103-year-old great-great-grandmother becomes the Grand Canyon's newest junior ranger

Rose Torphy at the Grand Canyon. — (Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/Inside Edition)

She arrived at the Grand Canyon as a regular visitor, and left as a junior ranger.

Rose Torphy, 103, went to the national park while vacationing in Arizona last month. Inside the gift shop, she started talking with an employee about the junior ranger program, which educates kids about the Grand Canyon and nature. Before long, she was taking the junior ranger oath to take care of the park and signing her certificate. "I'm happy to protect it for my great-grandchildren to visit one day," she said.

The Grand Canyon will celebrate its 100th anniversary of being a national park on Feb. 26, making Torphy three years older. Torphy says the Grand Canyon was "breathtaking," and even though her vacation is over, her junior ranger pin is still on her coat. "She's a spokesperson for the park now," her daughter, Cheri Stoneburner, told Good Morning America. "Everywhere we go, people ask her about her junior ranger pin and she says, 'You're never too old to see the Grand Canyon.'" Catherine Garcia

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.