Extras · 1 of 4

A typical day

For an interpretive ranger: open the visitor center, answer the same four questions two hundred times, give a guided walk, run an evening program at the amphitheater. For a protection ranger: patrol the roads and trails, take a report of a stolen pack, deal with an illegal campfire, respond to a car crash or a hiker with a broken ankle, write it all up. Both spend more time on paperwork and radios than the postcard version suggests, and both are outside in weather most people would avoid.