Did You Know?
About 500 Buffalo Soldiers from African American Army regiments served as some of America's earliest park rangers at Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks. They built trails, fought forest fires, expelled poachers, and even escorted President Theodore Roosevelt through Yosemite. The iconic wide-brimmed "flat hat" worn by rangers today is modeled on the cavalry hats worn by these soldiers!
How to Get Started
Getting started toward a career as a U.S. Park Ranger begins with spending time outdoors, learning about nature and history, and developing the communication and problem-solving skills rangers use every day. While formal ranger training comes later, there is plenty you can do now to build a strong foundation for this career at every age.
Explore the Basics
Become a Junior Ranger at any national park you visit and start earning badges. Learn to identify birds, trees, insects, and animal tracks in your neighborhood. Begin a nature journal where you draw and write about what you observe outside. Read books about national parks, wildlife, and famous explorers to discover what rangers protect and why these places are important.
Try It Out
Complete Junior Ranger programs at multiple parks and try to collect as many badges as you can. Practice giving nature tours to your friends and family at local parks, pointing out interesting plants, animals, or landmarks. Use the iNaturalist app to photograph and identify wildlife, contributing to real citizen science projects that actual rangers use. This activity builds observation skills and teaches you to share knowledge with others, just like a ranger does.
Join the Community
Visit local, state, and national parks and talk to rangers about their jobs. Join scouting programs like Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, or Camp Fire that offer outdoor skills badges. Participate in Junior Ranger Days at national parks, where special activities and events connect kids with rangers and nature. Ask your school about field trips to parks, nature centers, or wildlife refuges.
How to Become a Park Ranger
Explore more resources for a future Park Ranger
Masterpieces Jr Ranger Poop Tracks Card Game, Ages 6+, 2-6 Players, Medium
Why We Picked It
Career Connection
Park rangers identify wildlife through tracks, scat, and habitat signs as part of monitoring and interpreting the ecosystems they protect, and this game builds those same observation skills in the most playful and memorable way possible.
Black Cadet in a White Bastion: Charles Young at West Point
Shellum, Brian G.
Why We Picked It
Career Connection
The Buffalo Soldiers Colonel Young commanded also served as the first ranger force in America's earliest national parks, and understanding his career gives students the full human context behind the ranger tradition's most overlooked and important founders.
Black Officer in a Buffalo Soldier Regiment: The Military Career of Charles Young
Shellum, Brian G.
Why We Picked It
Career Connection
Park rangers like Charles Young and the Buffalo Soldiers who served in Yosemite and Sequoia demonstrated that stewardship of America's wild places requires both physical courage and a commitment to justice, and Young's story is the most compelling example of that combination the ranger tradition has.