/MountRainierNPS for daily winter road status.
In 2010, 2,016 volunteers contributed 73,990 hours of service to Mount Rainier National Park. Find out how you can volunteer at Mount Rainier by clicking this photo!
Considering herself extremely lucky to work in such a beautiful part of the country, Park Ranger Casey James Overturf, who has worked as a West District Park guide for over 6 years, tells us more about about this National park and her important job of keeping it safe and clean for generations to come:
1) What inspired you to become a park ranger?
I could not think of any other job that I would like to do. I get to live and work in some of the most beautiful and powerful places in this country. I get to work outdoors at times, always get to learn more about nature and share that with others. The flat hat is pretty sharp looking as well.
2) What is the best part about being a ranger? Describe a day on the job.
Describing a day would be tricky, every day is different (another part of the job I like). Depending on the season, the weather and the day of the week what I do during the day changes. I’d say the most rewarding part is getting to help people. From finding a bathroom and picking a trail to helping them learn about nature and helping them understand how it works.
My two favorite things to do are the snowshoe walks in the winter and the evening programs in the summer. In the winter we take folks outside on snowshoes, many for the first time, and talk about winter ecology. I like to have my snowshoe walks play a “choose your own adventure” game where they get to “live the life” of an animal that stays active throughout the winter. Based on their choices they see if they can survive a winter here at Mount Rainier.
In the summer we go to the campgrounds at night and get to talk to many of the people camping there. Once it is dark we meet with anyone who wants to in the amphitheater and the ranger gets to share what they love about the park. Last summer I explained to people how Native Americans have lived in this area for thousands of years and shared some of their stories about this special place.
3) What’s a fun fact about your park you like to share with visitors?
OH! There are so many things I could say! This is another great part of my job. The fact that I work on an active volcano covered in the biggest glacier system in the continental United States really excites me.
4) What advice would you give to kids and their parents visiting your park?
Because there is so much to do see and do in the park I would plan ahead before you get here to make the most of your time. Also be flexible in your plan. I would always ask a Ranger what they think is special or fun to do. Some of the best times I’ve had in parks were based on suggestions from the ranger. They know the “off the beaten path” stuff that most people do not even know to look for.
For example one of my favorite places in the “spring” (when the snow starts to melt here usually around May) is on the Westside road. If you drive the 3 miles up that dirt road and then walk for no more than half a mile you will be glad you did. Only as the snow melts there are waterfalls coming down Mount Wow that are tall and skinny, thousands of feet tall if you count all the drops. Then on top of that you can often see mountain goats on Mount Wow during the spring. Wow actually comes from a Native American word meaning goat.
5) What is the most important thing about parks in your opinion?
That it offers so many different opportunities for many different people. Some people come to find a challenge, to pit themselves against the elements and see what they are made of. Some come for the solitude and the chance to escape a busy and stressful day to day life. Some come in big groups to spend time in a safe place with friends and family. Some come for the history; the people and buildings that are part of the story of this park, even Wilderness is historic as it is the only place to see early America before it was settled. A park experience can be almost anything you want it to be, and these extraordinary places belong to all of us.
Come and visit this epic park soon to enjoy it’s beauty and to reconnect you and your family to the wonders of nature with great fun like snow show walks, sledding and sliding, and winter camping! Mount Rainier also has a volunteer program and Junior Ranger books available at all their visitor centers. Complete the activities for your age group, have a ranger review your work and you will be sworn in and issued your official Mount Rainier Junior Ranger badge! Once you start your badge collection, also check out our Chipper For Parks badge we are featuring this April!
Most everyone is familiar with this very beautiful and common plant of the moist woods, whose common name is "Tri-Folwer," as the leaves and petals are in threes. The petals at first are pure white but turn a dark rose color with age.
Photo by Daniel Keeble
Park Ranger Profile: Jan Stock from Bryce Canyon National Park (UT)
ELECTRONIC FIELD TRIP HOSTED AT BRYCE CANYON THIS PAST SPRING
Saint Patty’s Day is right around the corner and now is the perfect time to go GREEN! The folks here at Let’s Go Chipper are going green by celebrating the noble work of Park Rangers everywhere with weekly ranger profiles to help inspire future rangers and increase interest in parks.
This week we are looking at Jan Stock, a Park Ranger Interpreter for Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. Currently working as a Volunteer Coordinator, Jan has been with the National Park Service since 1978 (over 30 years!) and been apart of the Bryce Canyon family since 1986. Jan was kind enough to answer a few questions for us with her expertise, explaining why park rangers are so important and giving a wonderful description of how fun it is to work in the great outdoors for a living. Here are her responses:
1) What inspired you to become a park ranger?
I grew up in northern Connecticut with five siblings. My parents didn’t have a lot of money, so family vacations were spent doing things that didn’t cost much: hiking, camping, picnicking, swimming, etc. Sometimes, we’d vacation in national forests, sometimes in national parks. As long as I can remember, the thought of being a park ranger and GETTING PAID to work and play in these special places intrigued me! Even though my Dad tried to talk me out of it (telling me that being a park ranger probably wouldn’t pay much — and he was right!), I decided that it was more important to do something I loved for little pay, than to do something I didn’t like just because it paid more. So I pursued becoming a National Park Ranger. I always have, and always will, LOVE the great outdoors. Our national parks help protect natural and cultural resources so they’ll be unimpaired for future generations to enjoy!
2) What is the best part about being a ranger? Describe a day on the job.
National parks are some of the most beautiful places on Earth, and there are days when I practically have to “pinch” myself as a reminder of how blessed I am to be living and working in these spectacular sanctuaries. My career is what some people only dream of doing! A typical day for me is full of variety. I might spend a couple of hours working at the visitor center information desk as I answer questions and help visitors make the most of their time here. Sometimes I go out in the park and offer an interpretive program to a group of visitors. We offer a number of different walks and talks, including: geology talks, snowshoe hikes, rim walks, canyon hikes, kids programs, full moon hikes, astronomy programs, and campfire programs. I also do a lot of “behind-the-scenes” work, including: managing the park’s museum collection as the Park Curator, producing interpretive publications and exhibits, maintaining the park’s website, supervising visitor center volunteers, and serving as the park’s
Volunteer Manager.
Thor's Hammer at sunrise on a cloudy day (Photo by Ray Mathis)
3) What’s a fun fact about your park you like to share with visitors?
Bryce Canyon National Park is best known for its “hoodoos.” Hoodoos are odd-shaped pinnacles of rock left standing by the forces of weathering and
erosion. Although hoodoos ARE found in many places around the world, Bryce Canyon has the largest and most colorful collection of hoodoos that you’ll find anywhere on Earth! Some of our hoodoos have been given names based on what they look like. Here at Bryce Canyon, we have an alligator, a hunter and rabbit, Queen Victoria, a sinking ship, the Pope, the Poodle, and Thors Hammer — just to name a few. We encourage visitors to use their imaginations and name other hoodoos they believe look familiar to them. Many of our visitors have found (and named) a particular hoodoo in the park
– “E.T. the Extraterrestrial!” 
4) What advice would you give to kids and their parents visiting your park?
Slow down, take your time, relax and enjoy yourselves. Don’t try to do too many parks in a short time, or you’ll end up spending all your time in the car — rushing from place to place and getting totally “burned out!” There are many different things to do here: hiking, horseback riding, attending ranger programs (including astronomy and/or moonlight hikes). If possible, we always encourage visitors to take a hike. Not only is it a good way to get some exercise and “family-bonding-time,” but hiking “immerses” you in the resource — you get up-close and personal with our beautiful and bizarre hoodoos. If all you do is gaze upon distant hoodoos from the viewpoints then move on, you’re missing out on the unique and amazing experience that our hiking trails have to offer.
5) What is the most important thing about parks in your opinion?
As I mentioned above, national parks are sanctuaries — set aside to protect resources to leave them unimpaired for future generations to enjoy. These national parks belong to everyone — not just Americans, but all citizens of the world! National parks do an amazing job, not only of protecting natural and cultural resources, but of telling important stories, too — whether it’s the story of immigrants coming to America seeking freedom and opportunity (Statue of Liberty), or the story of Pearl Harbor being attacked in 1941 (World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument). It is our hope that these special places will serve to remind us of the beauty and fragility of both our species and our planet, and instill a sense of stewardship so that all may experience these special places forever.
It is also Chipper’s mission to instill this sense of stewardship in future generations so we can keep our planet healthy and beautiful! Taking the time to enjoy our parks is one way to do encourage children to appreciate nature for years to come. Thanks to our wonderful park rangers like Jan Stock, there are numerous Junior Ranger programs for kids at parks all over the world, including at Bryce Canyon.
The Bryce Canyon National Park is only one of thirteen National Parks in the State of Utah that receive around 9 million visitors annually (for more information on Utah’s park highlights and numbers: http://www.nps.gov/state/ut/index.htm?program=parks). Visitation is the main source of revenue that keeps these parks alive and benefits the Park Rangers that run them.
Ranger snowshoeing "China Wall Basin" of Fairyland Loop Trail (Photo by Jan Stock)
Bryce Canyon is even more beautiful in the wintertime! For the casual visitor, hopping in and out of their warm car at the overlooks to see the striking contrast of white snow, red rock, and blue sky might be thrilling enough. However, for the more adventurous winter recreationists, many opportunities beckon. BEFORE setting out on one of the adventures described below, stop at the Bryce Canyon Visitor Center to get up-to-date weather and safety information. The best time of winter to visit Bryce Canyon is during the Bryce Canyon Winter Festival. This annual event is usually held over President’s Day Weekend.
Ever wonder why the rocks are red? Where we got the name hoodoo? What’s a deer’s favorite food? Well, you’re not alone! Check out the FREE Park Ranger Programs to learn all sorts of fun facts about Bryce Canyon to expand your imagination and your exploration of the park. Their summer schedule is packed so visit their visitation page today to plan your next outdoor adventure! http://www.nps.gov/brca/index.htm
