How a Hiking Trail Led to a Career Path

National park vacations are treasured experiences but there are many of us who have had the privilege of calling America's treasures home. The hiking trail I followed during a casual summer working in Yellowstone National Park led to a career path in the tourism industry. Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, the mountains, bison herds, and geysers of Yellowstone were all new but quickly became an inseparable part of me.

Hiking Trail to Career Path: Summer Employment in Yellowstone National Park
My first summer working in Yellowstone National Park was spent in the kitchen at Canyon Lodge making buttermilk chocolate chip cake and garden salads. My employer was a company now called Xanterra Parks & Resorts which manages lodging, restaurants, activities and most gift shops throughout the park. The park management company contracts with the National Park Service to manage services. Two other companies also have park contracts, DNC Parks & Resorts which manages the Yellowstone General Stores and Yellowstone Park Service Stations which run convenience stores, fuel pumps, and repair shops.

Intending only to work one summer in Yellowstone, I ended up spending seven. Free time from work was spent hiking and camping the backcountry, watching geysers erupt and navigating through bear jams. Unable to find a real job upon graduating with a bachelor's in earth science I worked in the parks and was unknowingly building on-the-job career experience which included front desk management and front office training.

One winter was spent at Mammoth Hot Springs where I experienced a new park with mounds of snow, below zero temperatures and dramatic thermal features. Skiing Mammoth Terraces under a full moon and soaking at Boiling River during a light snow are some cherished memories from that winter.

Hiking Trail to Career Path: Everglades and Death Valley National Parks
Love makes people do crazy things and I was in love with Yellowstone. I met a man who refused to spend winters north of Interstate 10 and heart torn I ended up working two winters in Everglades National Park. At first I hated it. The Everglades is flat, muggy (which caused many bad hair days), and home to 43 species of mosquitoes. The Everglades was designated a national park for its biodiversity and is a birdwatcher's paradise and fisherman's dream. Eventually, the place grew on me.

I worked at the Flamingo Lodge front desk and marina store and just when things were beginning to gel, it was time to move to Death Valley National Park where I worked at the Furnace Creek Inn then the administrative and sales office of the Furnace Creek Inn & Ranch Resort. During the year and a half living in the desert oasis, I learned when a dry heat is really hot (anything over 115 degrees Fahrenheit is hot), enjoyed sunrises over Zabriskie Point, and convinced golfers that at 214 feet below sea level, Furnace Creek Ranch will be the lowest round of golf anyone will ever play.

Hiking Trail to Career Path in the Tourism Industry
Soon it was time to return to the Everglades where I handled the lodge's sales, marketing and public relations for the next three years. When I left the Everglades a decade had passed since spending the initial summer working in Yellowstone National Park and had acquired valuable tourism industry career skills throughout the years. It's been about 10 years since I last worked and lived in the national parks and although conditions were sometimes less than ideal, I miss it. Thanks to my national park working experiences I have a successful marketing and public relations career within Florida's tourism industry.

The National Parks: America's Best Idea
Whether for a summer or a decade, those of us who have been lucky enough to call a national park home are forever entwined with that particular park. The PBS Ken Burns's documentary, The National Parks: America's Best Idea, inspired me to share my experience and hope others contemplating spending a summer working in a national park will do it. It's hard work but friendships and experiences will last a lifetime.