Ranger Confidential: Living, Working, and Dying in the National Parks

by Andrea Lankford

These sylvan scenes make for pretty portraits of a ranger’s life, but as every park ranger eventually learns, sunny postcards tell only half a story.

Even paradise has its problems.

“Protect the park from the people, the people from the park, and the people from themselves.”

Rule Number 313: Tombstone humor is a Band-Aid placed over what may become a deep and festering wound.

There are days when you wish for something interesting to happen just to break up the monotony. Sometimes your wish is granted, and you immediately want to take it back.

A wise woman gives a man like that a wide berth. I, on the other hand, shook a red cape in front of him at every opportunity.

A journey through this park and the Sierra Forest Reserve to the Mount Whitney country will convince even the least thoughtful man of the needfulness of preserving these mountains just as they are, with their clothing of trees, shrubs, rocks, and vines, and of their importance to the valley’s below as reservoirs for storage of water for agricultural and domestic purposes. In this, then, lies the necessity of forest preservation.

“The satisfaction of a job well done lives long after a quick fix.”

I’m not sure what it is about the Grand Canyon that unsettles me more, the park’s indifference to humanity or its stark reflection of my own duality.

Mary had developed a reputation for being fearless, and there is something unsettling about a woman who has no fear.

“I believe life is about action and passion, and you can’t truly begin to live life until you overcome your fear of dying,”

Death is not a merciful conclusion but a border crossing into a new land that could be more beautiful and majestic than the tallest mansion. Faith, courage, and hope are the characteristics that create happiness. They will stand as remembered monuments for all those left around the bed, and they are the qualities I will strive to obtain.