Rockies Rangers: A New Way for Kids to Explore the Canadian Rockies

For Adrianna Skori, exploring the Canadian Rockies is part of family life. Skori, who lives just west of Calgary, often takes her two young sons hiking and camping.

This summer, the family is engaging with their backyard in a new way. On a recent visit to the Banff Gondola, six-year-old Turner and four-year-old Nash each received a Rockies Rangers field guide, slipped the lanyards over their heads and set off with a mission of their own.

Launched at the Banff Gondola in February 2026, the free Rockies Rangers program is now included with admission at all seven attractions in the Banff Jasper Collection by Pursuit. Children under 16 receive an age-appropriate field guide inviting them to discover the wildlife, landscapes and stories unique to each destination.

For Turner and Nash, the adventure began with a scanned QR code introducing them to Aurora the grizzly bear, one of the program's wildlife ambassadors. At the summit of Sulphur Mountain, the boys circled the day's weather, searched for wildlife and worked through activities, stopping to compare observations and excitedly pointing out what they saw along the trail.

"It was such an immersive and exciting adventure," says Skori, founder and CEO of Kids Who Explore, a global community that helps families adventure outside and connect with nature.

Back at the base of the gondola, a Pursuit team member led the boys through the Rockies Rangers pledge and presented them with their first embroidered badge - one of seven unique badges to be earned across attractions. "They're little keepsakes and treasures to them," Skori says.

That first badge became a reason to keep exploring. Later the same day, the family headed to the Lake Minnewanka Cruise, where Turner and Nash raced to the boathouse, eager to meet the next wildlife ambassador and earn another badge.

On later visits to the Columbia Icefield Adventure and Golden Skybridge, the boys wanted to know which animal they'd meet next. Skip the mountain goat, the Columbia Icefield Adventure's ambassador, became a favourite, after they spotted mountain goats along the Icefields Parkway.

"Once they got their field guides, they were totally in the know, they hit the ground running," Skori says. "They were reading it to themselves… just super immersed the whole time." So immersed, in fact, that Skori and her husband were able to sit together on the shuttle bus, something she says never happens.

For Skori, Rockies Rangers is unique from the family's usual outdoor adventures. "It felt like more of a mission, and a call to become something - a Rockies Ranger," she says.

That experience continued after the badge ceremony recognizing the kids as Rockies Rangers. Back at home, Skori says her sons proudly showed off their growing badge collection, scanned the QR codes to revisit the wildlife ambassadors and asked new questions about the places they had visited and what a ranger does.

Inviting children to embrace that role is exactly what Rockies Rangers was designed to do.

Jason Thompson, who created the program alongside Pursuit's Director of Initiatives and Experience Development, Mirit Poznansky, approached Rockies Rangers as more than a collection of activity books and badges. Drawing on his background in storytelling and animation, he wanted children to feel like they were stepping into a role, rather than completing a checklist.

"What we're doing with this program is making lifetime memories, and we're doing that through stories," Thompson says. As children step into the story of becoming a Rockies Ranger, it sticks with them - "in the moment, but also later," Thompson adds.

Rather than inventing fictional mascots, Thompson created wildlife ambassadors inspired by the animals visitors might actually encounter in each location. Additionally, every activity was developed with the operational teams who know each attraction best.

"The field guides are very true to place and very authentic to that exact location, to the stories we tell… and to what makes those places unique," Poznansky says.

She hopes encouraging children to slow down and notice what they hear, smell and see helps them leave with a deeper connection to the Canadian Rockies, as well as a curiosity to learn more about wherever they call home. And with the Canada Strong Pass making national park admission free this summer, it's an especially good time for local families to explore more of the Rockies together.

Skori and her sons are doing just that, experiencing the mountains they love in a fresh way - as young Rockies Rangers learning to care for them.

"I think kids need to be immersed in exploring and taking in all the senses of the outdoors in the Rockies, to be able to really know how to be advocates for it in the future and understand its value," Skori says. "It's so important for our kids to learn that this is theirs to take care of in the future."