It's a small ranger station with no geological attractions nearby, so it's easily overlooked and passed by. They do interactive ranger programs every thirty minutes all day long. The programs last thirty minutes, so there really isn't much downtime of you care to stay for multiple programs. Since it's still the slow season in the park, we were usually the only people there. Private lessons for a day? Count us in!
We enjoyed these programs so much, the kids begged to stay for each new lesson. It was such an engaging way to learn, and the classroom itself was stunning.
One of their favorite lessons was called the Tree Doctor. Ranger Nicole taught them how to recognize several symptoms and causes of tree diseases. Then they walked through the forest as detectives diagnosing sick trees. Such fun.
Another lesson she taught was the Forest Fashion Show, where she had great visual aids to teach about how the flora and fauna change with each season of the year. The kids loved 'dressing' cutout animals as their fur or features changed each season.
Ranger Bob was a wealth of fascinating information about zoological topics. We loved his lesson about how animals adapt for specific niches in the environment, it was so interactive with games and a gorgeous flannel board visual aid. He taught another lesson on animal evolution and how the physical differences create specialist abilities between different species.
Our favorite lesson was called "Are you smarter than a park ranger? ". It was basically a game of Jeopardy with all sorts of interesting questions about the different animals living in Yellowstone. The kids were laughing and having such a great time, they really loved this Park Ranger.
His appearance and behavior remind me of an old Jimmy Stewart, like from Mr. Kruger's Christmas. Such a fun teacher to have for the day!
We spent all day here and didn't really have much time to explore anything else in the Park.
We did venture out to the Yellowstone River so we could hike around the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. It's so unique and so beautiful. Places like this overwhelm me with their size and beauty.
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