Have you heard of the Wake County Parks Junior Park Explorers Program? Previously known as the Junior Naturalist Program, I completed this challenge with my kids back in 2019. It was on hold for 2 years during the pandemic, so I’m so excited to see they have started nature classes back up in Wake County parks so kids can again complete the challenge and win their prize!
What is it?
Children ages 4 – 15 are eligible to register online through Wake County as a Junior Park Explorer. After you register, you will be mailed a challenge scorecard to take with you to each of the Wake County parks to have signed. If you complete a park program or event at that park, you earn a commemorative pin! You have a year to earn a pin from each of the 11 Wake County Parks to earn a prize!
What do you win?
Once you earn every park pin within a year, you win a Wake County Parks day pack! The prize may not sound like the most exciting, but it’s fun for kids to earn their pins and it’s great motivation to explore new places around Wake County! I had never heard of some of these parks, but they have a lot to offer! Almost all of the parks that we have visited so far have had much more than your average playground, and all scheduled park programs other than camps are completely free and very educational!
Which parks do I visit?
Participating parks in the Wake County Parks Junior Park Explorers Program include:
- American Tobacco Trail (Apex)
- Blue Jay Point County Park (Raleigh/Wake Forest)
- Crowder County Park (Apex)
- *Green Hills (formerly Landfill) County Park (Raleigh)
- Harris Lake County Park (New Hill)
- Historic Oak View County Park (Raleigh)
- Historic Yates Mill County Park (Raleigh)
- Lake Crabtree County Park (Morrisville)
- *Robertson Millpond Preserve (Wendell)
- *Turnipseed Nature Preserve (Wendell)
- *Sandy Pines Preserve (Wendell – NEW in 2022)
Green Hills, Robertson Millpond, Sandy Pines, and Turnipseed Nature Preserve are the wildcard parks in the program. These parks don’t have staff onsite so they don’t have any scheduled programs to attend. All you have to do to qualify for visiting those parks is to send in a picture of you at a recognizable part of the park and include a short description of your favorite park feature.
One of the downfalls at these wildcard parks is that you won’t get your park pin right away since there’s no staff onsite to give it to you. You won’t get those 3 park pins until you complete the program and earn your Wake County daypack.
On the other hand, the upside is that since we didn’t have to schedule or complete a park program it was really easy for us to make it out to those parks during the week. I had never heard of Robertson Millpond or Turnipseed Nature Preserve before, even though my parents live in Wendell and we’re out that way frequently. We actually drive right by the road to Robertson Millpond Preserve every time we go out there, but had no idea it existed!
How do I sign up?
If you’re interested in joining the Wake County Parks Junior Park Explorers Program, you can get more information and sign up here.
After you sign up, it’s super easy to check the parks calendar to see events happening at each park. You can filter by age group and day of the week to find classes that fit your schedule. Classes range from farm tours to nature play days to stargazing, so there’s bound to be something for everyone! The parks also celebrate Take A Child Outside (TACO) week in September, so there will be lots of fun activities happening that week to help children discover the natural world around them.
So far we’ve completed a farm tour at Historic Oak View and a nature play day at Blue Jay Point, plus visiting the three wildcard parks, so we still have five more parks to visit! Good news is that it was super easy to get our pin at our scheduled park program. After the class was over I showed the staff member our card, they signed it, marked our name off on their Junior Explorers Program register, and handed over our pin. My girls were happy to walk away with something tangible and we currently have our pins stashed on a ribbon hanging in my 4 year old’s room. We’re looking forward to getting our daypack so we can put all of the pins on there instead!
We hadn’t been to any of the Wake County parks besides Green Hills, Historic Oak View, and Historic Yates Mill prior to starting this program, so it has done its job in motivating us to explore the parks that the county offers! Give it a try and see what new adventure awaits you! The kids will get so excited when they earn their pin, and even if some of the parks are a drive for you, it will be worth it to get everyone outside exploring nature and having fun!