I spent a good many summers in Yellowstone and absolutely loved it! I worked regularly and went from being an unskilled nobody to managing a team, and managed to save up a good amount of money on the side, but that was only half the fun. Because I lived inside the park, I was hiking pretty much all the time, or hitching rides around the park, meeting the animals, soaking in hot springs, gazing at geysers, fly fishing, playing disc golf, climbing mountains, meeting amazing new people from dozens of different countries and states, and generally getting in shape and getting a great tan. I even met a very special someone there.
The National Parks really do deserve the moniker of “America’s best idea”, but I feel you really have to get to know them to appreciate the truth of this term. Touring through them can be fun, but for anyone who’s really interested in getting to know the parks more intimately, I recommend just going out and living in one for a while. (not a citizen? there are plenty of approved agencies that will help you get a visa!)
Tourists come through the parks pretty regularly during the summers, and in some parks, this traffic continues even through the winter. There are literally hundreds of different jobs that need staff on a pretty continual basis, and if you have just have a desire to enjoy the great places of America, want to live out there permanently, or just want a summer job, getting employment is really no problem. There are jobs available in many many fields, including, but not limited to, food service (fast food or sit down), hotel staff, reservations, bus driving, horse guiding, boat touring, maintenance, recreation co-ordination, security, retail, accounting, front desk, and many specialized in between positions, for many levels of experience, including (which was good for me) absolutely none. All you really need is the desire for adventure, the time to do a little research and find out where you’d like to go, and then apply (usually can be done online).
And don’t worry about logistics or comfort, though you may have to have a roommate, everything will be handled. Most places have wireless internet, food and housing is dirt cheap and comes out of your paycheck, meaning you never even have to worry about it. Transportation is available from the parks to towns or cities with airports, stores and bus stations, or you can bring your RV or car drive yourself around. Personally, I liked to escape from time to time to a nearby town to sip quality coffee and stare at my mountains as the shadows hit the hilltops.
Wow. So that sounded like an ad, but I do think it’s a great way to learn about nature and the parks, as well as do about a million other great things, and I feel that not enough people realize how easy it is to enjoy the parks in this way. This isn’t unique to Yellowstone either. Any park that has tourists will need staff, and there are no rules for what “kind of person” you need to be. If you like, or think you might like it, I just go for it! I’ve known family men from Jamaica who came to earn money for their kids, bright-eyed teens, looking for adventure and direction, 30-something-ish wanderers and their significant others, looking for excitement and a reasonable 401K plan, who rented houses in nearby towns, retired couples, living in a camper, just there to work an easy job and stay active, or going on “vacations” they couldn’t afford, writers looking for inspiration, outcasts looking for a second chance, unemployed geniuses just happy to meet new people, European students earning money for the summer, Columbian musicians just wanting to see America, and about every kind of person in between.
For me, it was a magical and influential time of my life, and some of the best times I’ve ever had with the best people I’ve ever known.
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