How it works
The NPS Wellness Challenge, part of the Park Service's Healthy Parks Healthy People initiative, uses Missouri's seven national parks as places to improve health and well-being.
- Who can take part: anyone, Missouri resident or not.
- The challenges: each park has nine, three each for physical, learning and mental wellness — sixty-three in all.
- Rewards: complete an activity in a category and get your guide stamped by a ranger at the visitor center, or download a digital badge. Each park offers three unique stamps and badges; visit all seven for twenty-one.
- The guide: pick one up at any Missouri national park visitor center.
- When: it launched during National Park Week, on Saturday, April 16, and runs indefinitely.
- Where: Missouri is the pilot state; the Park Service is exploring a national expansion.
More: go.nps.gov/NPSWellnessChallenge.
The challenges, park by park
Gateway Arch National Park
| Physical | Learning | Mental |
|---|---|---|
| Walk up the Arch Grand Staircase or the accessible ramps · walk, run, bike or roll the park's five-plus miles of paved trails · stroll the historic St. Louis Riverfront Trail | Earn a Junior Ranger badge · watch the documentary Monument to the Dream, on building the Arch · explore the Museum at the Gateway Arch | Ride the tram to the top for the view · relax by the reflection ponds north and south of the Arch · stroll the paths of the Explorer's Garden in the North Gateway |
George Washington Carver National Monument
| Physical | Learning | Mental |
|---|---|---|
| Picnic on the park grounds · take a self-guided tour and look for wildlife in the woods · walk your dog on the 1-mile Carver Trail | Explore Carver's life in the museum and watch the park film · join a ranger-guided tour of the Carver Trail · earn a Junior Ranger badge | Capture a moment in nature with a camera or phone · read the quote stones on the quarter-mile Contemplative Loop Trail · journal, sketch or write poetry on the grounds |
Harry S Truman National Historic Site
| Physical | Learning | Mental |
|---|---|---|
| Walk or roll the 2.7-mile Truman Historic Walking Trail · walk, roll or bike the 1 mile from the Truman Home to the Truman Presidential Library and Museum · explore the neighborhood with the phone audio tour | View the exhibits in the Noland Home · visit the Truman Family Farm · read a book on the farm grounds | Write a letter to someone you love, as Truman and his wife did while courting · record or draw native plants at the Home or Farm · pause at the historic ginkgo tree |
Ozark National Scenic Riverways
| Physical | Learning | Mental |
|---|---|---|
| Paddle or float the rivers · hike or roll the Slough Trail, Round Spring Loop or Alley Overlook Trail, among others · walk with your dog | Identify and record plants and animals on the Pulltite Nature Trail or Slough Trail · see the geology of Rocky Falls, Devils Well or Big Spring · ask a ranger about the Current and Jacks Fork Rivers | Breathe deeply while taking in Alley Spring · listen to the water at Big Spring · photograph wildflowers, water and wildlife |
Ste. Genevieve National Historical Park
| Physical | Learning | Mental |
|---|---|---|
| Make your own tour of the Historic District's businesses and landmarks · bike, walk, run or roll the 3.5-mile Levee Trail · stretch out on a green, such as the lawn of the Jean Baptiste Vallé House | Take a ranger-guided tour of the Vallé House, Bauvais-Amoureux House and Green Tree Tavern · at the Welcome Center, ask a ranger, watch the film and study the diorama of Ste. Geneviève in 1832 · learn the story of Pèlagie Amoureux and her family at the Bauvais-Amoureux House | View the artwork in the Vallé House · find peace among the roses in its historic garden |
Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site
| Physical | Learning | Mental |
|---|---|---|
| Join a 3-mile walk or run from White Haven to St. Paul's Cemetery and back, or a family 4-mile bike tour on Grant's Trail to the Sappington House · stroll the quarter-mile loop around White Haven's historic buildings and 10 acres of green space · take a ranger-led tour inside White Haven | Visit the museum, the 1871 stables and the Vision of Justice exhibit · watch the 22-minute film A Legacy of Freedom · join the park's bicentennial living-history weekends and themed tours, and earn a commemorative Junior Ranger badge | Pause in White Haven's summer kitchen to reflect on the enslaved people who lived and worked there · journal your observations · take the self-guided tour of White Haven's historic trees |
Wilson's Creek National Battlefield
| Physical | Learning | Mental |
|---|---|---|
| Walk, run, roll, bike or drive the five-mile tour road · explore more than 10 miles of trails with your dog · hike in soldiers' footsteps on one of five walking trails, such as Bloody Hill or Manley Uplands | See the park film, interactive exhibits, medical artifacts, diaries, artillery and thousands of soldiers' images in the Battlefield Museum · observe the plants and animals · earn a Junior Ranger badge | Relax by Wilson's Creek, which flows through the whole park · journal about the nature you find · visit the Ray House and imagine it turned into a field hospital |
Sources
Based on "FAQ: NPS Wellness Challenge," Healthy Parks Healthy People, National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The source lists two mental-wellness challenges for Ste. Genevieve.
LanguagesEnglish
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.nps.gov
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