New River Gorge National River National Park Service Gauley River National Recreation Area U.S. Department of the Interior Bluestone National Scenic River Junior Ranger National Park Service photo Photo by Eve West National Park Service photo Photo by Jodi French-Burr New River Gorge National River at Grandview. Photo by Leah Perkowski-Sisk Welcome to the Junior Ranger Program There are over 400 National Park Service sites across America. Each one tells part of America’s story. New River Gorge National River, Gauley River National Recreation Area, and Bluestone National Scenic River are part of this park system. Junior Rangers care for these special places and help others learn about this rich heritage. As a Junior Ranger you will ... • Explore: Discover fantastic places in parks that make these sites treasures of America. • Learn: Learn about the natural and cultural things that make these parks special places. • Protect: Help protect these parks for the enjoyment of present and future generations. Here’s how you can become a Junior Ranger (earn a badge) at New River Gorge National River: Everyone: Complete at least four green ribbon activities. Page Page Leave No Trace and You 14 Attend a ranger program 22 Visit the Visitor Centers 16 or watch the park film Arrowhead Symbol 19 Interview a ranger 22 If you are 5 to 9 years old: If you are 10 years old or older: Complete at least four red ribbon Complete at least four red ribbon and activities. four blue ribbon activities. Page Page Fun With Maps 3 Leafy Green Tree Hunt 4 What’s for Lunch 5 Rockin’ Geology 8 Sounds Like 6 Time Travel 10 Life Down Under 7 Coal Mining Mix-up 11 Starry Starry Night 9 Search the Gauley 18 Play It Safe! 12 The BLUE’s Clues 18 Take a Hike 15 Fun on the Job 21 Whereizzit? 20 Earn the Junior Ranger Patch: Complete any two additional activities from any list above. 1. ________________________________________________________ 2. ________________________________________________________ 2 New River Gorge National River Junior Ranger Fun with Maps Find your way around the park using a park map. Use the map below to answer these questions about New River Gorge National River. 1. _____________________ Falls Map Key North Picnic area Ranger station is a large waterfall on the Campground Public river access New River just south of Primitive National Park campsite Service area 0 5 Kilometers Sandstone Visitor Center. 0 5 Miles 16 60 60 ANSTED 2. What are the names of two HAWKS NEST 19 park visitor centers, the ones STATE PARK 60 farthest north and south? 16 Canyon Rim Visitor Center 41 ____________________________ 82 FAYETTEVILLE Fayette Station and _______________________ 16 19 60 61 3. The New River flows Cunard from the bottom of the Brooklyn OAK HILL BABCOCK STATE PARK map toward the top of 41 Thurmond the map. What direction Dunglen Thurmond Depot 61 Visitor Center 25 does the New River flow? Glen Jean Stone Cliff National River 16 Headquarters ____________________________ MOUNT HOPE 41 20 19 New River 4. Name two places you can Army Camp Grandview Sandbar NEW RIVER GORGE have a picnic in the park. 41 64 McCreery Grandview 77 Grandview NATIONAL RIVER 16 Visitor ____________________________ 41 Center 20 19 9 Glade Creek Sandstone 3 Meadow Creek Visitor Center and _______________________ BECKLEY 64 19 16 Sandstone Falls 5. Name one place where LITTLE BEAVER 20 64 64 77 STATE PARK you can camp in the park. Camp Brookside 19 Brooks Falls ____________________________ 26 Hellems Beach 77 Tug Creek Beach 3 6. Name one place where HINTON 12 boaters can access the river. 3 20 ____________________________ New River Gorge National River Junior Ranger 3 Leafy Green Tree Hunt There are over 1,400 types of plants that grow in the New River Gorge. Some trees are evergreen that keep their green needles and leaves year-round. Most trees are deciduous. The leaves of these types of trees change color in the autumn and drop to the forest floor as these plants prepare for the cold winter season. Identify these common leaves below by unscrambling the letters of each tree’s name. h __ __ __ __ r __ Y XR K I C XH O __ __ __ A K O r h __ __ o d __ __ d __ __ n XD O N XN XH E XD R XO O XR D h __ __ __ __ c k M XC O E L XH XK __ __ __ l __ BACK OF NEEDLE E P M A XL 4 New River Gorge National River Junior Ranger What’s For LunchPark Everyone has things they like to eat. Don’t you? Animals have favorite foods, too. Serve up the best, most nutritious meal for each of the critters below. Find each animal’s favorite foods in the food bank, then put that food Food Bank group number on each animal’s plate. Bear, deer, and owl illustrations © Zachery Zdinak 1 great horned owl white-tailed deer mice, squirrels, & snakes 2 fruit, baby insects, & dead critters 3 black bear acorns, fruit, & grass What did you have for lunch? Draw a picture of a food you like to eat on the plate below. New River Gorge National River Junior Ranger 5 Sounds Like ... a Call in the Wild Nature is amazing in so many ways, especially the sounds made on this living planet. Look through the Sound Bites clues below and match the critter to its sound number. Hooded Warbler Barred Owls Pileated Woodpecker Catbird Mosquito White-tailed Deer Spring Peeper Timber Rattlesnake Illustrations © Zachery Zdinak Sound Bites 2 “Meow, meow” 3 “Bzzzzzzzzzzz” 4 “Rattle, rattle, rattle” 1 “Who, who, who cooks for you?” I sound like an animal I’ll try to whisper a I’ll warn you when you’re It sounds like I’m hungry in the night. that lives with people. secret in your ear. too close for my comfort. 5 “Peep, peep, peep” 6 “Knock, knock, knock ...” 7 “Huff” 8 “A hood, a hood, I say my name, plus X I work through wood to get I’ll warn my friends with an a hood on me” marks the spot on me. my insect food. airy puff when you’re near. Do you like my black hat? 6 New River Gorge National River Junior Ranger Life Down Under Flowing water is an important part of nature. Find it in a large river or a small stream. There is so much life to discover in the water and along the water’s edge. Follow the color-by-number code below to reveal who lives in a river habitat. 1=green 2=light green 3=blue 4=light blue 5=brown 6=orange 7=gray 8=tan or yellow 2 4 2 5 swallow 1 3 7 raccoon swallow 2 3 7 7 mayfly 7 7 7 7 5 2 4 diving 8 beetle 8 catfish 6 7 crayfish 7 1 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 8 8 New River Gorge National River Junior Ranger 7 Rockin’ Geology Don’t be fooled by its name, for the New River is one of After the first the world’s older rivers. How mountains rose, do geologists tell the age of a streams flowed down the river? Younger rivers usually mountainsides. Water contain rapids and waterfalls collected in the bottom that carve deep, V-shaped lands. Rich in plants, swamps gorges, while older rivers formed here. (Millions of slowly meander across wide, years later, the remains of flat floodplains. The New these swamps became the hard River has characteristics of layers of coal people use today.) both ages and continues to cut away at the land. This is a place of geologic change! Even after the swamps formed, water still carved away the Put these geologic events in first mountains. All that sand the order they occurred. Mark and rock (sediment) finally 1 as the oldest event in time covered the swamps, but and 5 as the youngest (today). water still moved here. Geology Illustrations by David Bieri The Teays River flowed north across the now flat bottom lands. Today known as the New River, this powerful waterway continues to The first Appalachian carve one of the largest Mountains uplifted when and deepest gorges in the the African and North Appalachian Mountains. American plates collided. Then the mountains started to grow again, building the Appalachian Mountains we know now. This happened so slowly that the Teays River was able to cut across the emerging ridges. 8 New River Gorge National River Junior Ranger Starry Starry NightPark One of the park’s best shows is the night sky. Look for patterns in the stars, called constellations. A planisphere, a star map, is a useful tool. Connect the numbered stars below to discover common summer constellations (just like connect Summer Star Map Use this the dots). The numbers for each page to see constellation are a different color. NORTH star patterns in the night sky. Once outside, hold this page over your head so you can see the map. Turn the page so the direction you are facing is at the bottom of the page. Match the stars on this planisphere with the real stars in the sky! 5 4 , Cassiopeia, Ursa Major 3 the Great Bear or the Queen 2 6 Polaris the Big Dipper 7 1 5 6 5 6 5 Cepheus, 4 3 7 the King 4 1 4 2 1 2 3 Ursa Minor, 3 the Little Bear 2 1 4 Cygnus, the Swan 5 6 EAST 3 Lyra, the Harp Corona 7 Bootes, 2 4 , 3 the Herdsman Borealis WEST 1 the Northern 2 Crown Delphinus, , 1 the Dolphin Hercules 5 the Strongman 4 3 2 Serpens, Watching Tips Aquila, the Serpent the Eagle 1 Ophiuchus, the Serpent • Find a clear view of Bearer Milky Way Libra, the night sky.