Did You Know?
The Blue Ridge Parkway boasts the most diverse range of flora and fauna in the entire National Park Service system. Photo by Ben Geer Keys
For Kids (and Parents too!)
Kids and the Parkway: The Ultimate Road Trip
The Parkway offers many wonderful experiences for families with children. Imagine the Blue Ridge Parkway, and all National Parks for that matter, full of kids connected, engaged, and participating in a variety of activities that contribute to and encourage overall health – their health and the health of our parks.
The Blue Ridge Music Center at milepost 213
also offers experiences for young musicians.
In addition to the National Park Service’s Junior Ranger Program that is supported by FRIENDS of the Blue Ridge Parkway and Eastern National, several Parkway Partner Organizations have similar programs that support this ideal. For example, Kids in Parks (a program of the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation) has recently launched its TRACK (Trails Ridges and Active Caring Kids) program. It is designed to make hiking and walking more attractive to surrounding communities in an effort to increase physical activity especially among target groups. The TRACK program will provide multi-media led discoveries for children and families utilizing kiosks, TRACK Packs, interpretive brochures, and Web-based strategies to keep today’s kids engaged longer and more often in outdoor recreation. The TRACK program will provide motivational incentives for walking and immediate positive reinforcement with benchmarks by which participants can gauge success. For more information about Kids in Parks, contact Carolyn Ward by e-mail or at 828.776.4547.
Check Out This TRACK Scavenger Hunt
Download this Scavenger Hunt developed by the TRACK (Trails Ridges and Active Caring Kids) program. Take it along for your next walk along a Parkway trail.
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Can You Solve This Crossword Puzzle?
Many folks like to solve the Sunday crossword puzzle. Do you? Well, test your knowledge of the Blue Ridge Parkway with this simple puzzle – it just might be more fun than the newspaper’s! Print the puzzle and have a go of it as a family tonight at the dinner table. Everyone will learn!
By the way, if you get stuck, the link to the key is also below ... but don’t cheat!
Blue Ridge Parkway Crossword Puzzle
Blue Ridge Parkway Crossword Puzzle Key*
*that you promise to use only after you try your best to solve the puzzle!
A Timely Lesson from Cars, The Movie from Disney Pixar
Sally had it right. In this Disney Pixar kids’ film that adults loved, too, Sally is a snazzy Porsche 911 who lives in the sleepy town of Radiator Springs on dusty Route 66 – a town that was left behind when Interstate 40 was built. Lightning McQueen, a race car, breaks down in Radiator Springs on his way to a race and befriends Sally and others while learning life lessons about love and friendship. Here is a telling and appropriate conversation from the movie:
Sally taught Lightning McQueen an important
life lesson in this popular animated movie.
Sally: Forty years ago, that interstate down there didn’t exist.
Lightning McQueen: Really?
Sally: Yeah. Back then, cars came across the country a whole different way.
Lightning McQueen: How do you mean?
Sally: Well, the road didn’t cut through the land like that interstate. It moved with the land, it rose, it fell, it curved. Cars didn’t drive on it to make great time. They drove on it to have a great time.
Resources and Information
Parker the Bear: The Bear that Shares
The National Park Service’s on-line Junior Ranger program for kids of all ages
The United States Department of Interior – Just for Kids
Richard Louv – Author of Last Child in the Woods
